TR.BIZ: 6.16.2026

From Gen Z dude non-monogamy to the Jojo Siwa cruise, this is your early-mid-week check-in ✨

Welcome to The Trend Report: Business Edition™, a midweek look at top stories, trends, and more of what’s happening online and off by Kyle of The Trend Report™. Today, we’re diving into a new finding on Gen Z male sexuality, Kalshi as an end times predictor, a new right wing battle against sexy old women, and the queer origins of the high five.

---

🏛️ Politicultural: Are Gen Z men more open-minded than the media says?

Feeld’s latest results from their Reflections assessment has a fascinating finding hidden within it. For the unfamiliar, Feeld is a dating app known for sexual discovery (think alternative relationship models, kinks, etc.) and Reflections is a quiz the brand offers to help people better understand and talk about their desires. The latest report looked at over 1100 responses, finding things like 67% of respondents are interested in discussing desires with partners and just over half actively prioritize conversations around subjects like safer sex and boundaries. But the most interesting one? More than 75% of Gen Z men are interested in changing their relationship structure, moving out of something like monogamy, especially when compared to Gen Z non-men. This is…not something I was expecting, given the various Gen Z male conservatism stories that dominate media. While some divergences occur, “Gen Z men are more conservative” has been the defining headline of this moment — and Feeld’s finding made me go hmmm. Are Feeld users more likely to be progressive? How does this tie into performative male culture? Can sexual exploration make someone more open? To find out, I posed the questions to the co-author of the study and University of Michigan professor, Dr. Kyla Brathwaite. Here’s what she had to say —

How do these findings play into and push against the trend of Gen Z male conservatism?
It’s important to acknowledge the documented trend of young men moving toward more traditional or conservative value systems, but we can’t let that flatten our understanding of them. Our research shows that it’s far more nuanced.

Within Feeld’s community, Gen Z men are actively reconsidering the relationship structures they’ve inherited at a significantly higher rate than their non-male peers. They’re 76% more likely to want to change their relationship structures compared to Gen Z non-men, and 43.8% feel more sexually empowered than Millennial and older men.

This suggests that, as with any group, there are different sub-cultures that exist. Feeld Members may hold more progressive values socially, but amongst more conservative trending blocks, such as Gen Z men, these values could still hold. The tension highlights the complexity, and challenges popular assumptions about the demographic. If we really want to understand Gen Z men, we’re going to have to look beyond the dominant narrative.

In our current global context, it’s also important that we continue to facilitate communities where self-discovery is welcomed and encouraged. This is what makes Feeld’s Reflections tool compelling. People are not monolithic, and sometimes they may not have the tools or language to self-start. It creates a community where people feel comfortable and empowered to express themselves in their true form.

How do these findings tie into the trend of performative males?
If you unpack the performative male trend, I think you’ll find that it really comes down to men searching for a sense of identity in a digital environment where they are bombarded with contradictory messages about what defines “manhood”.

On the one hand, we have the rise of the Manosphere, which is no longer a fringe community in the far corners of the internet, but a social moment growing in popularity on mainstream social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. These communities really encourage a traditional and oppressive gender binary and sort of put men into a restrictive box in what is and is not permissible in masculine self-expression. On the other hand, we have broader media messages from TV, movies and celebrity culture that really challenge these traditional ideas about manhood. But for young Gen Z men – who are just emerging into adulthood and figuring out who they are – this may be hard to navigate.

So, while it might be socially acceptable for men of this generation to challenge traditional ideas of masculinity – there are a lot of contradictory messages they can encounter as they come into themselves and their identities. Additionally, they just might not know where to start, or how far they’re willing to push the boundaries in how they communicate and show up in the world.

The intention for Reflections matches our findings. It was built around exactly that drive for self-discovery; to help people better articulate what they already feel but may not know how to express. Our data suggests that when men are given clearer language around desires, boundaries, and relationship structures, they move from questioning themselves to asserting themselves. That’s the opposite of performance.

That shift reflects a broader behavioral change across Feeld as a whole. 72% of respondents reported that, after taking Reflections, they have already changed or have thought about changing how they communicate their desires on their profiles.

Can sexual exploration be a pathway to more openness?
Sexual exploration can definitely be a pathway to greater openness, but openness doesn’t emerge automatically from exploration alone. Intentionality really matters. Throughout our research with Feeld, my colleagues and I repeatedly encountered the theme of intentionality when it came to core values when engaging in sexual exploration and discovery on the app. This intentionality might come from having a concrete understanding of one’s desires, self-expression, to how they choose to navigate interactions with others on and off the platform.

However, as I mentioned, this intentionality isn’t automatic. People join Feeld at a variety of points in their self-discovery journey, and our research showed that a lot of the time people may intrinsically know what they desire, they might just not have the language to express themselves in a way that adequately serves their needs.

This is where our work with Reflections really is important. When it comes to sexual exploration and language, the two go hand in hand. Open response data from Members who responded to our State of Reflections II survey indicated that Reflections served not only as a self-discovery tool, but additionally helped them develop concrete language for what they might have been feeling but couldn’t express. This complements our data that shows that after taking Reflections, 67% of respondents reported more interest in discussing their desires, and over 50% were more open to conversations around boundaries and safer sex. Together this suggests that language can be a form of self-empowerment, whether that be for one’s sexual desires, or sexual safety.

Concerning developing a more holistic view of the world, I think intentionality is a key factor here. People who are willing to interrogate their assumptions about relationships, sexual desire, and traditional wisdom more broadly may be more open to new perspectives. But, when individuals engage in sexual exploration thoughtfully and with intentionality, their interactions with others and even themselves may be much more nuanced.

🗺️ Localized: Americas the beautifuls

If you’ve been following the World Cup online, a conversation is emerging not just about the games or the associated fashion trends but about how fans from around the world are coming to explore and understand the culture of the Americas. Yes, stories about ICE continue, but what’s getting more attention are Japanese fans discovering American foods, Korean fans learning Mexican slang and celebrating Mexican culture, and Americans in Kansas welcoming Algerian players and Americans in LA offering hope to Iranian fans, while Europeans discover places like Waffle House and Golden Corral. The picture that is emerging is less of cross-cultural strife but an incredible ~ we are the world ~ vibe that we anticipated with the Winter Olympics but instead got a messy AI slop fest. This is a great thing, not just as proof that Americans are good (When our president is not.) and that the world can come together to look past differences for a good sports game. Paired with the Knicks win, it really does seem like sports can and will unite us all. With the games ending in mid-July, we can expect such stories to continue as counter programming to politics.

📲 Tech Talk: Fuck you, Kalshi (and fuck you Timothee)