The Manosphere

What a shit title. The Manosphere. What the hell does that even mean? The world of men? Hasn’t it always been a man’s world?

When I sat down to write this today, I’m fresh off watching the acclaimed documentary ‘Into The Manosphere’ by Louis Theroux. It’s advertised as an expose of the world of male influencers¹, or at least those that push toxic masculinity to the point of making a shed load of money from it.

I’m really not convinced it actually succeeds in making these people look quite as vile as they clearly are. Now, I am aware of Theroux’s style, and these men – and I use that in the loosest possible sense of the word – definitely damn themselves with their comments, but I wonder at teenagers watching it. Will they get the nuance? Will they get the sheer hypocrisy and idiocy of the way these guys act?

Some will. Many, hopefully, but a significant number won’t and will be dazzled by the amount of wealth on display², and I think the documentary fell short in showing the cost of this lifestyle. The views these ‘men’ hold are absolutely abhorrent: misogyny and homophobia are all on proud display. What the hell is ‘one-sided monogamy’? Why not call it what it is: you’re a selfish prick and a cheat and you can’t be trusted. Why do the partners agree to it? It is depressing that the women put up with this and shows we still have a long way to go as a species. Wealth does not give you the right to treat other people like shit.

The documentary made me really angry, but I was left with more questions than answers. How did these guys start? Now they’re so big and popular, it’s easy to see how they can monetise that and make more. It must be exhausting though: imagine filming yourself for upwards of 7 hours a day, just for content, which is exactly what they do. Content creator is another shit term by the way, and it’s all so shallow and vacant it could be a Sex Pistols song.

Theroux never calls them out, but I believe he should have in this case. These guys are predators and are peddling unobtainable lifestyle goals to boys. They would argue its not unobtainable, but it is. It’s a pyramid scheme designed to fleece impressionable people, and the fact it succeeds is depressing. Theroux invests five hundred pounds, and it reduces to about 150 over the course of the documentary³. Of course, online, in their videos, the influences are bragging he made over 13k⁴. Who is calling out this lie? Certainly not Theroux, and that is a mistake.

What is the impact of all of this and those around them, and those who follow them? There were two fans interviewed, and they both came across as damaged young men looking for a purpose or direction. Did they find it? Did they realise there actually is more to life than fast cars and beautiful houses⁵? How are they allowing themselves to be influenced⁶ like this?

What about the women? The partners and the mothers. At one point, HSTikkyTokky⁷, has a go at Bonnie Blue, saying her parents would not be proud⁸. His own mother features later, but no-one asks if she’s proud. Is she happy with the way her son lives his life? Is she happy that he is ripping of young men and boys to fund this lifestyle? She gets to live it too, so probably yes, but Theroux could’ve – and should’ve – asked her more questions.

See, all of this ‘manosphere’ shit comes at a cost. Boys in schools are demonstrating this behaviour – misogony is on the rise, treating girls like shit is on the rise. A recent poll of teachers⁹ showed a concerning rise in misogynistic behaviour, including towards female members of staff. Why didn’t Theroux dig into this? For me, the documentary did far too much to show the great side of their lifestyle. Why not go into schools and see what is happening with impressionable young men?

The influencers¹⁰themselves say it’s not on them if our sons are watching this content, but of course that just shows they know the stuff they peddle is unsavoury to say the least. I’ve seen, first hand, boys saying they admire Andrew Tate, but not really being able to articulate why. I still don’t get how anyone looks at a chinless wonder like Tate and thinks ‘yeah, that’s what I want to be like’. We need to do more to provide positive role models for our young men, and again Theroux didn’t even attempt to do this.

Why not? Why not present the balance? We live in a world where women would openly choose going into the woods with a bear rather than a man they didn’t know. Putting aside the ridiculousness of that scenario, why is that? How have we got here?

During the documentary, one of the nobheads says he likes looking at the architecture because ‘men built it’. Is it true? Were no women involved at all? Possibly, as the architecture was old, but also possibly not. We’ll never know and Theroux didn’t push back on it. In any case, a woman gave birth to the man who did, so do they not get any credit for that? Not in this manosphere it appears, where women are just for shagging or filming giving blow jobs in toilets. Keep it classy.

Nearly 80 years ago, Alan Turing helped bring about the end of World War Two, shortening it by several years and potentially saving millions of lives. Turing was, of course, gay and suffered persecution and eventually killed himself due to this persecution. How the hell have we gone from celebrated war hero to a time where young men worship a guy with a ridiculous chin strap beard who says he would disown his son if he were gay? He also claims this isn’t homophobic¹¹. What the hell is wrong with us?

The rise of this manosphere bollocks has coincided with a lurch to right in many countries now. Look at the way the giant orange manbaby talks to people he doesn’t like or those who disagree with him. Kids think this is great. How long before they openly copy him, if they’re not already? Why do they think treating women as objects and investing in dodgy financial systems are going to lead to a better life? Why isn’t someone clamping down on the bellends who are peddling all this? Why are our young men growing up with such dissatisfaction?

More importantly, what can we do about it? More male teachers would help – particularly in the primary sector where it is estimated that 1 in 3 schools don’t have a single male teacher. The data is from 2022, but the point still stands. ¹² Our students should be exposed to as many positive role models as possible, from as many walks of life as possible. There are far more women in teaching¹³ than men so we should actively take steps to change this. I’m not talking about appointing men over a more qualified woman, that would be absurd, but we should be looking at ways to make teaching more attractive to men.

This brings me back to these influencers¹⁴: there is a perception that man’s time is done, but it doesn’t hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever. In education, 1 in 3 teachers are male, yet 62% of headteachers are men. How is it flipped like that? The median hourly pay for men is around £1.50 higher than for women across all jobs, not just education¹⁵. Mean salary gap is around 4% in men’s favour. This is on a downward slope, so salaries are equalising, but it’s still in men’s favour. Perhaps this is why teaching attracts women over men: pay is identical in teaching irrespective of whether you have a womb or not.

Gah. Got to go, I’ve more piss to boil.

Until next time.

FOOTNOTES

1. What a shit word that is too. What a world we live in where being an influencer is actually a viable career. Jesus fucking christ. Influencers. Call them what they are – twats. ↩︎
2. And there is a lot – from fast cars through to beautiful apartments. It all looks incredibly glamorous. ↩︎
3. (30405) Louis Theroux Tried HSTikkytokky’s Investment Group… Then This Happened – YouTube ↩︎
4. Pathetic responses Inside the Manosphere influencers had to doc ↩︎
5. There really is, but to young, impressionable boys, there really isn’t and these fuckers peddling this shit know this. ↩︎
6. Maybe this is just a me thing, but the only influence I’ve ever held over my mates is persuading them to have just one more pint when we all know it’s never just one more. ↩︎
7. An absolute bellend if there ever was one. ↩︎
8. To her credit, she walks away soon after that. How on earth does Bonnie Blue come across as the strongest woman in the documentary? ↩︎
9. Misogynistic attitudes have reached ‘epidemic scale’ among young people, education chiefs say | The Independent ↩︎
10. Jesus fucking christ. Influencers. Call them what they are – twats. ↩︎
11. So he’s stupid as well as misogynistic. What a guy! ↩︎
12. The number of male classroom teachers in Primary (LHS) and Secondary… | Download Scientific Diagram ↩︎
13. School teacher workforce – GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures ↩︎
14. Sorry, twats. ↩︎
15. Gender pay gap in the UK – Office for National Statistics ↩︎