Nadia on... Young Men and the Manosphere

Recently, the Netflix show Adolescence was all anyone could talk about. The fictional series followed thirteen-year-old Jamie from Merseyside, who murdered a girl in his class. As viewers, we watch his family, his therapist, and detectives try to make sense of the tragedy. They search for answers in his home and social life, evaluate his mental state and eventually, dig through his online activity. It transpires that Katie, the girl Jamie killed, had publicly called him an incel shortly before her murder. This is a shocking tale, but sadly, it was inspired by several real-life cases.

Violence against women and girls is on the rise in the UK, so much so that the police are calling it “a national emergency”. A recent report has concluded that an “epidemic of violence against women and girls” in the UK is getting worse, despite years of government promises and strategies. Every year, two million women are estimated to be victims of violence perpetrated by men. Stalking, harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence affect one in twelve women in England and Wales, with the number of recorded offences growing by 37% in the past five years. Chillingly, the perpetrators are getting younger. 

Adolescence attempts to illustrate and unpick this phenomenon. It’s heavily suggested that Jamie was radicalised by the “manosphere” - the name given to parts of the internet that circulate far-right, misogynistic content, often propagated by figures like Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro. These social media influencers prey on the insecurities of young men, offering a distorted sense of empowerment rooted in dominance and anti-feminist rhetoric. What starts as seemingly harmless motivational content can quickly spiral into a toxic ideology.

Sadly, statistics show that a growing number of young men really are subscribing to these beliefs. In 2024, research by Hope Not Hate found that 52% of 16-17-year-old boys held a positive opinion of Andrew Tate, compared to just 1% of girls the same age. When asked why, respondents said things like “he wants men to be real men” and “he gives good advice.” These figures are difficult to reconcile, given that Tate has been charged with rape and human trafficking. 

After all, misogyny predates the digital age. History shows that deeply entrenched systems like the patriarchy have long played a role in devaluing and controlling women, resulting in centuries of sexism, misogyny and even femicide. Only in the last century were women in the UK given the power to vote and take full university degrees. Even today, women face discrimination and harassment at almost every level of their lives. From wage gaps and unequal access to healthcare, to the disproportionate burden of unpaid care and domestic work, gender inequality is embedded in our social norms, institutions, and workplaces. Figures like Andrew Tate didn’t invent such narratives; they’re simply repackaging age-old ideologies for a modern audience, cloaked in the aesthetics of confidence and self-help. 

It also helps to understand that gender roles are a construct, meaning that over a long period of time, humans have created and shaped them due to a number of changing social, economic and political factors. We know that gender roles aren’t just fixed to “a biological reality” because many societies all over the world have organised themselves differently, with some groups even living under matriarchies. In simplistic terms, while gender roles for most people have historically been linked to their relationship to reproduction, today, in our post-industrial society, we certainly do not have to be tethered by them and can reorganise our society more equally, giving our lives meaning beyond work, asset ownership and reproduction.

It’s good that more of us are beginning to question long-standing, binary ideas about masculinity and femininity - ideas that have long been used to justify and reinforce gender inequality. For young people, adolescence is the time to explore and form identities, which are shaped by their material reality, their worldviews and their experiences within their communities. When I was younger, I wanted to be a fashion buyer and then a lawyer. Though I ended up doing something very different, it was fun to get excited about these prospects.

But today’s young people are coming of age in a very different world, one shaped by uncertainty. The rise of AI and automation has thrown the future of work into question, already hollowing out creative industries and destabilising traditional career paths. On top of that, this generation has grown up amid economic instability, a global pandemic, and the escalating climate crisis. Every year brings record-breaking temperatures and a growing sense of doom. It’s no wonder that one in five young people aged 8 to 25 experience ill mental health.

Many young people, including young men, are feeling lost and disengaged. When for generations masculinity has been defined by a narrow view of being a powerful breadwinner and the head of a household, what happens when the reality of the modern world, with its lack of stable, well-paid, entry-level unionised trade jobs and an increasingly difficult jobs market, throws all of that into question? In the UK, more young people are not in education, employment and training, marking the highest since 2013. This issue is more severe for young men, many of whom cite poor mental health as a key reason. We know that mental health crises are exacerbated along class lines, too, with children growing up in the lowest 20% income bracket in the UK, 2-3 times more likely to experience mental health problems.

Data also shows that boys in the UK tend to struggle in school more than girls, while the GCSE attainment gap is narrowing between girls and boys, boys still consistently underperform. The Department of Education’s data shows that boys are also nearly twice as likely to be suspended than girls, and slightly more than twice as likely to be permanently excluded. Coupled with crumbling social services and shrinking third spaces, it’s no wonder that some young men get drawn towards harmful ideologies that offer a distorted sense of purpose and belonging.

As long as we fail to tackle growing wealth inequality, protect workers’ rights, equip young people with the tools and skills they need to thrive, and help them find meaning beyond narrowly defined ideas of personal success - often reduced to career status or romantic conquests - we will continue losing boys and young men to the manosphere, where all of the world’s problems are blamed on women and other marginalised groups. When people are deeply unfulfilled, their care erodes: for each other and for our shared future. To begin rebuilding that care, we must go back to the basics: tackle poverty, address the housing crisis, fund our public services, provide excellent education, invest in community spaces and treat climate change with the urgency it requires.

A largely unregulated and increasingly toxic internet, combined with a lack of a hopeful future, is proving disastrous for a generation trying to find its footing in an unstable world. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we fix inequality, give young people the right support, make them feel heard and provide real opportunities, we can offer them something far more powerful than the false promises of far-right influencers and politicians. We can offer them a future worth believing in and striving for.

nadiawhittome.org