The Manosphere dominates so much of the discourse about how men and women should relate to one another online. It is a violently misogynistic pipeline that is led by a band of grifters who brainwash young men and capitalise on them to line their own pockets. The community is under a microscope in Louis Theroux’s most recent documentary Inside the Manosphere, now streaming on Netflix.
Louis Theroux has had an illustrious career documenting the strangest and most extreme examples of alternative world views. From the Westboro Baptist Church to Zionist settlers in the West Bank, he has put some of the most obscene ideologies under a microscope and exposed their idiocy. In his most recent documentary, it is the kingpins of the Manosphere who are getting the Theroux treatment. Inside the Manosphere is a biting exploration into the extremist misogyny that is at the heart of the so-called RedPill movement. It is an ideology that is rapidly brainwashing young boys across the world, teaching them to internalise a world view that relies on self-denial and impossible standards of toxic masculinity.
In the documentary, the key characters we meet are Harrison Sullivan (HSTikkyTokky), Myron Gaines, Justin Waller, and Sneako. They, alongside footage of their followers and the infamous Tate brothers, reveal a litany of deeply offensive and anti-intellectual views. These men are the architects of a digital world that has very dangerous real life implications. There are several key takeaways from the documentary. Here they are.
More dog whistles than Crufts
Throughout the documentary, there are alarming dog whistles that reveal the Manosphere is interconnected to several other deeply concerning and problematic ideologies. While watching, we see very notable examples of science denial as exhibited in a segment on Myron Gaines’ Fresh and Fit podcast. They discuss content from an alleged medical professional that states women with “high body counts” produce children that don’t resemble their fathers but their previous sexual partners. Theroux correctly identifies this as blatant misinformation.
Elsewhere in the documentary, there are dog whistles for antisemitic conspiracy theories (more on this later) and eugenics as displayed by creators touting pseudoarchaeology theories that are woven into white supremacist pipelines. While this particular idea is not explored in depth in the documentary, these theories are deeply interconnected with very harmful beliefs about people of colour.
Across the entire run of Inside the Manosphere, the men featured continually use tactics that are evocative of those used by abusive partners. From gaslighting to coercive control, this is shown in how they interact with the women in their lives and their audiences.
They’re really hypocritical about porn
Sullivan is one of the main focuses of the documentary. Theroux pushes him to explain his views on pornography, which he quickly decries as “disgusting” and “loser shit”. This is in spite of the fact that Sullivan owns an OnlyFans management agency. At other points in the documentary, he is seen interviewing Bonnie Blue for his online content and openly insults her. While I do not have any affection for Blue, the hypocrisy in Sullivan’s behaviour is alarming. His views are largely shared by the other figures in the documentary.
The fact that they consider the women who create porn disgusting while being happy to exploit them for financial gain is emblematic of how they perceive women more broadly. A handful of women are featured in the documentary, and all are shown to be given space in proximity to the leaders of the Manosphere to boost their own standing. The Fresh and Fit podcast shows regular appearances by OnlyFans creators on the platform. Gaines uses these women as punching bags; he invites them onto the podcast to berate them in front of his male viewership. He also allows his viewership to pay an amount of money to read comments to these women; unsurprisingly, they are almost always deeply offensive.
Women are also shown to be a status tool; the most attractive of them, or at least those considered the most attractive, are seen almost like ornaments around the men of the atmosphere, used to demonstrate status and success. They view women as a commodity; they’re a tool for status, for labour, or for financial profit. The Manosphere hates women, but needs them in proximity to both exploit and to further the image of these men as hypermasculine and enviable to the audiences who see them as aspirational.
The Manosphere tells men they don’t deserve happiness
One of the main things that stood out to me throughout the documentary was the testimony of the fans of the men featured. Notably, two young men, fans of Justin Waller in Miami, discussed how they viewed men and their value. In conversation with Waller and Theroux, the two fans discuss how the Manosphere teaches men that they do not have any intrinsic value; instead, they must accrue value in the form of wealth and power. This is in contrast to their view of women having innate value based on their perceived attractiveness. Their line of thinking is expanded as they state that men must suffer for all that they have, and that suffering is inherent to their development. In their own words, ‘men aren’t supposed to be happy’. I cannot shake just how sad that is.
