The Manosphere, rewired

Omschrijving

Equimundo’s State of American Men 2023 survey found that 48% of young men ages 18 to 23 say their online lives are more interesting than their offline ones. The survey also found that more than 40% of young men trust one or more misogynistic voices online. Even at first glance, one sees much harm online in the form of moderators, influencers, and sites that take young men into versions of manhood that too often promote the worst in all of us. But the story is more complex than that. Coming out of the study, Equimundo and Futures Without Violence recognized the need to deepen our understanding of how to reach men who are “in the middle” – and potentially open to conversations and being engaged in messages about healthy masculinities and allyship for gender equality.
This report presents findings from a six-month deep dive into the lives of young men online, primarily focused on the platforms and spaces used by young men in the United States. For this study, we partnered with the human-centered design firm Puddle to carry out an artificial intelligence (AI) analysis of more than 40 hours of Twitch streaming, 1.5 million lines of chat logs, and nearly 37,000 lines of Discord chat logs. The research also included 15 interviews with moderators and streamers, interviews with seven experts on young men’s lives, a context mapping of 14 male-majority spaces, and more than 100 hours spent observing six online male-majority spaces. The findings affirm a complex online universe – much of that monetized, weaponized, and harmful – but also a majority that leans positive (or at least innocuous) for young men seeking information, connection, and community. That key finding points the way to affirming young men’s dire need for social connections and potential pathways to connection that bridge online lives and offline ones.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
When two-thirds of young men feel that “no one really knows” them, as State of American Men 2023 shows, they reveal the fragility of their connections and relationships. This “crisis of connection” collides with the reality that no one really seems to agree on what a “good man” looks like or how to become one. The combination of these two truths creates the perfect conditions for men to seek connection in the digital world via the manosphere – a diverse collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism – which swoops in to provide clear messages around gender and gender roles to make simple sense of an otherwise complicated world. These
messages have a real impact, mostly surrounding violence (against oneself and others), mental health, and anti-democratic trends. Amidst rapid macro-level social, political, and economic changes, young men are turning to the internet and finding community and belonging that speak to their unique identities, interests, and fears. 
While the masculinities field is already robust in research and programming, online spaces – which are now the primary place young men spend their time – have been largely ignored until recently. There is a clear need to further
investigate how online spaces and communities simultaneously are part of the problem and hold immense power in creating solutions. We hope this study provides additional insights and directions for action. To devise online solutions and better understand the broader environment men are living in, FUTURES and Equimundo partnered with the human-centered design firm Puddle to take a deep dive into the gendered narratives and features of several key online platforms and spaces. This research is informing a forthcoming design lab and new efforts to promote healthy masculinities online that build on the positive sources of connection and community that young men already find online.