The manosphere can operate like a vortex, pulling in the uncertain young men who are often lost and seeking self improvement.
asserted
who → operate → improvement
Flynn Martin is one who says he was radicalised by the manosphere.
asserted
he → say → manosphere
But once the anti-women algorithm infiltrated his social media, it took just months for the hobby content creator to become another online prophet of misogyny.
asserted
creator → infiltrate → misogyny
In late 2022, he posted a controversial video of himself ranting on social media.
asserted
he → post → media
It was deliberately provocative, he tells 7.30 — "rage bait" for more "clicks and views".
asserted
he → tell → clicks
From the front seat of his car, he rhetorically asks: "Is it actually OK being a straight white male?"
asserted
it → ask → car
Then he turns his focus on women.
"
asserted
he → turn → women
It's all pretty convenient when they say men are only good for 'that, that and that' … but as soon as they open their little f***ing useless mouths, I don't want to f***ing hear it."
asserted
I → say → it
The videos went viral.
asserted
videos → go → ?
But Flynn says — at the time — he did not care.
asserted
he → say → time
"When you become so intoxicated by the idea of garnering as much attention as possible … you don't have a regard for what you're saying," he says.
asserted
he → become → what
Flynn says he had become convinced the world was rigged against "straight white men" and women were to blame.
asserted
women → say → men
"I was the perfect example for someone who can be exposed and susceptible to that content," he tells 7.30.
asserted
he → expose → 7.30
Two years out of school, isolated through COVID and a year into a film degree, he was, in his words, "super lost and confused".
asserted
he → isolate → words
Flynn felt his frustration boiling over into anger because he did not know what he was meant to do, or where he was going in life.
asserted
he → feel → life
"That was when all this manosphere content just started flooding my algorithm," he says.
"It did feel inescapable … once it started showing up, it didn't stop.
asserted
it → start → algorithm
The clips he was seeing bombarded him with a familiar formula, peddled by prominent anti-feminists.
asserted
he → see → feminists
They ranged from alpha-male self-improvement and get-rich advice to pseudo-scientific claims that women are inferior and "can't come to logical conclusions".
uncertain
women → range → conclusions
Flynn says he barely noticed the effect such content had on his mindset but admits it changed the way he thought.
asserted
he → say → way
"You just become so insecure that it becomes a lot of internalised self-hatred … and that can very easily spew out into misogyny, taking that self-insecurity and self-hatred and taking it out on other people," he says.
asserted
he → become → people
"It just started spewing out into how you speak and what you talk about with people."
asserted
you → start → people
He says it did not take long until he had adopted the language of the manosphere as his own.
asserted
he → say → own
The manosphere has gone mainstream
Flynn's experience is mirrored by admissions made by several other young men in new research documenting pathways into the manosphere.
asserted
experience → go → manosphere
A team from Queensland University of Technology, Deakin University and Dublin City University interviewed more than 50 men across Australia and Ireland who had spent time in its online communities.
asserted
who → interview → communities
While the work is ongoing, clear patterns are emerging.
asserted
patterns → emerge → ?
The manosphere, they say, has gone mainstream — no longer a fringe society or a niche that men must seek out.
asserted
men → say → that
"Anyone going online … will very quickly encounter it," Professor Michael Flood, who was part of the research team, tells 7.30.
asserted
who → go → 7.30
Professor Flood has spent more than 30 years studying men, masculinity and gender-based violence and says anti-feminist groups have existed for centuries.
asserted
groups → spend → centuries
"What's shifted is that they've now moved online and proliferated and expanded in troubling ways," he says.
"
asserted
he → shift → ways
And there have also been really significant changes in how people come to the manosphere.
asserted
people → come → manosphere
"It's very easy to go down those rabbit holes."
asserted
It → go → holes
Troubling testimonies
To protect the men's identities, the researchers gave them pseudonyms.
asserted
researchers → protect → pseudonyms
Some described the draw to online anti-women spaces as the chance to live out a "power fantasy".
asserted
Some → describe → fantasy
Henry* was 15 when he developed a habit centred around "hate".
asserted
he → develop → hate
He told researchers "it was fun" to talk about how much he despised women, and at one stage, the now-28-year-old saw it as a competition.
asserted
old → tell → competition
"I'd post something hateful, see someone double down and take it further, and I'd think: how can I take that even further, to just be the most vile person posting right now?" he told the researchers.
asserted
he → post → researchers
Others echoed that experience.
asserted
Others → echo → experience
"There's something about … at least some part of every teenage boy which is going to just wanna [do] the politically incorrect … you're gonna see how far you can take things, just to see how far you can take things," said Sebastian*, 19.
asserted
Sebastian → be → things
Brandon*, 33, said manosphere content was "hilariously confronting", telling researchers "you get numbed to it the more time you spend getting bombarded with stuff".
asserted
you → say → stuff
Professor Flood says in many cases the men did not go looking for manosphere content but it still found them.
asserted
it → say → them
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia