EMBARGO TIME: 11th March at 7:01PM AEDT
Monash University experts are available to provide commentary ahead of the global release of Louis Theroux’s first Netflix feature-length documentary, Inside the Manosphere.
The film looks at how influencers are helping to reshape young men’s ideas about masculinity and fuelling a resurgent global men’s rights movement.
Dr Stephanie Wescott, Lecturer, School of Education and Society, Monash Education
Contact details: +61 3 9903 4840 or [email protected]
Read more from Dr Wescott on Monash Lens
The following can be attributed to Dr Wescott:
“Louis Theroux’s documentary promises to explain why men are drawn to the manosphere, but misogyny does not require explanation. Its causes are neither hidden nor mysterious – women and gender-diverse people live with its consequences every day.
“What the documentary ultimately offers is another cultural investment in the interior lives of men who are already telling us exactly who they are, and in many cases, profiting enormously from it.
“Although Theroux seeks to understand how the manosphere reshapes men’s lives, this is a false premise. What the manosphere truly reshapes are the terms under which women are permitted to exist in the world it imagines.
“This documentary represents a missed opportunity to centre the urgent and very real harms produced by the manosphere. Instead, it reinforces a familiar premise: that men remain far more interested in explaining other men than in confronting the consequences for women.”
Professor Steven Roberts, Professor of Sociology and Interim Head of School of Social Sciences, Monash Arts
Contact details: +61 3 9903 4840 or [email protected]
Read more from Professor Roberts on Monash Lens
The following can be attributed to Professor Roberts:
“Louis Theroux’s documentary performs an important public function by bringing key figures of the manosphere into public view. But while it exposes their hostile tropes, exploitative business models and vile ideologies, it does not stay long enough with the consequences. The misogyny, the double standards and the intersections with racism are clear. What is less fully examined is the scale of harm these ideas produce.
“One of the striking features of the movement is that it isn’t subtle about dominance. Inequality is framed as natural. ‘Masculine energy’ is presented as leadership. Women are said to have value, but only on narrow and conditional terms. The documentary shows this clearly, yet stops short of interrogating what it means when that hierarchy is defended as moral order.
“Our research shows these ideas do not remain online. They are shaping school cultures, influencing how boys talk about women and normalising harassment and gender-based violence against girls and women teachers. The documentary gestures toward these harms, but moves quickly back to influencers’ personal histories. That shift risks centring the personal histories of powerful men, rather than the unequal gender relations their ideas sustain. Trauma may shape individuals, but it is absolutely not the main driver of misogyny. That is a red herring.
“The manosphere also exploits boys. Young men are told they are inadequate unless wealthy, dominant and emotionally hardened, and then they are sold courses and subscriptions to fix themselves. The documentary reveals this business model, but it could have gone further in showing how insecurity is actively cultivated and monetised.”
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