Through an analysis of 4chan’s /adv/ or ‘advice’ board – in which predominately male users seek advice on life matters – here we examine masculine ontological insecurity and its implications for understanding how ‘toxic’ masculine identities emerge, and how young men more generally struggle to make sense of their lives. Advancing extant scholarship, our findings uncover an ‘on the cusp’ masculine identity – subject to the anxieties and self-perceived failures which act as preconditions of toxic ideologies and outcomes, but also seemingly yet to practice such (il)logics. Responses from the community suggest three ways of addressing, or making sense of, the problems users faced. Finally, and of relevance to both the theorising of contemporary masculinities and related socio-positive interventions, we highlight the (seemingly) odd paradox of vulnerable male users being drawn to express their vulnerabilities on a platform notorious for its insensitivities.

通过对 4chan 的 /adv/ 或“建议”板的分析——主要是男性用户在其中寻求有关生活问题的建议——在这里，我们研究了男性本体论的不安全感及其对理解“有毒”男性身份如何出现的影响，以及更普遍的年轻男性如何努力去理解他们的生活。推进现有的学术研究，我们的研究结果揭示了一种“处于风口浪尖”的男性身份——受制于焦虑和自我感知的失败，这些都是有毒意识形态和结果的先决条件，但似乎还没有实践这种（il）逻辑。社区的回应提出了解决或理解用户面临的问题的三种方法。最后，与当代男性气质的理论化和相关的社会积极干预相关，