Thoughts I Had While Watching Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere

Louis Theroux released his latest documentary, a hit piece called Inside The Manosphere on Netflix this week. In it he explores the inner world of the ‘Manosphere’, a group of male social media influencers and podcasters who advocate for male superiority and “traditional” values, luring typically young male fans in with clips and videos of their wealthy, flashy lives. Andrew Tate is probably the first person you think of when you hear about this side of social media, but the Manosphere has become a lot more widespread since his rise to fame, with new influencers and podcasts popping up every day trying to sell this lifestyle. 

As I was watching it I almost had to laugh. To be honest, it felt more like a reality TV show than an exposè. I’m not sure if that’s because I felt that Louis could’ve went deeper into why these men think this way and how it affects impressionable fans, or simply because of how ridiculous the men he interviewed acted and thought about themselves. 

The first young man he interviewed was a 24 year old British streamer living in Marbella named Harrison Sullivan, known as HSTikkyTokky online. Of course this guy just emanated that forced bravado that you’d imagine these types of men would upon meeting Louis. As soon as Louis walked into his house and saw a young woman sitting on the couch, HS introduced her to him as his “dishwasher”. This kind of brazenly misogynistic humour is always, in my opinion anyway, a weak attempt to look impressive. He probably doesn’t believe he is better, or even as good, as the other men around him, so in order to compensate for that, he’ll belittle somebody that he thinks is already beneath him. 

What was interesting about this streamer was that he was very open about why he spews out all of this anti-woman, homophobic and racist content. It’s all just a cash grab. HS said it himself that we live in an “attention economy”, which is true. Likes, views, clicks: it all matters more than it ever did before. As social media evolves rapidly, the urge to monetise off of it as much as we can evolves too. And nothing gets more attention than hatred and anger. In his conversations with HS, Louis does a good job in exposing the levels of hypocrisy behind these influencers. 

 

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For example, HS admitted quite openly to owning a company that manages OnlyFans models, but immediately followed that by saying his (hypothetical) daughter would never be involved in that sort of stuff, because he sees it as disgusting. When Louis asked him why he was alright with managing that company while simultaneously seeing sex work as a disgrace, HS explained that he’s only in it because he makes a profit, which in his head means that it’s OK. To him, if the outcome of his actions are making him money, then his own morals don’t have to be brought into the conversation at all. It’s funny that he can’t apply that same logic to the women on OnlyFans, but of course he can’t. 

This profit-driven mindset seems to be his explanation for all his behaviour. Apparently he doesn’t see himself as a misogynist, or racist or homophobic (even though he told Louis that if his son, again hypothetical, was gay, he would disown him), he just shares these crazy opinions because that is what will get him attention online. With that attention on him, he can market his incredibly shady broker company to young impressionable fans who want the lavish life that he leads. 

This is a consistent motive among these Manosphere influencers, you’ll rarely see one who isn’t trying to sell some course or company to help you become a “real man”. That’s what HS claims to do for young boys. Teach them what real masculinity is, stop them from becoming “soy boys” and “gimps”. Judging by his behaviour throughout the documentary, his definition of real masculinity looks to be hating anyone who’s slightly different to him, fighting strangers on the streets, being anti-Semitic, throwing tantrums and calling his mother ‘mummy’. Doesn’t sound so appealing when it’s not set in front of a Maserati in Marbella, does it?

Travelling to Miami next, Louis meets with another leading Manosphere figure, forty year old Justin Waller. While this man didn’t act as brazen and childish as HS, his opinions and the way he shares them were just as harmful. It was clear from the start that Justin was trying to portray himself as a humble, traditional gentleman. After stepping out of whatever fancy sports car he arrived in, he immediately went on a spiel about how he doesn’t consider his car as the pinnacle of success, that it didn’t matter to him, it wasn’t ’real’ success and he didn’t want people to think that way about him. If he really didn’t want his car to draw attention, then maybe immediately bringing it into the conversation when nobody asked about it wasn’t the best idea. 

