What is it like to be a young man in 2026? Their social media feed can provide a glimpse.
Then, as you keep scrolling, you get one about working out and then a video about “looksmaxxing,” which encourages you to beat your jaw with a hammer to have a more chiseled look.
A few videos later, it’s manosphere influencers talking about how 80% of women are only attracted to 20% of men. It’s not a man’s fault that he doesn’t have a girlfriend because women are shallow. So, that’s why you need to just use women for the only thing they’re good for: sex.
…Or something along those lines.
While many men can and do see this as nothing more than a fallacy, put yourself in the mind of a young teenage boy. Maybe he’s struggling at school. His family life is rocky, and he spends a lot of time on social media where his friends post pictures with their girlfriends. Meanwhile, he hasn’t even had his first kiss yet.
Enter the manosphere. A place that seems like a community for men. People just like him are struggling and want guidance. Well, the leaders of these communities obviously have it all figured out: Lamborghinis in the driveways to their mansions and OnlyFans models on their arms.
June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and if we’re serious about improving male mental health, we must examine the manosphere.
Young men are looking for role models and leaders to help guide them in the right direction. The problem is, most mainstream male “role models” in 2026 are not preaching a healthy path to happiness. They are manipulating emotionally vulnerable young men by telling them that loving relationships are worthless because women only care about money, fame, and looks. This philosophy offers no genuine relief for men experiencing mental health crises. Rather, it drives them to misogyny and further into isolation.
And boys and men are buying it.
Movemeber, a men’s mental health organization, conducted a study that found two-thirds of young men in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia regularly engage with masculinity influencers online.
But what drives men to the manosphere? Let’s start with social media.
Common Sense Media conducted a study and found that social media feeds with algorithms for young boys that are consistently promoting so-called “masculinity” content: how to make money, improving physical appearance, and gender stereotypes. Two-thirds of boys frequently see “masculinity” content that promotes problematic gender stereotypes.
But exposure to this type of content is mostly driven by algorithms, not user intent. For boys who have seen “masculinity” content online, 68% say it just started showing up in their feed without them searching for it.
What’s associated with this type of content? Low self-esteem and loneliness.
Fourteen percent of boys with high exposure to digital masculinity content reported having low self-esteem. Further, one in four adolescent boys reports feeling lonely, and when they are viewing masculinity content, this number increases to 30%.
Another factor we must examine: pornography. It’s become normalized in society and often seen as a natural, coming-of-age ritual for teenage boys, but pornography consumption is widely known to be associated with mental health struggles.
Several peer-reviewed studies have found associations between pornography consumption and loneliness, depression, anxiety, lower life satisfaction, and low self-esteem.
Further, what young men are viewing in pornography is not a depiction of a healthy sexual relationship. Pornography often portrays sex as violent and degrading toward women, which, in turn, breeds a culture that objectifies women, seeing them only as a vehicle for sexual pleasure.
So, you have a steady stream of content on social media promoting toxic ideas about masculinity and gender roles. Plus, pornography that reinforces violence and degradation toward women through the most powerful medium possible: a dopamine hit that comes from an orgasm. All of this creates a perfect equation for men and boys to fall into these echo-chambers for misogyny, aka the manosphere.
But we have to ask ourselves: How did we get here?
The manosphere is the product of a system that has failed men and boys. Telling them that they can’t be vulnerable. They have to be strong. So, when they are struggling, it feels like there’s nowhere to turn.
DOES THE ‘MANOSPHERE’ SMELL LIKE SASQUATCH?
Yes, misogyny lies in the roots of our society. There’s no denying that. Yes, men who get wrapped up in the manosphere and go on to do horrible things are responsible for their actions. But the research tells us something else important: Many men and boys are struggling and looking for guidance. If we aren’t there for them, the manosphere will be, and that is bad for both men and women.
For the sake of both men and women, it’s a matter of urgency that we provide struggling boys and men with support and healthy role models — ones that promote a culture of respect and equality among all people. We must fill the void that drives boys and young men to the manosphere. The safety of women and the health of boys and men depend on it.
Stephanie Trendell is a communications specialist at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation, such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking, and the public health harms of pornography. www.EndSexualExploitation.org