‘Women shouldn’t be able to vote,’ declares ‘manfluencer’ Myron Gaines in Louis Theroux’s new Netflix documentary Inside The Manosphere. You think that’s bad? As Theroux meets the brains (or lack of) behind the so-called manosphere – a toxic and misogynistic online world, which is increasingly becoming part of our offline one too – the views only become more extreme. ‘A man who is not dangerous will not be seen as successful. You can’t be a little bitch,’ says one. Another introduces his girlfriend not by name but as ‘dishwasher’, while another says [in reference to women], ‘I am the dictator, you are the subordinate and I dictate when I want to put dick in you.’
British influencer Harrison Sullivan, 23, aka HSTikkyTokky, streams for up to seven hours a day. His mission? ‘I teach guys to be proper guys, not these soy boy gimps.’ But rest assured these influencers claim not to be misogynists because, ‘We understand what women want more than they do.’ Like the others in the documentary, Sullivan is mobbed by fans – mostly young teenage boys – wherever he goes. It’s a disturbing illustration of how the manosphere is leading a new generation towards misogyny, via a hamster wheel of content filled with rage-bait clips to encourage extreme reactions, while fuelling a distrust of mainstream media (which the manosphere believes discriminates against men).
A 2025 study of 3,500 Reddit users found that 63% of young men aged 18-24 engaged with online content that promotes negative views about women. Little wonder a recent Ipsos global poll found that a third of Gen Z men think that ‘a wife should always obey her husband’ and that men should have the final say on important decisions.
Every second of Theroux’s documentary shocked me. I consider myself a male ally: all my formative relationships are with women and I have carved out a career celebrating them. Why? Because as a gay man, women have been my greatest allies. I feel it’s my duty to support them and call out the toxic behaviour of men when I see it. But watching this documentary I wondered, where are all the vocal male allies?
Vocal allyship is vital because it is not the responsibility of women to change the behaviour of men, but the men themselves to be the change. They should actively be part of the solution. And I mean all men, despite once making this case on Instagram and receiving a flurry of hateful messages from a father of two girls. Men should be stepping up to help dismantle the manosphere by loudly calling out others who regurgitate the sexist opinions they hear online.
First, we need to create a ‘new normal’ where we can have those difficult conversations. We need open dialogue with every man in our lives – from those we know are on our side to those who we suspect aren’t – to encourage them to be louder voices than those in the manosphere.
Isolating the men at risk at falling for this toxic rhetoric is counter-productive. People need to feel heard before they change their minds, something that the men caught in the manosphere desperately feel they are not. I advise other male allies to listen without interruptions, question their opinions without being aggressively combative, offer alternative points of view and shared lived experience.
And there is hope. With my new podcast, I invite celebrity guests to have truly open conversations. The men? More open than ever, proving there are positive male role models out there. Jason Isaacs shared an eye-opening conversation about addiction, noting how stifling the lack of open conversation has been, while A Thousand Blows star Malachi Kirby opened up about how toxic masculinity can be just as toxic for men. We can’t dismantle the manosphere overnight, but we can chip away at it, one conversation at a time.
Watch ‘Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere’ on Netflix. Listen to Josh Smith’s Great Chat Show wherever you get your podcasts.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA UK.
READ MORE