The manosphere isn’t just an online issue. It’s fuelling domestic abuse

As our lives become increasingly mediated by technology, there has been a marked rise in online spaces and influencers promoting misogynistic and anti-feminist views, with devastating consequences.

Last year, Netflix’s TV series Adolescence was critically acclaimed for its depiction of the manosphere’s capacity to influence violence against women and girls, both online and offline. Now, Louis Theroux has reported on the manosphere in a new Netflix documentary Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, which exposes the movement’s harmful ideologies, but has also been criticised for failing to properly interrogate them, or centre the women , girls and survivors they harm.

But what actually is the manosphere? Rather than referring to one online space, it’s best thought of as an umbrella term for a large community of different groups. It’s made up of a vast number of subcultures that exist across platforms ranging from YouTube to Discord, Roblox and X. What they all have in common is a focus on promoting misogyny and opposing feminist ideals.

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Who makes up the manosphere?

The manosphere is often broken down into four main groups. The first and most well-known group is involuntary celibates (incels), who describe themselves as being unable to find sexual partners despite desiring them, leading to resentment towards those who experience romantic success.

Incel communities often use online forums to express misogynistic views towards women, including a deep sense of entitlement to women’s bodies. Far from being fringe, incel discourse is increasingly appearing in mainstream spaces. Earlier this year, Diary of a CEO podcast host Stephen Bartlett was criticised for facilitating and promoting incel views during an episode.

Secondly, there are Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs). This group believes that men are the victims of prejudice and discrimination, particularly in relation to family court disputes. While some MRAs highlight legitimate concerns, such as high male suicide rates, many use these issues to justify hostility towards women and actively lobby against legislation designed to progress gender equality. In response to conversations about violence against women and girls, MRAs promote dangerous myths about the prevalence of false allegations to downplay the scale of the issue and victim-blame women survivors.

Next are Pick-up Artists, a group focused on teaching men to seduce women through manipulation, often framing relationships as a game of control and conquest. And finally, there are ‘Men Going Their Own Way’ (MGTOW), an online community which advocates avoiding relationships with women entirely, often portraying them as parasitic and intellectually inferior to men.

Three core beliefs of the manosphere

Although the manosphere is made up of an interconnected web of different groups, what ties these platforms and spaces together is three core beliefs.

The first is the idea of the ‘Red Pill’, a concept adapted from the film The Matrix. It’s common for manosphere actors to refer to being ‘red-pilled’, meaning they believe the manosphere reveals how the world really works. Within this worldview, feminism has given women too much power and left men as an underprivileged class.

The second core belief is the idea that men fall into alpha and beta identities. This narrative divides men into dominant and successful ‘alphas’ and weak, submissive ‘betas’. Men are encouraged to become alphas through physical dominance, emotional detachment and sexual conquest. This feeds into the commonly cited ‘80/20 rule’, the belief that 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men, leaving most men at a disadvantage in romantic and sexual relationships.

The final core belief is a zero-sum attitude towards advancements in women rights, in which any perceived progress for women is seen as coming at the expense of men’s rights. Within this framework, challenges to traditional gender norms and feminist progress are often portrayed as harmful to men.

What’s the appeal?

The manosphere is inherently linked to patriarchal ideas already embedded in society and culture, and engagement with these beliefs and online spaces is often driven by a web of overlapping factors.

It’s often argued that the manosphere provides a sense of community and belonging, particularly for those who feel lonely. For boys and men who struggle with confidence, self-esteem and relationships, it can also offer an external explanation for their lack of romantic success, allowing them to scapegoat women and feminism.

Adding to this, influencers in the manosphere, such as Andrew Tate, often promote an aspirational lifestyle, attracting disenfranchised young men and repackaging their lives (and harmful views) as something to aspire to.

Young boys encounter the manosphere through many different channels, including gaming communities, pornography, influencers and podcasts, forums such as Reddit, and memes on social media, which often desensitise the extreme views being portrayed. There is a strong correlation between social media and the growth of the manosphere, and influencers have consciously shifted to platforms such as TikTok to reach younger audiences.

In many cases, manosphere content is proactively promoted by platform algorithms. A 2024 study in Dublin found that algorithms used by TikTok and YouTube significantly amplified manosphere content, delivering it to accounts registered with men – even when it wasn’t actively searched for – within 24 hours.

Research cited by UN Women UK as part of their 2026 campaign to tackle the influence of the manosphere suggests that nearly 73% of boys aged 11 to 17 regularly encounter manosphere content, with 59% saying they come across it without actively searching for it, as a result of algorithmic recommendations and amplification.

Dating apps and the algorithms that power them can also feed into the manosphere. Many app formats encourage snap judgements largely based on appearance. For someone young and isolated, experiences on dating apps – particularly repeated rejection – can increase sexual frustration and lower self-esteem, enhancing the appeal of the manosphere.

