Louis Theroux- Inside the Manosphere

 

A few years ago the journalist Louis Theroux made a documentary series called Weird Weekends (not to be confused with the conference q.v.) He made it in his own unique gonzo style and injected a lot of humour. He delved into the lives of some awfully strange people, even by my standards; and a few of them were rather sinister. Yet somehow what resulted was dry comedy. I really enjoyed it and have been rewatching many episodes. He has gone downhill in the last few years so my hopes for his new documentary were not high, but I'm pleased to say that with Louis Theroux- Inside the Manosphere he seems to have returned to his traditional style. Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms23FeJWvKU. The word "manosphere" has several different meanings, but it generally refers to an outlook on the world from a masculine standpoint and a concern for the welfare and betterment of men and boys. However, there are many different forms that this takes and I was curious to see what Louis made of them. He spends the programme travelling to various places around the world, usually glamourous holiday destinations, and meets up with a number of popular social media influencers, all male and mostly young. They promote self-confidence, healthy living, business success and date coaching. One is known online as "HSTikkyTokky", real name Harrison, who has become a multi-millionaire at the age of twenty-three and lives in a mansion in Marbella with a handful of his mates and a number of young women whose uniform seems to be bikinis. Another is an American called Justin Waller who presents a radio programme about what he sees as male issues. Another is Myron Gaines whose own video streaming show deliberately delves into extreme drama for the sake of attention and therefore money. He invites women into the studio in order to insult them. These ladies, it seems, are willing participants because, despite their humiliation, they achieve fame for being on his show, along with new followers for their OnlyFans sites. At one point Myron is very cruel to an obese girl, abusing her for her weight. I found this upsetting and think it's a pity that content like this is the most lucrative in today's clickbait economy. However, I was already aware of that to some extent, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/02/confronting-droike.html. Louis calls this a "hamster wheel" that incentivizes increasingly extreme content. Indeed HS and his friends often go to the extent of livestreaming themselves "happy-slapping" people in the street. Afterwards they confessed to Louis that the whole activity was just about "clip farming". Another pundit called Sneako is quite interested in conspiracy theories, like I am; and some of the others are too. However their beliefs tend to level out at the more immature, finger-pointing and simplistic level that I myself have warned against. I can't go into details on Blogger, but here is a full explanation: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2017/06/jews.html.

One thing all these young men have in common is that they have had difficult childhoods in problem families. HS' father abandoned him as a baby and he was brought up by a single mother who worked extra hard to pay for private education for him. In one video HS meets up with his dad, a man he hardly knows; and it was quite sad to see how he is obviously suffering as a result of this betrayal by the man who should have cared for him, although he tries to hide it with his usual bravado. Justin also had a single mother and had no positive paternal figure when he was growing up. What's more his mother was a criminal who was convicted of arson. All the men involved in the manosphere oppose feminism and use terms like "the Matrix" to describe the most common relationships between men and women. However, at no point in this film does Louis Theroux explore the calmer and more intellectual part of this critique. He does not feature some anti-feminists I consider far more sensible and credible like Paul Elam, Dr Tara Palmatier or Carl Benjamin (also known as "Sargon of Akkad", see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/04/is-sargon-walking-into-trap.html). Louis' exploration of the manosphere was not really an exploration. It was the shallowest of dives into its strawmen, its tabloid sideshow. Despite enjoying Louis' return to his Weird Weekend style I felt that Louis Theroux- Inside the Manosphere was, at best, a lost opportunity, at worst a distortion.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/political-correctness-portal.html.