Join friends Soy Boy, T-Bone, Pot Noodle and Avo as they navigate uni life and the age of disinformation, one algorithm and creditable source at a time!
The term Soy Boy is often used in the “manosphere” as an insult to belittle men who are seen as too emotional, progressive, or not conforming to traditional masculine ideals.
Crafted over 14 months, the Soy Boy comic is the outcome of an innovation pilot from RMIT’s Prevention and Respect team. The comic was co-designed with RMIT’s students, educators and violence prevention experts. Bringing together young men’s lived experience to reclaim, re-write and re-define who and how they want to be.
Want to join the Soy Boy writing crew? Email us at GenderJustice@rmit.edu.au
Co-designed by RMIT students, educators and violence prevention experts. The Soy Boy comic series is an ongoing creative project that aims to celebrate our online lives but also challenge the content and communities that are harming us all.
Set at RMIT, The Adventures of Soy Boy and Friends has been over 12 months in the making. The comic follows fictional characters Soy Boy, T-Bone, Avo and Pot Noodle as they navigate university life in the age of disinformation.
The project started as part of an innovation pilot led by RMIT’s Shelley Hewson-Munro (Manager, Prevention, Masculinities and Learning).
In Semester 1 2024, open-invite workshops and campus pop-up sessions engaged male students who were interested in rewriting the rules. These workshops shared Man Box content and provided a creative space for co-design.
29 male students participated in these sessions, sharing their insights and exploring questions such as:
During O-Week in 2024, RMIT Prevention & Respect team staff noticed some male students rejecting soy milk when offered as part of a free hot chocolate giveaway, with remarks like “Real men have full cream.”
The use of the term ‘Soy Boy’ as a slur in online spaces was also discussed by students in brainstorming sessions.
Through these workshops, students explored possible ideas to engage other students, ranging from street theatre and flash mobs to podcasts short stories. These sessions provided a safe space for young men to reflect on their lived experiences online and the real-world challenges of uni life, such as “working on a group assessment with your latest crush” or “not submitting an assignment because I’m too nervous to say I don’t know what I should be doing.”
From these discussions, the idea took hold: a comic series about a bunch of friends navigating uni life, in the age of wellness bro’s and algorithms.
With the concept in place, a short comic script was drafted, which also required a real life RMIT expert who was willing to dispel the soy boy myth – and be immortalised in cartoon form!
Dr Sharayah Carter, Lecturer in Human Biosciences (Nutrition and Dietetics), from the School of Health and Biomedical Science rose to this challenge.
The next step? Finding an illustrator, and further co-design with students, who could bring Soy Boy to full life.
The Prevention and Respect team reached out to RMIT’s College of Vocational Education’s Creative Industries teacher, Jeanie Hague-Smith. They proposed the Soy Boy comic could be an alternative assessment for their students in the Advanced Diploma of Screen and Media.
In Semester 2 2024, all students in the class were offered the opportunity to illustrate the comic as part of their coursework. Seven students took on the challenge. Millie Ovenden’s adaptation won the design for publication and promotion.
New comic stories are already in draft, with previous students from the 2024 co-design process contributing further. A fresh call out for students to join the 2025 project is also underway.
Like all great creative stories, someone had an idea. One person shared it, another person brought a skill, and together they made it happen. The rest is history.
This story highlights how, although the university environment and students’ lives have changed from the romanticised notion of how uni life used to be, students, educators and researchers are still creatively working together to challenge narratives and ideas that might just find the solution for our times.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.