In living rooms and bedrooms across Australia, young men are logging on to social media for tips on fitness, personal growth, and success – but not all advice is as harmless as it seems.
Influencers post content promoting discipline, workouts, and dating strategies, but some question the underlying extreme and misogynistic ideals hidden behind more innocent messaging.
These toxic masculine communities belong to the “manosphere”, online groups that often promote strict ideas of masculinity under the guise of self-improvement.
Curtin extremism network director Dr Ben Rich says the manosphere initially started in rather obscure places on the internet and was based around various defined communities like pickup artists, men’s rights activists and involuntary celibates.
“What we’ve seen over the past few years is that the boundaries between these groups have really eroded,” Dr Rich says.
“There’s a lot of cross-pollination between themselves, as well as other sort of reactionary milieu.”
Fitness content creator Adrien Cotte says masculinity isn’t just about dominance or power, but being a dependable man for others and for your family.
Mr Cotte posts gym and motivation content on his Instagram account with around 4000 followers.
“Men are turning to my content because they’re seeing real results,” he says.
“Especially seeing that no one in the new generation is actually willing to lead people to better themselves.”
Mr Cotte says starting his gym Instagram account was a very positive step in the right direction.
“It’s that first step for people to say I have a purpose in life, and that there is so many things that I can achieve in such short time thanks to fitness,” he says.
Content creator Ronan Fitzgerald says to him, masculinity is not just about acting like a man, but acting like a human being.
“There is an element of strength and protection but there’s also a dangerous side where they go too far and men think it’s more of a sense power for them,” Mr Fitzgerald says.
Mr Fitzgerald posts sports and news-based videos that have up to 1.8 million views, and says his audience is mostly male.
He says he hopes the young men who watch his videos see a typical young Australian male simply posting authentic content.
“There’s parts of the traditional man and the way that we’re wired that is needed for society, but you can take those things and use it in a respectful and beneficial way.
“I can post videos to entertain people while not pushing any ideologies onto them and giving my opinion.”
For young women like university student Ella Forster, the influence of this content is already noticeable in daily life.
“You can see the way so many young men talk about women. It’s seen as a competition of who has done better, or the ‘winning’ mentality.”
Ella Forster, student.
“There is so much external pressure in society, and there is constant fear of not being good or successful enough,” Ms Forster says.
“I would like to see a less narrow definition of success,” she says.
“As a woman, the term masculinity encapsulates a lot of things, but I believe emotional intelligence and kindness is a part of it not just the focus on physical attributes or strength.”
Dr Rich says identifying the problem and enacting stronger regulations is the next step.
“There needs to be constraints on the social media companies themselves, rather than individuals who are using them,” Dr Rich says.
“The focus on social resilience is really critical for moving forward.”