Funny that what Ben Affleck embodies for the internet isn't a household name yet.

Other than "toxic masculinity" or "female empowerment" there is almost nothing to "male misery".

No meandering newspaper articles, no angry posts.

Just Ben Affleck.

Sarah Obertreis

Editor in the “Society & Style” department.

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Standing alone by the side of the road in baggy pants, smoking a fag without using his hands.

Like a fag burning between his lips, a worn-out corona mask stretched over his nose.

How he tries to open his front door with mountains of fast food in his arms and pours iced latte over everything.

Sleeping on a boat on the Seine on his honeymoon, mouth wide open, seemingly exhausted.

There he walks, stands, lies and sits, the middle-aged white man, who is certainly aware of all his privileges, but still has a burden on his shoulders that he cannot shake off.

Swedish author Katrine Marcal calls it "The Deep Inner Misery of Men" and writes: "Here lies a paradox that causes great unease among many feminists."

All over the world, men earn more, have greater political and economic power - and yet they are unhappier than women.

Men, Marcal explains, constantly oscillate between feelings of inadequacy and shame.

It's not about Affleck himself

Shame is a big topic for the 50-year-old actor, but that's not the point here.

Because Affleck's pictures aren't about Affleck himself. He's not Lady Di, whose portraits people still stare at today, searching for traces of despair in her restrained smile.

When Affleck stands in front of a front door, fag in hand, face slumped, seeking a little respite in a deep breath of nicotine – he becomes a mirror.

Because you don't have to smoke to know what a moment of complete exhaustion feels like.

You don't even need to have experienced anything traumatic - a stressful work week, an argument full of shouted insults or three small children is enough.

The situations in which Affleck is caught are banal - and that's why they are so big on the internet.

On Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, Affleck reaped mass expressions of sympathy for looking sad in shaky paparazzi photos.

"Ben Affleck is a gift", "I love him", "He makes me feel seen", write the users.

"He's like the uncle you love very much but secretly worry about"

These images are amusing, but would also "appear haunting," they can inspire "a little glee, as well as sympathy," is how a New Yorker writer tries to describe the effect of Affleck's involuntary shots.

She sees something epic in the 50-year-old staring out at the gray sea with a towel around his waist and his toes in the wet sand: "The image not only references the decline of Affleck, but the decline of humanity itself. "

But anonymous internet users are often closer to the actual narrative.

One (Twitter bio: "BBQ, Beer, Freedom") sees in the photos a person who is struggling with the fact that reality and vision diverge.

Another wrote, "He's like that uncle you love very much but secretly worry about." Another tweeted, "I look at the pics and immediately feel what Affleck is going through."