Louis Theroux explores the rise of online male influencers and their misogynistic, male-supremacist beliefs in his documentary Into the Manosphere. Source: Netflix
In an era where masculinity is becoming uncannily defined by the discourses online, Inside the Manosphere offers a timely, if unsettling, peek into a digital world that portrays a narrative of deep insecurity and overly exaggerated male performances. Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary delves deep into the “manosphere” – an online community dominated by hypermasculine influencers who promise young men success, discipline, and control, often at the expense of empathy or equality.
At a quick glance, the documentary serves as an exposé of extreme manliness and misogyny in male-dominated spaces; beneath that, however, lies another question: what influences men to subscribe to these ideals in the first place?
Through eye-opening behind-the-scenes, Theroux generates a strange epiphany towards these male influencers. He takes the viewer through a day-in-the-life of popular content creators such as Harrison Sullivan (also known as @/HSTikkyTokky), who proclaims to teach his followers how to become “successful men” by selling subscriptions to online courses, and Myrion Gaines, who hosts a podcast that has been criticised for its misogynistic and antisemitic views. Through his interviews, Theroux attempts to probe further into their persistent rhetoric of male dominance and “high-value” men. The results are nothing short of disturbing.
What becomes clear throughout the documentary is that these influencers hold a violently misogynistic, anti-feminist worldview. As Theroux joins them on their podcasts and street livestreams, his interviews unveil a growing plot to defend, and even reinstate, the patriarchy. HS and Gaines repeatedly profess to love women, yet belittle them if they are unable to live up to male standards of beauty or submissiveness. Monogamy is seen as necessary for their girlfriends, but only a choice for men. HS admits to owning an OnlyFans collective but insists that he would “never allow his daughter to do that”.
Their words swing between earnest belief to claims that everything is just a show for “clout”, but the underlying tone is obvious – as society progresses, some men feel increasingly left-behind, and the only way to reassure their fears is to reassert their authority.
The documentary becomes compelling when audiences realise Theroux also explores these influencers’ personalities off the lens of social media – asking about their background, their home environment, and their attitudes towards the women in their lives. These same men who project such a confident and unwavering persona online tend to falter in their dogmatic beliefs when faced with disapproval from their mothers or their girlfriends. In one scene, Gaines clearly looks uncomfortable when his girlfriend expresses her discomfort at his proposed “one-sided monogamy”; in another, HS’s mother scolds him for being rude and embarrassing her, and his only reaction is nodding and picking up a floor mat she wants out of the way.
The documentary presents another side of the manosphere that its inhabitants attempt to either deflect or bury in their subconscious: the enduring impact of childhood trauma. Justin Waller, another member of this hypermasculine inner circle, shares with Theroux about his “chaotic upbringing”, reflecting on how his mother had “burned houses down” and “never apologised”. Theroux draws a connection between Waller’s childhood and his present unwillingness to marry his long-term partner, who had already conceived two of his children. HS, too, made it known online that his father was largely absent when he was growing up, and only recently reconnected with his son after ten years.
It is evident that many of the behaviours established in the documentary, from their obsession with control to their hostility towards vulnerability, can be seen as emotional responses to what had happened in their childhood – or what had not happened. Past histories of emotional neglect surfaces in the narratives that Theroux uncovers, whether its stories of rejection or the absence of a role model, suggesting that the manosphere is less a toxic breeding ground of anti-feminism ideology, but rather a coping mechanism for men who have taken feelings of inadequacy and fear, and forcibly re-moulded them into a facade of superiority.
Yet this perspective does not excuse the harmful actions and stereotypes these male influencers are perpetrating. While trauma can cause individuals to chase after rigid ideals of masculinity, the documentary makes it clear that men understand how their actions and promotions of such beliefs reinforce misogyny in society, while drawing young boys and men into a violent and sexist worldview and the belief that only the powerful come out on top.
Theroux closes the documentary with a few clips of his interviewees at varying stages of childhood; the point being that before growing up into men who fuel hatred and racism online, they were mere boys trying to figure out who they were as well. He provides an insightful commentary on how society’s expectations of men have changed, and that it is unsurprising for them to try to find solace in “gain hacks and conspiracy theories”.
Theroux then poses a question to the viewer.
Is this so-called “matrix” that HS and Gaines desperately denounce just a reflection of capitalist society, or is it more so the illusion of wealth and potential that they have created for their followers?
No answer is given, leaving the viewer to sit in uncomfortable silence. The viewer now understands that it’s not only young males drawn into this web but that “all of us are increasingly inside the manosphere.”
In today’s generation where conversations around gender equality are becoming progressively polarised and combative, Into the Manosphere offers both general insight and nuance into the behaviours within that sphere of influence. I [Sarah Tan] would consider it an informative, even necessary, watch for anyone who wants to understand why certain men behave this way, and the extent in which this is considered ‘human nature’.