Anyway, that whole “normal guy” act didn’t last long, because soon after they met Louis asked him about his own relationship and family life. Justin admitted he was in, wait for it… a “one-sided monogamous relationship”. We’ve lost the plot. You can probably guess exactly which side of the relationship remained monogamous. Of course it was his wife, the mother of his two little girls. While she stays at home with the children and “doesn’t talk to men”, Justin is free to have fun with any amount of women he chooses at any time. These men like to call themselves traditional, but I’m struggling to remember when “one-sided monogamy” was ever a Western norm. These are also the same men who will literally condemn you to an eternity in hell for being gay, but it’s super ok when they want to experiment a little!

Justin’s segments of the documentary give a glimpse into how these figures likely ended up with the opinions they have today. Justin grew up in a very unstable and violent household, with a mother who was prone to random bouts of aggression and a father who wasn’t allowed to visit them. Childhood trauma can do serious damage to the way we see the world once we get older, especially when it’s not ever dealt with properly. And it doesn’t seem like Justin ever got the help he needed during those times in his life. While therapy and a stronger community could’ve helped him through his youth without skewing his idea of what a stable family life would look like, Justin fell into the ideology that men have to be the centre of the family, the ones in control. 

A rough childhood can also be very harmful to your self-esteem, and somewhere along the line Justin acquired the belief that men aren’t born with any value, they need to build it over time. This is obviously not true at all, and it implies that a man’s value lies solely in his ability to conform to traditional gender roles, which in his case is making money, providing for his family and being powerful. This take is incredibly harmful to men, but don’t think that women aren’t hurt by it either. Justin explains that women are born with value, and therefore have it easier than men. What is that value they’re born with, you ask? Their beauty. That’s it. How they look in their twenties. Once again these men are reducing women to simple accessories. This is what the Manosphere does, it destroys any ounce of self esteem on both sides. It gives the boys one role and the girls another, and charges them money to help them fit into those roles easier. But none of it is real. 

Someone who does feel confident in themselves and is more in touch with their own feelings and experiences won’t fall for this sort of stuff. These influencers know that, which is why they target men who are already vulnerable. Insecure teenage boys who get rejected from girls and don’t know how to process that rejection. Men who never had a father figure or anyone to show them what healthy masculinity looks like. Men who are struggling hugely with their mental health and only feel strong because someone is telling them they’re doing the right thing by bottling up their feelings. Men who feel inadequate and want to believe there are entire groups of people who are naturally beneath them.

All of the men interviewed in this documentary were probably in the exact same boat at one point. Rejected, abandoned, hurt. But instead of seeking help and dealing with those experiences in a healthy way, so that they could genuinely feel happy in themselves and be better for the people around them, they chose to project that trauma onto a much wider audience and bring others down with them.

 

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You can see that when Louis interviews two of Justin’s fans. They both genuinely believe that they have no value if they aren’t making bank or looking strong. One of them explained that he had moved to Miami to make a better life for himself, but things hadn’t worked out so easily and he was homeless for a while. He was also dealing with the loss of his brother, who had taken his life earlier. This young man has clearly been through a lot, and anybody in his position would struggle to deal with the feelings that come with that. He’s the perfect target for these Manosphere big guys. He needs something to give him hope, and quickly. They convince him that their lifestyle is achievable if he joins their course or listens to their podcasts. We can only hope that he sees through their lies before it’s too late.

The further I got into the documentary, the more ludicrous and violent these men were becoming. It started with disapproval of OnlyFans and one-sided monogamy, but by the end it had turned into the whirlwind of chanting “F**k the Jews” in the streets, arguing that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote and genuinely believing that the world is run by Satanists because Sam Smith is non-binary. It’s hard to tell whether this is just male influencers becoming more and more desperate for attention, or if this was the plan the whole time. To normalise levels of bigotry and hatred that haven’t been tolerated in years. There’s a running idea in the Manosphere that these men and their followers have “escaped the Matrix”, a world where men aren’t allowed to be masculine and women are given too much power.

While, yes, the world definitely has shifted into a space where women are given almost equal opportunities as men and are able to thrive on life paths outside being a housewife, these men that think they’re escaping the Matrix are only falling back into it. Personally I think it was much more ‘Matrixy’ when half the population wasn’t allowed to get an education, or when you could be put to jail for life just for loving someone. We still have a lot of work to do, but I’d say we’ve already taken the red pill, and this Manosphere is just a bunch of men throwing a tantrum because not everything is being spoon fed anymore, and women don’t need to put up with their ridiculous “masculine” behaviour.