"Inside the Manosphere"

I watched what now seems like the ‘infamous’ Louis Theroux documentary “Inside the Manosphere”. Boy, I was not expecting this type of feedback from the people that I follow and others on social media. It honestly baffled me. The timing of the documentary’s release, in my opinion, was perfect. We seem to be going through a massive decline and reversal in our generation’s thinking and the generations that come after us. Misogyny is on the rise again (though it never really left, did it?).

I have heard some people discussing that Louis was holding back with the interviews to remain likeable and avoided upsetting or confronting the men. While I agree I’d love to get right up in their faces and yell, “WHAT THE *bleep* ARE YOU THINKING?!”, but in truth that’s not Louis’ shtick. I feel it too, it’s frustrating. However, I don’t consider a documentary the right format to challenge people directly - that seems more like a shorter, interview style-type structure. I don’t believe Louis would have much footage either or the responses he hoped for if he were to poke the bear, per se. He simply stays in the space and gives them the tools to expose themselves. It’s typical Louis Theroux fashion. Louis knows what he’s doing. He’s giving the audience what they need to hear and hopefully they can come to an obvious conclusion themselves. He has to seem impartial, but you can clearly tell by his subliminal facial expressions hearing some of the things coming out of these men's mouths; he is genuinely not impressed. I think why so many ‘characters’ he interviews, and these men in particular are so chill about saying the most atrocious things is because Louis is purposefully staying likeable and not aggravating them.

The strongest piece of feedback I read seemed to be that people felt like Louis didn’t examine the consequences thoroughly, or at all. The documentary only zeroed in on gym shots, wealth, and the young men and fans idolising these ‘manfluencers’. He didn’t have a proper sit down with the women present, he didn’t explain how young men get sucked into these extremist ideas, and the young men idolising them are being emotionally and financially exploited. No statistics on violence against women. No real window into how we support these men to ‘unlearn’ these behaviours. People are commenting that the documentary should have centred around the reality women are currently living in – but it’s just showing the glamourous surface. I completely, undoubtedly agree Louis could have delved deeper into the alarming issues women have been and are still facing, and the facts; though I personally don’t think all of that could successfully be executed in 90 minutes.

Exposing the impacts for women, sharing the statistics, showing how it shapes how women are being spoken about, in my opinion, is a whole separate documentary or series. Yes, it would have been extremely important and telling for people to hear, however, I think it was rightly male-centred - that’s how it reaches the right audience = men. The glamourous surface is to grab people’s attention and get them watching. Some audiences shut off at the idea of being ‘preached’ to; so, this soft approach introduces them to the topic (well, hopefully it doesn’t introduce them) and steers them in the right direction or encourages them to guide their peers to do the same. And the latter looks very promising, the number of men I have seen on my timeline speaking up about this toxic ‘manosphere’ rhetoric and trying to coach their friends and followers is honestly incredible. I think Louis has done a decent job of getting the message out there.

One point that I personally also felt strongly about but had some genuine concerns with, is that Louis should have spent more time with the women he met; he failed to do them justice and those short interviews should have been conducted in a safe place where they could have openly conversed and let the audience hear their story/experiences. I do acknowledge this and I am of the same opinion. Although, I do worry if Louis had pushed the men to continue interviewing the women or try to move somewhere private that those women would potentially be at risk for physical, emotional or financial harm. When an employee of Myron’s was speaking with Louis, she literally got a message to stop talking. Who knows what these women might have gone through behind closed doors that night, or for the next week, if they had decided to be open with Louis, potentially ‘giving away’ their boyfriends’/ husbands’ tropes or humiliating them. Referring to my last paragraph, you will hear people complain that ladies have been talking about the repercussions since the beginning of time, and some men just dissociate when they hear a woman’s voice. Those few seem to stop and listen to a respected, calm gentleman say, “Can you hear how stupid this question sounds?”. Some men don’t care about what women have to say… yet.

‘Inside the Manosphere’ touched on how damaging and toxic the ‘manosphere’ culture is for young boys. It highlighted the belief of dominance and ‘high-value men’, and women being described as having ‘innate value’ through beauty and sexuality. Louis showed this ‘defence’ of traditional gender hierarchy and these men scrambling to reclaim it. Monogamy was also being framed as a rule for women but not for men. It seems young boys are learning that leadership becomes synonymous with dominance. Equality is being blamed for this perceived cultural decline. The series ‘Adolescence’ slowly introduced these topics to the wider masses as well and I found it to be incredibly eye-opening. It got the conversation going and the ball rolling. Both documentaries showed the world what is happening online in real-time. ‘Inside the Manosphere’ was the first real-world example of this that I and millions of people have seen. Of course it didn’t hit every mark everyone wanted it to in its duration.

After all that’s been said and done, I still believe Louis Theroux put in a solid effort with this documentary. He stayed true to himself and brought to light a very disturbing period in our modern history. The most important takeaway is that it has lit this fire in people to start a conversation, spread the message, and try to guide men and parents to wake up to what their sons, mates and colleagues are doing online and behind closed doors.