Opinion | We Underestimate the Manosphere at Our Peril - The New York Times


A recent study reveals the alarming speed at which young men on social media are exposed to misogynistic and male supremacist content, highlighting the concerning influence of the 'manosphere'.
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Last year, researchers at Dublin City University released a report on a disturbing phenomenon: a surge of male supremacy videos in young men’s social media feeds. It’s the kind of report that should sound an alarm for parents, teachers and administrators. But as the gender divide widens and young men increasingly lean conservative amid Trump-era authoritarianism, it feels less like a future warning and more like a current diagnosis.

In the report, researchers created sock-puppet accounts — fake accounts registered as teenage boys — to determine how quickly misogynistic videos show up in users’ TikTok and YouTube feeds. Alongside a control group, one group used male-coded search terms, such as “gaming” or “gym tips,” while another searched for more extreme anti-feminist, male-supremacist content. The “manosphere,” as it is often referred to, includes videos by Andrew and Tristan Tate, influencers who profit off the insecurities of young men. (The Tate brothers are embroiled in criminal and civil cases in Romania, Britain and the United States. They deny the allegations against them.)

It took under nine minutes for TikTok to offer troubling content to their fake 16-year-old boys, which later included explicitly anti-feminist and anti-L.G.B.T.Q. videos. Much of the content blamed women and trans people for the standing they believe men have lost in the world. More extreme content appeared within 23 minutes. Male supremacy videos intersected with reactionary right-wing punditry within two or three hours.

By the final phase of the experiment, accounts that showed even slight interest in the manosphere — for instance, accounts that watched a video all the way through — resulted in their For You feeds offering more than 78 percent alpha-male and anti-feminist content. Messages included: Feminism has gone too far, men are losing out on jobs to women and women prefer to stay at home rather than work.

Catherine Baker, the lead author of the study, says this messaging resonates because it plays into young men’s insecurities around their bodies — many of the accounts glorify fitness — as well as their future success and their relationships. Young men might believe that in order to be successful, they can’t show vulnerability; they need wealth, six-pack abs and social, political and cultural dominance.

Many manosphere accounts openly call for women to be subjugated and subordinate to men. Andrew Tate, for example, has publicly stated that if a girlfriend doesn’t accept cheating, “that’s when you start hitting her and being abusive.” Mr. Tate has said that he will choose a husband for any daughter he has, and “she’ll end up pregnant at 21 like she’s supposed to be.”

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