{"id":915147,"date":"2026-10-03T22:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915147\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T22:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:36:18","slug":"not-here-to-tell-you-what-to-think-marc-fennell-goes-where-theroux-couldnt-in-the-state-of-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915147\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not here to tell you what to think\u2019: Marc Fennell goes where Theroux couldn\u2019t in The State Of Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marc Fennell does NOT like to ruffle feathers. But something tells us the podcaster, doco maker and TV host\u2019s latest documentary, The State Of Man, is about to do just that.<\/p>\n

In the three-part series for ABC, Fennell is taking a deep-dive into the contentious world of the manosphere \u2014 and what he\u2019s unearthing makes for uncomfortable viewing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in telling people what to think. Lots of people do, but I really don\u2019t,\u201d says Fennell, speaking to STM from his home in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, what I\u2019m hoping (this series) will do, is to provide a focal point to actually decide where we want to go with this issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are powerful \u2014 we can change the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is the power of doing something on the ABC \u2014 you have this amazing opportunity to really change the course of conversation on a national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s if you don\u2019t get shouted down by an angry mob, first.<\/p>\n

And make no mistakes: there are plenty of disaffected people orbiting the manosphere, ready to ride into battle for their \u201cBro Messiahs\u201d in Man Land.<\/p>\n

In this three-part doco, Fennell meets some of them.<\/p>\n

But what sets his exploration apart is the fact he refuses to sit in judgment, which is harder than it sounds \u2014 especially when he comes face-to-face with people whose beliefs he finds questionable, at best.<\/p>\n

\"MarcCamera IconMarc Fennell and social media star Alex Eubank. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI think from my standpoint, when you make a doco like this, it\u2019s best to think of it as \u2018starting a conversation that the nation is going to finish\u2019,\u201d Fennell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, I think the conversation has already happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am hoping is that we can provide a focal point around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have got to talk about is where did (these beliefs) come from? Who is writing the script? Who is profiting off it? Who does it genuinely affect? And what does it look like if we decide, as a nation, that we do want to change the pathway we are on? How do we go about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all great questions.<\/p>\n

\"LouisCamera IconLouis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere is streaming on Netflix. Credit: Supplied\/Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Louis Theroux got the world talking when he took his own deep dive into the topic via his film, Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere, for Netflix.<\/p>\n

By that stage, Fennell and his team had been working on The State Of Man for two years. They were interested to hear his take on the same subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting, because we had well and truly begun filming when the Louis doc came out,\u201d Fennell explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a bit like, \u2018What does this mean for us?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look, I have interviewed Louis, and I really respect what Louis does and like him, but there are some personality differences between the way he approaches things, and the way I approach things.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Fennell does with The State Of Man is what many wish Theroux had been able to do with his film \u2014 to go further into the exploration of this nuanced topic.<\/p>\n

Theroux\u2019s doco focused primarily on looking at the content creators who make their living spouting the misogynistic rhetoric being spewed out by all-powerful algorithms through social media.<\/p>\n

But as Fennel explains, they are only one part of the puzzle, \u201cand I think we were very determined to make sure we showed that they are just one part of a much, much bigger story,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

In the second episode, Fennell meets an Aussie content producer making bank off the rhetoric he\u2019s spouting to his followers. He\u2019s surprised to find this man is not the person he expected him to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me, one of the crucial moments was with the Australian content creator,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018You thought I\u2019d be an a..hole, didn\u2019t you?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Yep, I really did.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MarcCamera IconMarc Fennell travelled to Las Vegas for the Enhanced Games, which took place in May this year. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

He then travels to the Enhanced Games, the contentious earlier this year that saw elite athletes competing to break Olympic records with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

He stands on the periphery as an observer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the guys in Vegas, Mel (Melissa Maclean), the director, she was like, \u2018we have to put in an acknowledgement, that this is what their business is; that the reality is that everyone is trying to sell you something\u201d.<\/p>\n

In that case, it\u2019s vitamin supplements, human growth hormones, steroids \u2014 all touted as a \u2018cure-all\u2019 to the insecure men who cleave to their message that just one more pump at the gym will see them overcome whatever negative voices are inside their head telling them they are \u201cless than\u201d.<\/p>\n

Later in the same episode, Fennell meets a young man named Raymond, a reserved loner and self-confessed former \u201cincel\u201d (involuntary celibate) who has spent the past year or so at the gym trying to optimise his fitness.<\/p>\n

He seems convinced he can perform his way out of his social awkwardness. It\u2019s a devastating encounter.<\/p>\n

\"AsCamera IconAs part of the doco, Fennell speaks with former Prime Minister Julia Gillard about the enduring legacy of her famous misogyny speech, and where she sits on the topic a decade later. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see how uncomfortable I am, which I think is important,\u201d Fennell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that moment, we had done a lot of other filming by that point, and I wasn\u2019t quite sure how everything was coming together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, meeting Raymond, that moment of me walking out (afterwards), they didn\u2019t even put any cuts in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fennell has a moment of clarity as he speaks directly to his cameraman: \u201cWhen you are putting this thing out into the world that is good for your business, potentially, there are very real ramifications for people who consume this content,\u201d he says of his interaction post-interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Aussie content creator, (what he does) doesn\u2019t necessarily make him a good or bad person \u2014 I am never going to sit in judgment of other people being good or bad \u2014 but what I am saying is, the content you put out into the world, at scale: Raymond is what you get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to make that idea really clear to people, and to try to do that without being finger-waggy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fennell says he doesn\u2019t like the \u201ctheatre\u201d of journalists telling people how to think, \u201cor haranguing people for no reason\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like giving people enough space to say the quiet part out loud,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"MarcCamera IconMarc Fennell has spent two years working on this documentary project. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

He achieves his goal, and the three episodes make for compelling television.<\/p>\n

Will it land with everyone? It\u2019s hard to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I am genuinely curious to work out what the audience will think,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf everything I have ever made, I genuinely don\u2019t know how people are going to respond to it. Is my nervousness coming out?<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so different for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Of Man starts on Tuesday October 13 at 8pm on ABC and iview<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Fennell does NOT like to ruffle feathers. But something tells us the podcaster, doco maker and TV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,134,1625,67258,105,427],"class_list":["post-915147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-lifestyle","tag-stm","tag-technology","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}