The Manosphere tells men that they have to look at their lives and feel like failures because they aren’t surrounded by sports cars and OnlyFans models. Men are supposed to kill themselves to strive for a lifestyle that is only accessible to the rare 1%. For the vast majority of men watching these creators, it’s simply not going to happen. Instead, they swallowed the tripe that these creators put out there. They have been brainwashed to think that they literally don’t deserve happiness.
The Daddy issues run deep
A common denominator for the creators featured on Inside the Manosphere is that they had difficult childhoods with absent or abusive father figures. I find it almost laughable that a gaggle of men who run across the internet talking about ‘fatherless behaviour’ are so deeply shaped by their own absentee fathers. Sullivan discusses how he has ‘no hard feelings’ towards his deadbeat dad, yet creates content confronting him for his lack of presence in his childhood. While I can, as someone with a deadbeat dad myself, sympathise with reconciling feelings or rejection, I cannot help but find it deeply disturbing just how much this commonality is in how it impacts the choices and behaviours made by these men.
All of this bullshit hypermasculinism is a coping mechanism to try to compensate for their internalised sense of rejection. Their mindset of needing to keep earning, to keep pimping out girls, and to keep pumping hatred out into the world is all innately connected to their daddy issues. Frankly, that is so fucking lame. The number of people out there who have deadbeat dads, myself included, who don’t carry on a cycle of harm shows that their response to their problems is those of fragile men with brittle egos and emotional constipation.
They’re all antisemitic conspiracy theorists
In the last 30 minutes of the documentary, we are introduced to a creator called Sneako, who is possibly the most idiotic of all the gang of idiots featured. Sneako proudly proclaims himself as a Trump supporter and a conspiracy theorist. Interestingly, his theorising states that the world is controlled by Jews. This is a common landing zone for conspiracy theorists who always manage to edge themselves into the fraught waters of antisemitism at some point. Across the latter part of the documentary, Theroux touches on this point, showing that Sneako is not alone in his clear hatred of Jewish people. Clips from Sullivan, Tate, and others are shown in the documentary, with them expressing violently antisemitic sentiment.
Sneako further shared his belief in a global network of power that seeks to control people. Aspects of this network of power include adding chemicals to water supplies to make people transgender, an initiative that is clearly lagging in effectiveness, given transpeople comprise less than 1% of the world’s population. He used the case study of Sam Smith and their public presence as a non-binary person as evidence of these conspiracies. What is perhaps most laughable about this deluded worldview is that the networks of global leadership are decidedly not in favour of furthering trans rights. I don’t know how one is a vocal Trump supporter, celebrating his presidency, while believing the powers that be are anything but fellow radical misogynists.
They really don’t like to be called out on their bullshit
At various points in the documentary, the men Theroux speaks to are sure to deny that they are misogynists and passionately explain why. Gaines and Waller claim that they actually understand what women want better than the women themselves, and this drive to control women is actually to help them… sure, that makes total sense! Looping back into the antisemitic sentiment expressed in the documentary, Sullivan, in the final scene, is questioned by Theroux on why he has publicly shouted ‘death to Jews’ in his online content. He claims that this doesn’t make him antisemitic. A similar line of argument is used when challenged on a statement he made earlier in the documentary about how he would disown his future son if he were gay. Sullivan states this does not make him homophobic. When pushed further on this, he becomes very combative and aggressive before finally storming away from Louis. It is a clear demonstration of poor emotional regulation and a lack of willingness to truly stand by what sentiments he clearly holds, despite his frequent declaration that he stands by what rhetoric he shares.
