I came across a documentary about the online red-pill community, “Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere.”
The documentary contains interviews with online content creators who center themselves around woman hatred, homophobia and alt-right ideology.
I felt that the documentary was pretty surface level and did not provide enough of a look into how these influencers’ behavior impacted both women and men.
So, I decided what better way to get a good look into the community than to join it.
A few familiar experiences followed me exploring fan communities of red-pill influencers such as Clavicular, Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines, the “Whatever Podcast” and others.
What they contained
All of these communities had a mixture of different right-wing views, but agreed on some form of woman hatred and anti-feminism. In these communities, young men fixate on fake scenarios of how prospective partners would eventually cheat on them, no matter what, because, according to them, women have no morals.
It was gross and repetitive to the point of fantasizing that their “foids,” a derogatory term combining “female” and “humanoids,” would leave them for money and members of other races.
These influencers emphasized the need for women to return to the traditional roles of “remaining obedient” to their husbands and having their every move controlled. They also emphasized that men, white men in particular, should take back control and put women and minority groups in their place.
Their rhetoric included fantasizing about assault, abuse, the removal of rights and the humiliation of women (and some men) who did not fall in line with their ideology.
Every now and then, women, girls or those with dissenting opinions who joined the communities, such as myself, would be called slurs and have their online information exposed to the rest of the community.
The effects
Everyone could take a guess at what the communities contained, but it is especially important to note the scope of the Manosphere’s impact. The red pill community has undeniably had an impact on the ideology of men, especially since 2016, which in turn caused a great deal of harm on women and young girls.
Since the rise of Trump and rallies such as the notorious Unite the Right rally back in 2017, red pill communities became more emboldened, organized and political. I speculate this adds to the fact that Gen-Z men and boys’ sexist views are as rampant as ever.
Basically, every male dominated niche of the internet now is intertwined with or introduces this alt-right pipeline. Gaming, gym and self improvement influencers cross over with and spread the ideology of far-right and red pill leaders.
With a concerning amount of younger men holding to the views that women should always be obedient to their husbands, and that feminism and gender equality have gone too far. Further concerning data showed young boys and men agreeing that violence was justified to resist feminism, and that women lie about domestic and sexual violence.
Women with partners who consumed red-pill content reported controlling behaviors, verbal abuse and social detachment. On college campuses, reports of sexual assault and harassment have increased since 2015. I want to hope that it’s from victims feeling more comfortable to seek help, but I can’t ignore the possibility of this and the increase in online harassment and growing social media presence of sexism coming from the intertwining of this sickness and male-dominated communities.
Discussing these problems and promoting healthy alternatives looks to be the future to combat such filth. To dive even further into this topic, I recommend reading “Men Who Hate Women” by Laura Bates.
Tanner Smith is a columnist. Contact him at [email protected].
