'Influencers' promoting sexism get 100 times more 'likes'

BarcelonaFirst came the web users Forocoches with those endless threads of the purest brother-in-lawismAs social media has grown, so has the rise of... influencers antifeministswho make money by leading the backlash against machismo and misogyny, promoting hostility towards feminists and proclaiming that "violence has no gender." So great is the influence of these men—who claim to fight for "men's rights"—that the UN has issued a warning about the dangers of their power. machosphere (also known as manosphere)) when it comes to attracting younger generations.

TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, X and Instagram are also the platforms that amplify the influencers of the machosphere. The paradox is that the very technology, the internet, which served to amplify feminism, has become a megaphone for the new machismo, points out Paula Zuluaga, a researcher at the UAB and co-author of the collective book The reaction of machismo to the fourth wave of feminism, coordinated by Maria Freixanet. It is published by the Institute of Political and Social Sciences and supported by the Barcelona Provincial Council.

The researcher has analyzed the messages of the 26 influencers The most followed in various fields, from fashion and beauty to sports and video games, which tend to produce "gender-neutral" content. However, if we look at the rest, anti-feminist messages represent 18.2% and feminist messages 14.8%, but the study is surprising that the former garner five million views or likes for only 52,000 of those that refer to gender equality. That is, up to another 100 times interactions.

But what is the machosphere? Another author of the book, Elisa García-Mingo, from the Complutense University of Madrid, states that it is not a new phenomenon, although she points to 2020 –the year of COVID– as the "point of acceleration, diversification, and intensification" of the influencers sexist. In fact, it indicates that the majority of influencers They didn't start out in that space with antifeminist messages; they ended up there after realizing it was a lucrative business.

Double standard

The manosphere is defined as a virtual space where men can find, on the one hand, answers to their sense of displacement regarding feminism within an "anti-feminist framework" that offers them false data about the impact of egalitarian policies: more male suicides, fewer shared custody arrangements, ultimately portraying them as victims of "female dictatorship." But at the same time, this is an "affective" space where men "feel good, identify with others, and find comfort." They channel anger, frustration, or hatred"In a safe, mutually supportive environment, they transform the message into antifeminist maxims." The great risk, which has not yet occurred in the State, García-Mingo clarifies, is that this feedback loop could lead to violent radicalism, as has happened in countries like the United States, where there have been attacks by self-proclaimed individuals paragraphs, an acronym from English involuntary celibacywho blames women for not finding a partner.

For the specialist from Complutense University, the machosphere also serves academics to study "other underlying problems," such as "unwanted loneliness, misogyny, or toxic masculinity" in these men. The objective of these influencers is to "dismantle feminism, to delegitimize feminist policies, laws or-says García-, who speaks of a "patriarchal nostalgia". Furthermore, the fact that political parties or recognized professionals in other fields embrace sexist and anti-gender positions has meant that this macho sphere has left the margins and is now considered a majority discourse (mainstream).

In Zuluaga's study of the influencers Outside the macho sphere, which includes both men and women, it is observed that antifeminist content is generated in a format that engages followers in simple and direct conversations, with straightforward messages and invitations to "form communities" that can eventually lead to more private, "more bidirectional" channels, where the debate of ideas is more actively promoted.

According to Zuluaga, these influencers Antifeminists focus on attacking feminism as a promoter of hatred towards men, the minimization of sexual violence, the sexual objectification of women, and contempt for feminists. They end up equating sexism with feminism, an impossible equation because while sexism is the attitude that positions men as superior, feminism is the movement for equality. With social media as a borderless platform and little regulation of what is disseminated, García-Mingo warns of the risks of the spread of sexist hate crimes and suggests as a solution demanding "the complicity of institutions and also of technology companies," which until now have remained silent.