What is The "Manosphere"? 🤷♂️
Oliver dives into the "manosphere" and it's link to young men and the loneliness epidemic.
My first run-in with Andrew Tate was two years ago when a freshman made a joke about him to me. “Are you a Top G?” he asked me, a reference to Tate’s idea of a successful man. I had no idea what he was talking about or what Top G was. After searching it up, I was mortified about the content and views Tate spread on women. I spent my next few conversations with him trying to dissuade him from Andrew Tate – expressing to him how harmful these messages were to many of our classmates and peers.
I’ve been looking back on the “Top G” because the 2024 election was inextricably linked to Tate and other manosphere creators. The “manosphere” refers to a series of social media personalities, most notably Andrew Tate, Sneako, and Adin Ross, who promote hyper-masculinity. Throughout the 2024 election, Trump appeared with Manosphere creators, including the Nelk Boys. Further, many of the most prominent creators either endorsed Trump or promoted him on their platforms. This partially contributed to the gender gap in 2024. While 56% of men ages 18-29 voted for Trump in 2024, only 41% of women in the same age group did.
Electoral politics aside, the manosphere can be dangerous because of the views that it promotes, including its objectification of women, the dehumanization of transgender individuals, and anti-semitism. The model of masculinity shared in these online spaces is often defined by anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ views.
Let’s Be Clear. There Isn’t A Problem with Masculinity.
Masculinity is simply the traits that are linked to men. This can be as straightforward as a father going to a kid’s sports game, or being respectful to dates. It only becomes harmful when it encourages misogyny and hate towards others, so what’s causing the rise of the manosphere?
Loneliness and Emotional Health Play a Crucial Role
America has a loneliness epidemic, and it especially affects men and boys. From 1990, the number of women who said they had ten or more friends decreased from 28% to 11%. For men, that percentage was much more drastic, decreasing from 40% to 15%.
This affects the way men and women receive emotional support. While 41% of women say they’ve received emotional support from a friend within the past week, only 21% of men say so. In other words, men and boys are often turning to social media and the manosphere because of isolation and loneliness. These creators offer a sense of comfort and community.
The streamer Sneako who is notorious for his misogynistic tweets and streams, serves as fun entertainment to young men and boys. Andrew Tate’s videos often offer love and relationship advice, a form of emotional support. This advice, however, includes advocating violence against women and shaming women for their relationships. The advice might be toxic, but it is still a form of emotional support many men might be seeking and not receiving from other avenues.
It doesn’t help that men are also falling behind in other metrics. While 47% of women ages 25-34 have bachelor's degrees, only 37% of men in the same age group do. Men are four times more likely to die of suicide than women. Wages for men have barely increased, and for men without a college degree, they’ve decreased by 22%. Social media personalities offer an outlet for men and boys. Whether it's loneliness, mental health, or poor economic prospects – creators – like Tate, Sneako, and Ross, offer convincing scapegoats for their problems: women, gay people, or any other marginalized community. In reality, complex social and political issues cannot be distilled to the fault of a people.
So, What Can Be Done?
Male educators are some of the best people to teach boys and young men about masculinity. For me, my high school guidance counselor Mr. Song taught me how to manage stress, deal with social pressures, and navigate manhood. As a role model, he taught me a healthy version of masculinity, prioritizing consideration for others, hard work, and honesty.
Unfortunately, there are few Mr. Song’s in the United States. Men only make up 3% of pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten teachers and a measly 20% of elementary and middle school teachers. It is only when students reach high school where 43% of teachers are male. With so few male teachers, boys and young men rarely interact with positive male role models until high school, leading many of them to learn toxic views of masculinity.
Social media includes many male content creators who offer healthy views of masculinity, like MKBHD and Mark Rober. While their messages are great – the impact can be limiting as they are not figures in a young boy’s day-to-day. A close adult has the influence to educate boys and young men about toxic masculinity, but it's much harder to do the same thing online when watching a video.
It’s Time To Offer a Healthy Model
The manosphere is the result of social media, loneliness, and economic downturn, but addressing it requires us to provide an alternative model of masculinity. We need more male role models to teach boys and young men healthy versions of masculinity. The best response to the manosphere isn’t to simply go against masculinity but to offer a healthy model of it.
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Absolutely love this — great research and writing, Oliver!