Between the panic that all incels will turn into femicide perpetrators and the humor offered by alpha male influencers, let’s take a moment to understand why this is happening.
The global rise of feminism through pop culture and social media opened doors for many women’s communities. Women found empowerment spaces, gained platforms to speak, and for the first time, the world was (somewhat) paying attention. And the general message was “men are trash” for reasons we all know (which of course doesn’t mean all men, or that they are actually trash). But many men started feeling targeted.
Even worse, they felt marginalized. The manosphere was never made for handsome, wealthy men, but for the underprivileged—those who felt excluded from the dating scene (basically from sex), from relationships, and from love. For men who are poor and considered unattractive, and who are mostly not highly educated, it seemed like some kind of solution.
These men may have experienced rejection or even contempt from women in their lives, and haven’t processed the pain. Many may not have even dared make a move toward women, because they lack basic social skills. According to manosphere advice, all one needs is confidence, to lightly insult the woman, and to speak in riddles—then you can get any woman into bed.
These underprivileged men have been experiencing what’s been called the “male loneliness epidemic” for years. And they’re suffering. They needed someone to listen to their problems, someone to speak to them, when Hollywood, flashy influencers, and mainstream culture left them out. They needed guidance. There was a huge gap in the market.
And it didn’t take long for something to fill it. It started in gaming forums, and then expanded to other forums (4chan, Reddit), where they shared experiences, thoughts, and feelings—and this was genuinely positive, because many young men who had lived in social isolation finally gained a sense of community. They needed support—and they found it.
With the rise of video content, some figures stood out and became influencers. Some, like fitness influencers, pivoted into this niche because it was so lucrative. That’s how we got people like Jordan Peterson, who came with the seal of academic legitimacy (though he’s now been cast out of the academic community). He sensed the market demand for male role models and pseudo-scientific authority, exploited it, and became famous.
The problem is, instead of identifying the real enemy behind male oppression—which is The System, specifically Capitalism and Patriarchy (and White Supremacy)—they decided their enemy was feminism. In a distortion of reality, they use feminist arguments to convince their audience that men are victims of feminism. They quote stats on suicide, depression, addiction, etc., as proof. But they refuse to see that it’s patriarchy, the man-box, and the demands of stereotypical masculinity that are to blame.
They don’t blame patriarchy—because that would mean relinquishing privilege and comfort. So it’s more convenient to blame women and feminism. Why? Because feminism gave women the ability to survive without marrying, and the choice to not pair up with men they don’t like—in other words, not with them, the men who believe access to sex should be their right. So, feminism, and anything progressive, is the enemy.
And because a return to “traditional values” implies conservatism, all of this became embedded in alt-right rhetoric (which is not “alt” at all, but far-right). It became a package deal. While the manosphere crowd believes it’s unfair to have to pay for a woman’s coffee if they manage to get a date, at the same time they want right-wing politics and hate woke culture.
They don’t see the truth. And it’s ironic and tragic that they see as an enemy the very movement that is actually on their side—the movement that could genuinely improve their lives. Not by offering them sex. But by offering collective healing tools that could make relationships with women possible.
History of the Manosphere
It began in the early 2000s as a collection of blogs, forums, and YouTube channels focused on men’s issues. At some point, it started to function as a counter-movement to feminism.
The term “manosphere” emerged around 2009–2010 to describe the online ecosystem where these ideas developed.
Its foundations were built on older men’s movements, like the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) from the 1970s–80s, which focused on divorce, child custody, and false rape accusations.
2000s–2010s:
Pickup Artists (PUA) led by gurus like Neil Strauss with his book “The Game”, which taught men how to “seduce” women—basically by saying things like “I like you, even though you’re a bit chubby” to get them into bed.
Mid-2010s:
The rise of Red Pill ideology (named after The Matrix), promoting the idea that men must “wake up” and realize that women actually hold power in society, while being inferior, dirty, immoral, etc.
2016–present:
Incels—the evolution of Red Pill thinking. Men who hate women and feminism for denying them access to sex.
MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way):
Men who completely give up on the idea of relationships.
Connections to the far-right, white supremacy, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-woke rhetoric grow.
We see the rise of the “hustler” ideal through crypto culture—the man who makes loads of money and has as many women as he wants, using and exploiting them like objects. (See: Andrew Tate.)
Core Beliefs:
- Biological determinism: Gender roles are biologically predetermined, and it’s foolish to try to escape them.
- Men as victims: Men are the oppressed ones; we live under matriarchy; feminism is misandry and “feminazism.”
- Cheap self-improvement: At the beginning, there was talk about self-care, confidence, and fitness—but misogyny got way more views. Over time, self-improvement shifted from a process of inner growth and healing into a performance of dominance and control. Instead of fostering emotional maturity, it became a show—a curated display of masculinity, power, and “social value.”
- Monetization: Enter hustler culture, with millions of desperate men paying for subscriptions to ridiculous “gurus” offering seminars on how to get women or make money—naturally, with little to no real results. The promise was always the same: quick success, sex, power. The reality? Usually full of disappointment and burnout.
Impact
- Connection to violence: Incels who went out and shot people (e.g., Elliot Rodger, 2014).
- Platform bans: Reddit, YouTube, and Facebook started limiting manosphere content (2018–2020), but TikTok let them run wild for far too long. In 2022, Andrew Tate was banned, but he remains a legend, with countless others trying to take his place.
- Legacy: There are still online corners where the manosphere thrives, but it’s no longer quite as “cool.” The “gym bro podcasts” are everywhere, but they’ve become meme-worthy. The slightly more polished successors of this ideology have shifted to life coaching and dating coaching, always with an emphasis on confidence—but still rooted in the same old worldview.