Toxic Masculinity, Homosexuality, and Power: Half Man

By Anne Gregg

Still from Half Man

Richard Gadd’s sophomore show Half Man is one of the best new shows of 2026. Every outlet and interview frames the show as a poignant exploration of toxic masculinity and sexuality. Gadd dramatically transformed his body to play Ruben, a beast of a man and the emblem of violent masculinity who looms over any shot he is in. Half Man is equally a show about cycles of abuse. When masculinity is about power and domination, it incentivizes those who strive for it to be abusive and to forcefully dominate anyone who will not submit to their masculine power.

Half Man follows the thirty year relationship between step brothers Niall (older: Jamie Bell, younger: Mitchell Robertson) and Ruben (older: Gadd, younger: Stuart Campbell). Niall and Ruben’s mothers are in a romantic relationship that they do not initially disclose to their sons. Niall is terrified of Ruben. Although Ruben is violent and unstable, he’s also cool. He is just like Niall’s bullies at school. Ruben values brotherhood and will enact violence on behalf of Niall as long as Niall looks up and is loyal to him.

Throughout the series, Niall struggles with accepting his attraction to men. Niall is deeply repressed and ashamed of his sexuality. He cannot tell anyone he’s gay, especially Ruben, the embodiment of (toxic) masculinity. For Niall, Ruben is the arbiter of masculinity. He is violent, and that violence can (and is) directed at Niall. Ruben abuses Niall: Physically, mentally, and sexually. What makes the abuse so difficult to grapple with is that Ruben’s abuse melds with his care for Niall, and Niall’s care for him. Ruben teaches Niall how to be a man, but Ruben’s version of manliness is tied to abuse.

Niall’s first sexual experience is rape. Ruben brings his girlfriend Mona (older: Amy Manson, younger: Charlotte Blackwood) over to have sex with Niall as a way to thank Niall for cheating on a test for him. Niall clearly does not want to have sex with Mona, but she climbs on top of him while Ruben coaches him through it. Ruben uses sex to dominate people. He views Mona as his property to do with what he pleases. He ‘gives’ her to Niall as a reward because sex — or power — is what men should want.

Sexual abuse is never about sex. It’s about power, domination, and ownership. Ruben doesn’t assault people out of some latent homosexual shame — he does it because he wants to control. He also does it because he was assaulted and wants to regain his power. Niall is not gay because he was abused. He’s always been gay. The way he expresses and explores his sexuality is informed by the abuse.

Niall is ashamed of his sexuality, he cannot acknowledge he’s gay, and when Ruben is in his life, Niall tries to emulate a version of heterosexuality he believes Ruben would approve of. Niall fears Ruben, but he needs to impress Ruben. He wants to get one over on Ruben, to hurt the person who hurt him. He wants Ruben to love him to see him as someone powerful and worthy of power. He wants Ruben’s approval.

Niall’s homosexuality is relegated to cruising in carparks and chemsex parties. A reporter follows Niall to one of the parties and sells the story to The Sun — Niall is a best-selling author. So Niall comes out to Ruben before Ruben reads about it in the press.

Despite all of Niall’s fear about Ruben’s violence toward him, Niall’s greatest fear is that Ruben will be annoyed by Niall’s sexuality. Niall is scared of an eyeroll. He associates telling Ruben he’s gay with weakness. Coming out is vulnerable and masculinity does not tend to reward vulnerability.

Ruben isn’t annoyed though, he doesn’t care. He tells Niall, “This is your shit son, it’s got nothing to do with me.” Niall is shocked. Ruben throws around the f-slur, he tries to use a gay panic defense to get out of going to jail. When Niall expresses this, Ruben tells Niall the only homophobe is Niall, and that the only person who couldn’t accept Niall was himself.

This is the intersection of abuse and toxic masculinity. Abusers often refuse to take responsibility for the impact of their words.. It’s your fault for how you feel about them. It’s your fault for caring about the way people police and judge you for sexuality and your masculinity.

Toxic masculinity begets toxic masculinity. But it is excused and ignored. To point out its effects is to point out that something is wrong with the status quo. And nothing is allowed to be wrong. When people say “Why should I care about others’ sexuality? It’s not my business,” they are not acknowledging that if it was their business, if they were gay and could not adhere to the ideal of gendered perfection they are taught to emulate, they might feel shame too. A lot of people don’t care if someone they know isn’t perfect, if they fit the ideal they had been taught to reach all their life. Not everyone can be the alpha male of the room. But as long as young people are still taught to emulate traditional gender roles, that to be masculine is to abuse those around you, then there will still be people who feel ashamed of their sexuality.

Half Man explores how toxic masculinity perpetuates a cycle of abuse. It also is an honest exploration of sexuality and shame in the 21st century and it succeeds at showing how and why people feel so much shame about being gay. As long as we still subscribe to the violent cult of patriarchal masculinity, we will all suffer.

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About the Author

Anne Gregg is a poet and writer from Northwest Indiana. She is an English Writing major at DePauw University and is the editor-in-chief of her campus’s literary magazine, A Midwestern Review. She is a Media Fellow at her university and loves dissecting how LGBTQ+ people are portrayed in film and tv.