Adam Powell-Davies, Socialist Party National Committee
Louis Theroux’s latest documentary, ‘Inside the Manosphere’, provides an eye-opening insight into an online subculture – the ‘Manosphere’ – where men and boys subscribe to an ideal of manhood premised on the personal domination of women, and individual accumulation of wealth and status.
Even for those familiar with the category of hyper-reactionary, hyper-individualistic ‘content creators’, the roughly 90-minute episode makes for shocking viewing. The figures make all kinds of extreme misogynistic remarks and reality-warping allegations about women and gender relations.
Most shocking are the clips of predominantly young male fans who stop in the street to call these online figures their ‘role models’ and ‘inspirations’. Viewers are left to conclude that these influencers and their seemingly ‘fringe’ views do in fact have some real base in society, which is undoubtedly true to a degree.
At the same time, it is important to recognise that the Manosphere figures, and the misogynistic views they espouse, only have support from a small section of boys and young men overall. This reflects the big positive shifts in social attitudes around gender and relationships which have been made over past decades, driven in large part by movements of women, as well as the wider working class.
For example, according to a YouGov poll from October 2025, only 7% of 13 to 17-year-olds, and 13% of Gen-Z men, in Britain had a favourable opinion of Andrew Tate – the most prominent to have emerged from the Manosphere. The same poll found that young men were most likely to agree with the statement: “Gains made by women in society in recent decades have been good for men”, with a clear majority of all men saying those gains had either been ‘good’ or ‘neutral’ for men.
Nonetheless, the documentary does well in showing how a minority of young men can be pulled into the Manosphere’s orbit. Through his trademark style, combining a kind of feigned naivety with frequent pauses in conversation (silence which, for many of the big-mouth influencers featured in this documentary, is all too inviting), Theroux is especially successful in laying bare the predatory relationship cultivated between content creator and fan.
All these influencers are, to a greater or lesser extent, selling fans an unrealisable dream. They promise that as long as you just change your perspective on life and make the right personal and financial choices – gaining the “cheat codes” to “level your life up” – you can achieve true freedom and break out of the exploitative arrangement of “a boss” and the “nine-to-five”. Invariably this means fans paying money to access various subscription-only services and content, which form the main income stream for most of the influencers. In return, paying fans are promised the reward of vast sums of money, a nice body, and women who are submissive to them as a result of their wealth and status.
The theme of ‘breaking out of the system’ is central to the documentary. It shows that, in reality, influencers are preying on the alienation and genuine insecurities of a layer of men and boys who see no stable future on the basis of capitalism, and are desperate for a way out.
In reality, the influencers in this documentary offer ‘answers’ that only reinforce the fears and prejudices of their fans. We hear that one fan was briefly made homeless while following the advice of his Manosphere lifecoach. More generally, the toxic ideas about women and gender relations that are encouraged by these influencers reinforce alienation and insecurity, because they pull a section of men away from the potential for united working-class action, not just with women but also other men. Instead, the Manosphere advocates a polar opposite approach, telling men that women are something to be overcome in an individualised struggle for the life they want.
The influencers have an interest in maintaining a parasitic relationship with their fans because it makes them money. One explains that he is at base a “salesman” and “businessman”. In this sense, the documentary confirms that eradicating misogyny and all reactionary ideas means fighting to eliminate the private profit interests that can make money from appealing to, and reinforcing, people’s existing prejudices. The Manosphere, far from being an aberration, is a logical outgrowth of a capitalist system that is in an especially deep state of crisis.
If this documentary can play a role in exposing the dead end of the Manosphere to a layer of boys and men who could otherwise be attracted to its false ideas, that would be positive. But the documentary also shows the difficulty of breaking into the algorithmic prison of social media, which constantly bombards young people of all genders with unrealistic expectations about their bodies, relationships, gender roles, and what it means to be successful. These are ideas driven into young people from an early age, not just on social media but across all areas of capitalist society.
The best way to cut across the prejudices, alienation and desperation bred by dead-end capitalism – which the Manosphere is part of – is to build the fight for an alternative vision of society: a socialist way out, based on mutual solidarity and cooperation, which could guarantee the needs of all are met.
Read more:
- ‘For democratic control of social media – nationalise!’
- Boy Troubles – Christine Thomas looks at changing gender norms and an alleged ‘crisis of masculinity’: socialismtoday.org/boy-troubles
