Who's afraid of the manosphere?
Recent think pieces about ancient views
Hi horny readers! Thank you so, so much for reading the ADULT SEX ED newsletter.
New here? Adult Sex Ed comedically challenges why we think what we think about sex. I’m Dani Faith Leonard, a filmmaker, comedy writer, and performer. In 2018, I started a comedy show called Adult Sex Ed and launched this newsletter in 2023. Each week, I take a fun deep dive into a topic that I’ve been researching. Ready to plug the holes in your education? Okay, let’s go!
Today, the New York Times published a student opinion piece about the Manosphere, a collection of male-supremacist, misogynist internet personalities who connect with young men through social media, podcasts, and streaming. This topic is getting a lot more attention after the release of the Netflix show Adolescence, a crime drama that takes on themes like the dangers of social media and what masculinity really is.
In case you aren’t a 16-year-old boy and/or haven’t spent too much time in the dark corners of the internet, the views promoted by the Manosphere range from blaming women and trans people for all of the ills that men face, to women belonging in the kitchen, to the far right views of the Tate brothers, like women bearing responsibility for getting raped. They often use the metaphor of the red pill, stolen from the film The Matrix, to describe being awakened to the dangers of feminism. They believe that men are victims who need to fight back against a society that now favors women. These beliefs are spread through social media, gaming, and streaming. Young men are targeted through topics that seem “helpful,” like fitness videos, success tips, and pick-up artists who promote negging women to get them interested and establish dominance.
A recent study from Dublin City University showed that the algorithm plays an enormous role in showing this content to young men, whether or not they are looking for it. During the study, researchers created ‘sockpuppet’ accounts, pretending to be 16-year-old boys, on youtube and tiktok. The researchers were shown misogynist content in under 10 minutes. These beliefs aren’t staying online, which was evident after the 2024 election when young boys were shouting “Your body, my choice” at their classmates in schools.
The “Manosphere” isn’t really a new thing—the term “mens rights” was used as early as 1856 (wow!!) in response to the fight for women’s basic rights in Putnam’s Magazine. Men have started anti-feminist movements in response to bold women since the beginning of time. But there were two things they didn’t have—hair plugs and the internet.
The overlap between these incel influencers and far right groups isn’t too surprising. When I wrote about “No Nut November,” I researched the origins of anti-masturbation movements in general. For reference “No Nut November” is much like Seinfeld’s “The Contest,” where men on the internet abstain from watching p*rn, masturbating, and even ejaculation in general. Unlike Seinfeld, the NNN contest was co-opted by far-right activists just a few years after it began. It’s part of a larger “No Fap” movement which began on Reddit and attracts far right “activists” who also post misogynist and anti-semitic conspiracy theories. One of those is that p*rnography is a Jewish conspiracy, to control the West by using p*rn to render white Christian men impotent. It sounds silly as hell if you’re a normal person, but this conspiracy has been in several mass shooting manifestos and is also spread by the likes of the Proud Boys, who need no help being impotent. Kanye has also posted about it, so you know it’s serious!
If you want to kill your chances of getting wet for a while, you can watch a conversation between Andrew Tate and Tucker Carlson about the No Fap movement (I won’t link to this). In that interview, Tate defines the goal of No Nut November—pursuing “Male Excellence.” He’s been charged with rape and sex trafficking in Romania, is under investigation in Florida, and is under federal criminal investigation by the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office.
Just like other extremist movements, these online personalities prey on the insecurities of young men. It’s also getting easier to do this due to fewer content restrictions. According to this New York Times piece, phrases like “women are property” and “gay people are mentally ill” are no longer violations of conduct at Meta. There need to be positive spaces for these young men that counteract the toxic spaces, but since the algorithms favor extremist views, it seems impossible to cut through the noise.
Enter Sex Ed for Guys, a group posting on tiktok from Colby College, a private liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine. Their videos, which sometimes receive millions of views, focus on topics like how to prioritize female sexual pleasure, what to do if you test positive for an STI, and getting enthusiastic consent. Christopher Maichin, 20, a junior at Colby told Rolling Stone: “Guys could be scrolling through their TikTok and Andrew Tate will pop up but as they scroll, maybe Sex Ed for Guys will pop up and it’ll start having them think a little bit differently. I think the greatest part of it is that they are getting education without even knowing it. They’re watching a funny video but they’re learning about consent.” Can we really fight the alt-right pipeline of the Manosphere with the equivalent of sneaking vegetables into chicken nuggets? It’s worth a shot.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you never miss a post!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share with friends, so they can be hilariously informed.
Don’t miss these recent newsletters:
Great beat down of a straw man you nothing about. No wonder guys are laughing at you.