UK experts say manosphere and online misogyny should be treated as a public health issue
UK experts writing in The Lancet urge governments and institutions to tackle the manosphere and online misogyny as a public health matter, as with smoking or obesity. The report's authors say the sector has become a lucrative business.
Experts in the UK have called on governments to treat the manosphere and online misogyny as a public health issue, in the same way as obesity or smoking. Their report, published in the medical journal The Lancet, argues for a coordinated response involving governments, schools, health services and community organisations. The authors point to the public health response to tobacco use and ultra-processed food as a model.
What the manosphere is
The report defines the manosphere as a diffuse commercial ecosystem and loose collection of online communities united by shared beliefs about masculinity, misogyny and male victimisation. The authors say it has grown into a highly lucrative industry that earns money by promoting the most extreme expressions of misogyny and aggrieved masculinity. They write that men's problems are blamed on feminism rather than structural conditions, and that masculine identity is turned into a commodity through products and paid content.
Prof Kent Buse, a co-author and co-founder of the social justice thinktank Global 50/50, described it as a business model rather than a fringe phenomenon: the system rewards the most extreme content because outrage and grievance are good for business. He expects the tactics used by the tobacco industry, namely blaming the individual and calling regulation an attack on freedom. In his view, 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.
Why boys are drawn in
The authors cite growing disengagement from education among boys worldwide, as well as loneliness, money worries and social exclusion. These factors, they say, can make young men more vulnerable to online communities that offer simple explanations for their difficulties and often encourage them to blame women and feminism.
Prof Sarah Hawkes, the report's other author, said the manosphere offers boys and young men belonging, identity and an explanation for why life feels hard. She said these needs are real, and that a response which only removes the manosphere, without offering something credible in its place, will fail.
Mark Brooks, policy and communications director at the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys, welcomed the report's position that this is a public health issue and that men, boys, women and girls are all victims of such content. He said the centre is working on research to identify who is most at risk.
