Article content
We independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work.
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
Don’t have an account? Create Account
or
View more offers
Article content
Researchers are warning that “manosphere” influencers pose serious health harms similar to the tobacco industry, according to a new report.
Article content
Article content
The manosphere is where online communities spread hateful ideas of what it means to be a man, use words to fuel their ideologies, and blame feminism for disadvantaging men and a masculinity crisis.
The report, published on Friday in The Lancet, details the health impacts of the manosphere, including on men’s mental health and violence against women, and calls for governments, schools and health services to treat it as any other health risk.
Regulating or restricting access to social media isn’t enough
“By reframing the manosphere as a public health issue rather than just a regulatory issue, we open up a number of additional policy levers that public health approaches can provide,” author Sarah J. Hawkes, a global public health professor at the University College London, told BBC Radio 4, per the AFP.
She noted that people make “a lot of money” from the content, which is often tagged as fitness, dating or moneymaking, but pointed out that the messaging veers into misogyny, antisemitism and homophobia.
Hawkes and co-author Kent Buse, a health policy professor at Monash University Malaysia, argued that numerous health harms are rooted in the manosphere, noting in their report that the sense of dominance and entitlement in the videos has led to a heightened risk of violence against women and girls.
Additionally, doxxing, cyberstalking and threats of rape can cause victims to suffer from PTSD, depression and other conditions, the authors stated.
They added that the manosphere “redirects blame” for the problems men face “to women and feminism rather than the structural and economic forces responsible.”
Men and boys should also be concerned
The report also says the movement “delegitimizes” men and boys seeking help.
Buse accused the so-called manfluencers of thriving on online platforms, deploying a similar playbook to the tobacco industry: “Blame the individual, and call regulation an attack on freedom.”
The researchers added that manosphere influencers encourage boys and men to invest in financial schemes and buy unregulated supplements and hormones.
One of their concerns is that the idealized male body promoted by content creators has been linked to causing mental health problems in boys and discouraging men from seeking professional help for issues they are struggling with.
Piers Morgan storms off own show after ‘Manosphere’ influencer insults his wife
‘Fueling sexism’: AI ‘bikini interview’ videos flood internet
Homophobic ‘manosphere’ crusader Jesse Lee Peterson in gay sex scandal
“Similar to the tobacco and ultra-processed food industries, content creators and hosting platforms deploy strategies that individualize responsibility,” the report stated.
“Boys and men are not the problem,” Buse declared. “The problem is the conditions that leave them isolated and without a secure future, and the companies that profit from their anger and insecurity.”
He added, per Metro: “For a decade we have argued about what boys watch. We should be asking who profits and who pays.”
We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.
For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to Healthing.ca – a member of the Postmedia Network.
