Outside the manosphere

Every so often, someone makes a TV show that permeates every gossamer thin layer of culture, every niche little corner of the internet, so that it becomes inescapable. 

Louis Theroux's Inside the Manosphere is the latest example.

You don’t even need to have watched the documentary to be aware of the themes. Theroux ventures into the algorithmic black hole of lost boys and finds an inevitable cocktail of violence, misogyny, low self-esteem, and grift. It’s as predictable as it is shocking.

There are so many things to say, and so much that has already been said, that any commentary is going to miss more than it covers. But one aspect appears to have been missed.

The boys - and make no mistake, the ‘manosphere’ label is misleading, for these are all undoubtedly boys, regardless of age - flail about for an outlet for their pain, a target for the rage which fills the hole inside them. 

Women are clearly top of that particular list, but anyone will do - immigrants, Jewish people, men who do not fit their rigid little definition of gender.  

There is reason to be angry. Some of the documentary’s participants come mere inches from identifying the real enemy - the system that has trapped them and everyone else in an exploitative, diminishing tailspin.

Theroux nods to something a few times, but pulls back from naming it directly. It’s worth saying out loud. The manosphere is clearly a gender issue. But it’s also a class one.