The Manosphere: Pathways and Patterns of Participation

Boys and men are engaging online. There’s lots of talk at the moment about anti-feminist movements, family violence and misogynistic influencers such as Andrew Tate.

The fact is we don’t know enough about precisely what is going on in online spaces and the nuances of why young boys and men are engaging in increasingly anti-feminist views. We also don’t know enough about the impact of these views on girls and women offline. We want to better understand these online spaces to both improve safety but also informed decision making and policy about the place of online spaces in broader society. This project is looking at two examples of where this is playing out: Australia and Ireland. We will explore why men are attracted to some online spaces and how women and the Internet experience them more generally. The aim here is to understand how some boys and men view women and feminism and to understand whether and how this is impacting girls and women on and offline.