Manosphere 'must be treated as public health problem similar to smoking'

Manosphere has contributed to harms including violence against women and girls, and mental health issues, as well as 'delegitimising' the idea of boys and men seeking help, says study

The authors of a new report defined the manosphere as 'a diffuse commercial ecosystem and loose collection of online communities united by shared beliefs about masculinity, misogyny, and male victimisation'. Stock picture

The so-called manosphere should be addressed as a public health problem with harms caused online tackled in a similar way to the tobacco industry, academics have argued.

The authors of a new report defined the manosphere as “a diffuse commercial ecosystem and loose collection of online communities united by shared beliefs about masculinity, misogyny, and male victimisation”.

They argued the movement — which centres around a so-called crisis of masculinity and a shared conviction that feminism has systematically disadvantaged men — has contributed to many health harms.

These include violence against women and girls, and mental health issues, as well as “delegitimising” the idea of boys and men seeking help.

Outrage and grievance are “good for business” in this online environment, the authors said, with boys and young men especially having their insecurities cultivated in the manosphere and subsequently monetised.

Their report, published in The Lancet, stated: “Similar to the tobacco and ultra-processed food industries, content creators and hosting platforms deploy strategies that individualise responsibility.

“Men’s problems are framed as the result of feminism rather than structural conditions, and masculine identity is commodified through products and paid content that normalise and reinforce health-harming and performance-oriented masculinities.

“Efforts to regulate or moderate content are frequently framed as threats to men’s autonomy, restricting political space for intervention.” 

They said factors such as educational marginalisation, social exclusion, and isolation in boys and young men must be addressed in various ways including boosting employment, skills to improve access to jobs, re-engaging boys in education, and ensuring “equitable access to mental health and other frontline health services” designed to reach this group.

The authors argued that tackling the manosphere should involve a co-ordinated response by governments, schools, health services and community organisations as for any other public health risk.

They suggested communications strategies should avoided “framing masculinity as inherently toxic or boys and men as inherently problematic”, and that regulation should focus on the online platforms rather than the users — similar to bans on tobacco advertisements directed at children, rather than criminalising smokers.

The authors argued the manosphere “is best understood and addressed as a public health problem” and that regulation should include “strengthening existing content moderation to restrict harmful environments and harnessing the power of algorithms to promote positive messaging and norms alongside regulation of the structural features that sustain harm”.

Manosphere offers young men belonging and identity

Professor Sarah Hawkes, report co-author and co-founder of Global 50/50 social justice think tank, said: “The manosphere offers boys and young men belonging, identity, and an explanation for why life feels hard.

“Those needs are real. A response that only removes the manosphere, without offering something credible in its place, will fail. We need to offer boys something better, not just tell them what to avoid.”

Fellow co-author Professor Kent Buse, affiliated with the Department of Global Population Health at Monash University Malaysia, argued boys and men are not the problem, but rather the business model set up to target them.

He said: “This is a business model, not a fringe. Outrage and grievance are good for business, so the system rewards the most extreme content.

Expect the playbook that served tobacco so well: blame the individual, and call regulation an attack on freedom. Public health has a tested toolkit for commercial harms and we should use it.

“Boys and men are not the problem. The problem is the conditions that leave them isolated and without a secure future, and the companies that profit from their anger and insecurity.” 

The report concluded: “The harms to boys and men, to women and girls, and to wider society, provide a clear basis for action.

“Reducing these harms requires addressing the societal and economic conditions, commercial structures, and social norms that sustain the appeal of the manosphere.

“This is a political, legal, economic, and social challenge demanding co-ordinated, sustained action on multiple fronts — a public health framing can unlock such an approach.” 

Separate research, also published in The Lancet, considered how patriarchal expectations around masculinity are harming men’s health and argued that online narratives around masculinity and male grievance are filling a void left by an absence of support.

The author, Jim Catto, professor of urology at the University of Sheffield, said: “These findings highlight why we need to look beyond individual behaviour and consider the wider environments that shape men’s attitudes and actions.

“Tackling the online influence of the manosphere should be part of a broader public health conversation about how we support men and address the social factors affecting their health.”