Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere<\/a>\u201d examines the network of social media influencers and podcasters who speak directly to disenfranchised males, often introducing extremely homophobic and sexist messaging into their motivational words, financial advice and workout-based content. Because a tenet of this subculture is distrusting traditional media sources, Theroux is able to negotiate some incredible access to these blowhard men, who often walk back their worldviews when questioned about them directly, or when discussing them next to the women in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\tThe documentary, which was released March 11, is also eye-opening in that these once-fringe viewpoints are now in the mainstream, with loyal fanbases.<\/p>\n
\n\tHere, we recount five of the wildest moments from the doc.<\/p>\n
\t\tBehavior only a mother could love\t<\/p>\n
\n\tTheroux spends time with Harrison Sullivan, a 23-year-old best known as HSTikkyTokky, throughout the film. Sullivan\u2019s words are frequently inflammatory \u2014\u00a0saying he\u2019d disown his son if he were gay, referring to a female friend as his \u201cdishwasher\u201d and saying \u201cFuck the Jews\u201d in order to \u201cclipfarm\u201d \u2014\u00a0and he noted that his mother would reject how he speaks. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy mom would be disappointed that I said that,\u201d he said. \u201cShe hates racism, she hates homophobia, she hates sexism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen we meet his mother later in the film, it seems like she\u2019s quick to dispute her son\u2019s extreme beliefs. But she soon starts criticizing Theroux\u2019s line of questioning, saying, \u201cYou\u2019ve done it just to get a reaction, so please don\u2019t.\u201d Whether his mother\u2019s change in attitude was a parent doing anything to protect her son, or a dependent worried about her meal ticket, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
\t\tHolding all the cards in a relationship\t<\/p>\n
\n\tJustin Waller, a colleague of fellow Manosphere influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, flaunts his wealthy lifestyle and says his marriage has \u201cone-way monogamy,\u201d allowing him to date and be with other women. When Theroux interviews his wife, Kristen, we learn that they have two children and a third on the way. She describes their set-up as \u201clanes,\u201d where her lane is raising the kids and housework and his lane is providing (or as he lovingly sums up parenthood, \u201cI don\u2019t do baths or diapers or anything like that.\u201d) But the most shocking moment is when Theroux realizes that the couple isn\u2019t married in the eyes of the state because of the \u201cfinancial side.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt does seem more risky for me, but I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m at risk,\u201d Kristen said, and Waller changed the subject before she could think for too long about how screwed she would be if Waller ever left her.<\/p>\n
\t\tThings get uncomfortable when women can speak freely\t<\/p>\n
\n\tTheroux spends a significant amount of time with Amrou Fudl, better known as Myron Gaines, an extremely controversial podcaster who loves to slam women\u2019s looks, says they shouldn\u2019t vote or be in the military, and claims he also has a \u201cone-way monogamy\u201d relationship with his girlfriend, Angie \u2014\u00a0with the intention of having multiple wives in the future. Fudl is all bluster on his podcast, but the minute Theroux throws some softball questions at Angie, Fudl gets very uncomfortable before sending her away.<\/p>\n
\n\tAsked about the potential of having multiple wives, Angie says, \u201cI dunno. He has said that in the past. I\u2019ll see when it happens. I don\u2019t know how that would work,\u201d and Fudl backtracks, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s a bridge we\u2019ll cross when we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTheroux says that the brief interview with Angie made Fudl \u201cunhappy.\u201d Later, while Theroux waited in the studio to record a segment for Fudl\u2019s podcast, he struck up a casual conversation with a female booker named Icy. Fudl saw her talking with the filmmaker out of the corner of his eye while recording, and immediately texted Icy to stop talking to Theroux, which created another awkward moment as he tried to control the narrative.<\/p>\n
\t\tA breath away from the White House\t<\/p>\n
\n\tOne troubling element is how many of these influencers are admired by the Trump family. Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy, best known as Sneako, frequently puts out sentiments like \u201cWe should not let women vote\u201d and the idea that society is secretly controlled by Satanists. He\u2019s also a MAGA superfan who was at Trump\u2019s inauguration and celebratory ball and says that Barron watches his content.<\/p>\n
\n\tWaller shares that he\u2019s been at Mar-a-Lago five or six times, and has been photographed with both Barron and Donald Trump. Coupled with the fact that his associates, the Tate brothers, have acquired plenty of goodwill with the right<\/a>, it\u2019s clear that the Trumps are tuned into the Manosphere.<\/p>\n\t\tEven worse, these influencers have scores of real-life fans\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s one thing to have digital followers, but several times during the film, Sneako, Waller and Sullivan are approached by fans on the street who beg for pictures and are happy to justify their dark speech and praise them as thought leaders inspiring young men. It\u2019s bleak!<\/p>\n
\n\tWatch the \u201cManosphere\u201d trailer below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran documentarian Louis Theroux is no stranger to covering toxic subcultures, previously profiling American neo-nazis, the Westboro Baptist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[25344,96,169341,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-475034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-louis-theroux-inside-the-manosphere","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}