Hosted by Faisal Al Yafai
Featuring James Bloodworth
Produced by Finbar Anderson
Listen to and follow The Lede
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean
When James Bloodworth first encountered the “manosphere” nearly two decades ago, its reach, and his own understanding of this particular corner of the online world, were limited. Now, he tells New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai on The Lede, the manosphere is becoming increasingly mainstream, with figures like Andrew Tate gaining popularity amongst schoolboys and even tech bros like Mark Zuckerberg talking about more “masculine energy” being needed in the workforce.
Bloodworth’s new book, “Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere,” recounts his early experiences with the manosphere, from its beginnings in niche internet forums and “boot camps” fronted by seedy pickup artists, to its modern-day manifestation in multimillion-dollar influencer empires fronted by men like Andrew Tate and Dan Bilzerian, with its extremes depicted on popular shows like the Netflix drama “Adolescence.”
“[The manosphere says] you need to have money and you need to have a woman, and if you don’t have that, you’re not getting what you’re owed by society.”
At the heart of the manosphere, Bloodworth explains, is the belief that “to be a man, you need to have certain status objects. You need to have money and you need to have a woman, and if you don’t have that, you’re not getting what you’re owed by society.”
In his early 20s, Bloodworth himself dabbled in the manosphere, he tells Al Yafai. “I encountered these self-proclaimed gurus online who claimed to have all the answers, and it was quite exciting because it gave me a sort of roadmap.”
Those dynamics have become further warped as technology has developed, Bloodworth says. “These movements all come to the fore alongside the rise of platforms like Instagram and later TikTok. These apps are designed to make you feel like everyone else is having more sex than you, everyone else is wealthier than you and everyone else is basically having a better time than you and has more status than you. When you’re a teenage boy and you’re more impressionable, you don’t necessarily have any level of media literacy, you can get sucked into that quite easily.”
The manosphere, says Bloodworth, is getting more and more traction. “Writing the book, when I started out I almost expected the manosphere to not be such a big thing when I finished, but it’s become much more mainstream over the course of that journey.”