How the “manosphere” won Donald Trump the 2024 election
To understand how the manosphere plays a big part in today’s government, it is crucial to understand what the concept actually is. According to UN Women, the manosphere describes the online collection of podcasts, blogs, and videos that claim to help solve men’s problems but often scapegoat women for the deprivation of men’s rights. With the progression of technology over the years, the manosphere has expanded, including prominent figures such as Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Tate. Through promoting discriminatory ideas against women, the manosphere has become increasingly dangerous in American political conversations, creating an echo chamber that reinforces existing alt-right ideas and allows extremist politicians to boost their campaigns.
The manosphere is very isolated, partly due to its status as an echo chamber. An echo chamber is an online environment that reinforces one’s social or political beliefs through interaction with similar sets of beliefs, boosting their self-confidence in the matter and restricting exposure to different opinions and viewpoints. In the case of the manosphere, the more a viewer gets into the routine of watching or listening to misogynistic podcasts, the harder it is to return to reality, as constant exposure to one-sided viewpoints plants seeds of doubt into the person’s mind. This may end up convincing the user that the world lives under a gynocracy, or a society where everything is controlled by women, in which men experience the brunt of mental, emotional, and social problems.
First coined around 2008, the manosphere has existed for a long time, but originally started off as a small collection of sites and blogs. In today’s politics, socially extremist anti-progressive ideas have been making a comeback, especially under the new administration, which pushes alt-right views on race and gender. Researcher Mariel Barnes explains that this is where the manosphere somewhat merges with other alt-right groups, as misogyny acts as a gateway into other anti-progressive ideas and even more extremist beliefs, such as white supremacy. Along with the shared beliefs, Make America Great Again (MAGA) followers and the manosphere also share the same enemies, namely feminists, immigrants, people of color, and disabled people. As MAGA ideas gain popularity online and in the government itself, the manosphere also becomes more mainstream, gathering more views and supporters. This promotes ideas that alienate women from society, exacerbating social and political polarization.
Naturally, as the extremist manosphere gains popularity, politicians become interested too and have started using the manosphere and its followers to gain more supporters and votes. These politicians are also usually associated with extremist, alt-right movements, including MAGA, led by Donald Trump. Last year, the Trump campaign turned to the manosphere, a mainly non-voting demographic, by appearing on many manosphere-aligned podcasts and shows. By doing this, Trump moved the young male voters’ demographic to the right, causing a decrease in Democrat-leaning young men. Following suit, smaller politicians and people currently in the government are still using this tactic to build a more permanent loyalty, applying the concept of a“masculinity crisis” and anti-feminist language and opinions to their speeches and public statements. The NYU Political Society highlighted a seemingly small instance when Donald Trump said that he would protect women, “whether they like it or not”, while publicly promoting other people’s snarky and purely sexist comments about Kamala Harris, commenting, “Just remember, it’s other people saying it. It’s not me.” Most significantly, politicians have begun using social media to their advantage to increase their reach to young male voters, as most of them spend a significant amount of time online.
The manosphere has evolved over the years, growing from a seemingly insignificant corner of the internet to a major force in politics and anti-progressive media. This poses risks to feminist and equality movements and is undoing the hard work of activists who strive for equality. To address the polarization of politics, there should be more respectful political discussions, and a general understanding that we are more alike than different as Americans. On a smaller scale, anything helps; from using social media platforms to inform others and advocate for progressive, equal rights, to supporting charities and organizations, and even just being informed. It’s crucial to form an original opinion that isn’t being influenced by an echo chamber. As the manosphere divides the world, it becomes increasingly important to read articles and talk to people with contrasting points of view, because understanding all of the different sides to the story is what makes politics so interesting.
