(Image courtesy of Netflix. “‘Inside the Manosphere’ dissects and examines a hypermasculine online bubble.”)
Haliyah Afolabi
Connector Contributor
Popular documentarian, Louis Theroux, noticed parts of the internet being taken over by a bunch of male influencers. These male influencers shared a theme of content that promoted anti-feminist, misogynistic, and male-supremacist views. The name given to this community that promotes these gender-based bigoted views is the “manosphere.” As the influence of these views became widespread throughout the globe, with even teachers reporting the effects of this content evident in their male students, Theroux sought out an opportunity to investigate the phenomenon first-hand.
He, along with his casting crew, filmed his interactions with the most influential figures of the community, “the heads of the manosphere.” These figures are as follows: HS Tikky Tocky (Harrison Sullivan), Myron Gaines (Amrou Fudl), Sneako (Nicolas Balinthazy), Justice Waller, and Ed Matthews. There were two notable figures in the manosphere community, British and American brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who refused to be filmed. Due to this refusal, mere snippets of their statements, mentions of their names, and what they were affiliated with were the only things produced in this film regarding to them (it would have been unrepresentative of the community if these two were left out entirely).
Spread all throughout the west, Theroux went to various cities to meet these influencers. He had a stay at British influencer, HS Tikky Tocky’s home for two days in Marbella, Spain. As Louis had his own crew filming their interactions, HS also had his own professional videographer filming.
While HS leads Theroux on a journey on what life looks like outside of the house for him, they meet up with the popular British influencer, Ed Matthews. On the second day of filming in Marbella, Louis notices Matthews and HS disappear from his sight and shows his discovery of them engaging in vulgar activity, which was censored, through the popular streaming platform, Twitch. Shortly after this absurd discovery, the focus shifts to Miami, the spiritual home of the manosphere, where an impromptu meeting is being held, which HS is attending.
In Miami, Theroux meets up with Americans Myron Gaines and Justice Waller. Louis interacts with a small fraction of Gaines’ circle along with a feature in his well-known podcast, Fresh&Fit. After Gaines, he meets up with Justice Wallace, a construction company owner and affiliate of Andrew and Tristan Tate, who created the “modern wealth creation” educational platform, The Real World. Based on the interactions with Gaines and Wallace, these two held the same sentiment of one-sided monogamy. This relationship dynamic, commonly popularized by the manosphere, allows for one party (the male), to engage in sexual or romantic relationships outside the union, while the other party (the female) is required to be exclusive. The last interaction with the notorious and widely social-media-banned figure, Sneako, in New York, is brief but just as important. Sneako shares with Theroux his antisemitic, queerphobic, religiously psychotic, and misogynistic views that are a representation of the beliefs that many of the manosphere holds.
Theroux uses fragmented clips, social media comments, and clips of these red-pill influencers, including those not interviewed, to diversify the representation of what the manosphere is doing to young men across the globe.
While Theroux interviewed these individuals, they remained courteous and made positive comments to his face but made negative comments about him online when he was no longer in their presence. This was very evident in HS Tikky Tocky, who not even twenty-four hours later of Louis filming, took a storm to the internet making negative comments, seeming to be threatened while Louis had made zero ill remarks about him. Being offended by a mutual agreement on effort to show the world one’s way of life, in which the other party said and did nothing that would make the other offended, counteracts this strong “alpha-male” personality being advocated for.
While the title of this documentary is named Inside the Manosphere, this film only represents a surface level of the community, but nevertheless, does a great job at displaying how and why these beliefs are harmful for society. Historically, it is seen that radical ideologies often lead to radical activity. To combat these harmful thoughts from being evidently widespread in young men’s behaviors, this film is recommended for anyone who wants to get a brief light on what the manosphere is and their beliefs system.