Similarly, when Louis pushes Justin Waller on his ‘one-way monogamy’ with his wife, he is very quickly combative and, with little warning, becomes aggressive in his tone. Pulled right out of the gaslighter playbook, he claims that Theroux is upset or angry, despite being the one who is displaying these emotions. It is a tactic used by individuals who are unable to have a reasonable or measured conversation about their choices. That is the main takeaway from all of these men when pushed on their behaviours and how they impact the women they have relationships with. Gaines has the same approach when met with similar questions. It shows that they are deeply unsure of themselves when actually forced to have a conversation with someone on an equal footing. Their entire platform is centred on them possessing an omniscience that quickly crumbles when the sycophants they surround themselves with are not there to prop up the flimsy and self-serving beliefs they profess.
We already knew this, but the Manosphere is one big grift
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Inside the Manosphere is the most obvious: they’re all grifters. Despite fervent claims that they seek to guide young men to lead better, more fulfilling lives, the most obvious thing about the men Theroux speaks with is that they are all charlatans. All of their content seeks to sell the illusion that their wealth-flaunting lifestyle is achievable if the young men who watch their content funnel their money into various products or ‘services’ that they shill. Sullivan encourages his followers to utilise a poorly reviewed investment service he promotes. Theroux put £500 into it, followed the advice it gave, and lost nearly all of it quickly. Others, like Waller, funnel people toward an e-learning platform owned by the Tate brothers called ‘The Real World’, a platform that has an entry-level cost of $50 per month. These men do this because they capitalise on hopelessness.
In their content, they convince men that women are ‘the problem’ and the only way to overcome this ‘problem’ is to earn more money. They then conveniently push their audiences into giving them money to do this, which they inevitably lose. A vicious cycle continues as their audience consumes more of their content, convinced that if they just keep putting more money in Sullivan’s pockets or Waller’s pockets, they too can live the hypercapitalist, hypermasculine dream. Essentially, the Manosphere is one big, ugly, hateful pyramid scheme that sells an illusion to the men who are trapped in it. It is all one big grift that isolates and radicalises the men who get stuck in it.
Attention is an asset in the Manosphere
At various points in the documentary, they are shown displaying violent behaviour against members of the public that is used for online fodder, knowing that the more extreme you are, the greater chance of garnering a large amount of viewers. The men Theroux speaks to are nothing more than court jesters with cybertrucks. Provocation is their language. In a digital world where attention is a currency, they are willing to find any way they can to draw more eyes towards them. Even if it means spreading violent and hateful sentiments to impressionable minds, even if it means echoing fascist viewpoints, even if it means acts of physical violence – attention is the bottom line.
Not satisfied with gaining attention for talents or intellect, they exploit the communities that they shit on or the people they attack on their platforms. It boils down to one clear point: these men aren’t interesting enough on their own. Just like a comedian who has to punch down on others to get a laugh, they have nothing on their own to offer, so they instead capitalise on misogyny and other forms of hatred. Sullivan basically says as such himself, calling multiple instances of himself saying and doing inflammatory things as ‘clip farming’, meaning he is purely conducting himself in the ways he does for attention. I would argue that this is a copout and a weak excuse. No matter how much a moral and intelligent person wants attention, they know that it is never worth expressing the disgusting things they do. As is the life of a grifter. Hatred is addictive, and they are more than willing to be the supplier to a legion of disenfranchised young men who swallow their poison and regurgitate it in their own lives.
The Manosphere, as shown by Theroux, is a black hole of hatred. The men he speaks to share not only blatantly violent misogynistic views, but they also express hatred of fat people, gay people, transgender people, and the Jewish community. There are also the aforementioned conspiracy theories that underpin their world views, the mistrust of science and heavy overtones of anti-intellectualism. As I struggled through the hour and a half of small men with small minds showing themselves to be a social cancer, I couldn’t help but keep going back to the young men shown in the documentary who are fully convinced that they are role models.
Throughout, there is a conversation about what masculinity is and what strength is. They have been sold a lie and are isolated from the wider world because of it. Told that they must kill all the parts of themselves that aren’t brutal and treat others not as equals but as competition. Their hatred of women is obvious and blatant, but their hatred and exploitation of men is the most eye-opening lesson that Inside the Manosphere teaches us.