How it is a driver of domestic abuse

The manosphere might feel one step removed from real-world violence, but in fact, it is directly connected. Parts of the manosphere – often anonymous forums – are dedicated to discussing and even encouraging violence against women and girls. In the well-known case of Gisele Pelicot, her husband and abuser arranged repeated sexual assaults by multiple perpetrators through an online forum.

Beyond promoting explicit harm, the misogynistic and anti-feminist views promoted in the manosphere influence how some men behave in real-world relationships. A recent global survey of 23,000 people found that young men hold more regressive attitudes towards gender roles and equality than older generations. According to the study, a third of Gen Z men believe wives should obey their husbands. Gen Z men are also the most likely group to think a woman should never initiate sex or appear too independent, and that a husband should have the final say in household matters.

These beliefs clearly link to manosphere narratives that encourage men to objectify and control women, treating them as property rather than human beings. Such ideas can normalise control and justify ‘punishment’ in the minds of perpetrators when women and girls do not conform. In domestic abuse contexts, women perceived as ‘breaking up’ their families can be subject to victim-blaming and abuse.

There is also a known link between domestic abuse and extremism more broadly. A 2021 research project, Project Starlight, found that people who had experienced, witnessed or perpetrated domestic abuse were overrepresented in referrals to the government’s PREVENT counter-terrorism programme. While not focused on misogyny-related extremism, this research shows how vulnerability to online radicalisation could intersect with the manosphere.

At Refuge, we know that domestic abuse often increases isolation, and children who have moved into a Refuge may turn to these online spaces for connection, during what is often an incredibly vulnerable and lonely time.

With the rapid rise of free, accessible AI tools, the term ‘AI manosphere’ has emerged to describe how AI can play a particularly concerning role in reinforcing misogyny and harmful gender norms. As just one example, many online forums are full of men bragging about emotionally abusing chatbots and AI girlfriends or acting out violent sexual fantasies with them. Engaging in this behaviour without consequence can normalise abuse and encourage perpetrators to replicate and escalate these harmful behaviours in their relationships.

As illustrated by a recent Durham University research report, we also know that perpetrators are actively asking chatbots for advice on how to stalk, harm and harass women, highlighting another link between these online spaces and real-world harm.

There are overlapping harms

The manosphere has strong links to the alt-right, white supremacist ideology, racism, and misogynoir. While all women and girls are harmed by these spaces, women of Global Majority and marginalised backgrounds are disproportionately impacted.

We already know that women and girls of colour face higher levels of online abuse and fetishisation, and the manosphere amplifies the racist and misogynistic stereotypes that reinforce misogynoir. These communities promote narratives that frame men – particularly white men – as victims. In opposition, Black women become primary targets of hostility and misogynoir.

In parts of the ‘Black manosphere,’ contributors promote harmful narratives about Black women in response to being excluded from white digital spaces, believing that they must devalue Black women to bolster their own sense of masculinity. Black women are also demeaned, criticised, and blamed by these communities for causing the demise of the Black family.

In addition, the manosphere promotes a particular kind of discrimination against LGBTQIA+ groups. Manosphere discourse is typically underpinned by homophobic and transphobic beliefs, including dangerous myths and stereotypes about trans women and the harmful idea that queer rights threaten so-called traditional family values. On top of this, as exposed by Louis Theroux’s recent documentary, there is an undeniable undercurrent of antisemitism in manosphere rhetoric, further highlighting the far-reaching, overlapping and extensive forms of hatred that these communities propagate, as well as the discriminatory hierarchies on which they are predicated.

How to respond to the manosphere

Last year, Ofcom published guidance for tech firms to tackle online harms against women and girls, specifically highlighting online misogyny as a priority. Refuge will continue to call on the government to upgrade this guidance to a legally enforceable code of practice, so that tech companies can be held swiftly and effectively to account for the proliferation of this kind of content.

Refuge also works with both Ofcom and the government on an ongoing basis, sharing insights from survivors to ensure that the online safety regime is robust, intersectional and survivor-centred. 

Alongside this, education is critical to achieving the change we urgently need. Refuge welcomed the VAWG Strategy’s focus on teaching young people about healthy relationships and addressing early signs of misogyny in schools, supported by a £20 million innovation fund. While this represents a positive step towards tackling the misogyny at the root of all violence against women and girls, Refuge will continue to advocate for targeted measures to address tech-facilitated abuse specifically.

Along with our colleagues in the sector, we will keep fighting until every survivor can go online with confidence, not fear – free from abuse, intimidation, and the threat of harm.  

To learn more, sign-up to Refuge’s upcoming Online Misogyny and the Manosphere webinar on March 31.

Emma Pickering is head of the tech-facilitated abuse and economic empowerment team at Refuge and Meg Warren-Lister is media assistant at Refuge.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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