The manosphere is a collective term for online communities which promote narrow ideas of masculinity, often heavily focused around misogyny. They claim to have taken the ‘red pill’ (a call back to 90s film The Matrix in which the ‘red pill’ is said to provide a ‘true reality’) and believe that society is biased against men. They believe that, by adopting traditional gendered roles, they are protecting themselves from the feminist ‘woke’ agenda.
After the success of the hit Netflix show, Adolescence, the manosphere and the extremist masculinity it promotes have quickly become a growing concern. ‘Inside The Manosphere’ has arrived at a critical time when discussions into the manosphere are becoming mainstream and are beginning to take place outside of just dodgy Telegram chats and Reddit forums.
In the documentary, Theroux meets with some of the key figures involved with promoting the manosphere including, HSTikkyTokky, Myron Gains, Sneako and Justin Waller. Theroux discusses their thoughts surrounding masculinity, their male-supremist attitudes and how they are fighting against this ‘woke’ ideology.
The documentary was shocking. It was toxic. It was crushing. But I expected nothing less.
While Theroux does provide an excellent insight into what the manosphere is; it all just felt a bit surface level. For someone like myself who’s involved with internet culture, these kind of manospheric ideas and language I see on the Internet every day. I was expecting him to go deeper and to criticise further. I wanted him to talk about what the effects of this behaviour are.
“Guys need to have this mindset where you’re the leader, you’re the dictator of the relationship,” says streamer Myron Gains, while Theroux looks on in disbelief. Theroux clearly knows how harmful this mindset is, but I just wish he criticised it further…
Myron’s girlfriend, Angie, also makes an appearance in which Theroux discusses her feelings towards Myron’s leader mindset, specifically his belief in ‘one way monogamy.’ It is clear she is uncomfortable with the idea, yet Myron talks for her, despite Theroux’s attempts to allow her to speak.
Angie does not appear in the documentary after this. However, it is revealed at the end of the documentary that she and Myron ended their relationship.
Why not include further insight into what effects this has on women?
What I wanted to know is why weren’t Angie’s feelings explored further? Why not include further insight into what effects this has on women? There is an epidemic of violence, cruelty, and abuse towards women that is encouraged by these influencers. However, this is never mentioned by Theroux or anyone else in the documentary.
Just five days ago on International Women’s Day, Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding read out the names in Parliament of 110 women who were killed by men this previous year.
We’ve seen in Adolescence the kind of violence that this manospheric ideology promotes. To me, for Theroux to say he truly went ‘inside the manosphere,’ the violent effects of this behaviour and mindset should’ve been covered.
I applaud Louis Theroux for bringing attention to this on such a major platform but maybe next time, think about the women too.