Man or Bear – Reclaiming Masculinity from Andrew Tate and the Manosphere. Author: Anais Reynolds

Following a social media debate, women are asked if they would prefer to be stuck in the woods alone with a man or a bear. “Man or Bear?” (Greer et al.,2025) they ask; yet women know that the only attack likely to be sexually or power-driven, would come from a man. Men laugh at these ‘hysterical’ responses, dismissing them as ‘crazy feminist’ ideas instead of listening to what are, in truth, cries for help. Unison has expressed that violence against women has been declared a “national emergency” with the number of female victims underestimated at around 2 million a year (2025). These violent crimes include rape, stalking and assault, however, now include increased misogynistic online content. In a society that should be celebrating men’s newfound emotional vulnerability and hopes for women’s fearless walks in the dark, a darkness emerges online: the ‘manosphere’ (Haslop et al., 2024:1).  

The narrow and harmful views of multiple online communities have been branded the ‘manosphere’, promoting “false narrative[s] that feminism and gender equality have come at the cost of men’s rights” (UN Women, 2025). The face to the ‘manosphere’ is social media influencer Andrew Tate (Haslop et al., 2024), who is unapologetically leading masculinity into failure. Seeking to reclaim masculinity and reinstate masculine power, Tate instils a dangerous mindset by targeting young, still-developing men and boys, setting gendered equality back decades. This manifesto calls for social and educational change to challenge these harmful, toxic masculinities (Ging, 2019:640) and reinstate an empathetic masculinity as the norm. 

Whilst presenting a humorous persona (Haslop et al, 2024) and promoting fitness advice, wealth and lifestyle tips (Gilmour, 2025), Tate’s seemingly harmless content attracts young boys, appearing as any other, “cool” influencer. Taking a darker turn, Tate’s content then progressively introduces “regressive stereotypes including that women cannot drive” (Das, 2022, in Haslop et al, 2024:1), and the belief in women’s sexual inferiority, claiming that women “bear responsibility for rape” (Haslop et al, 2024:1).  Tate claims that dominance is maintained by reducing women to “mens property” (Haslop et al, 2024: 1). These historically normative ideals incite fear in young girls, as such language and attitudes are becoming a daily occurrence. Whilst particularly harmful for women, this content also endangers young boys, who struggle to decipher the boundaries of Tate’s so-called comedy. For parents, families, teachers, the rise of social media and its false, harmful narratives are becoming an ever-growing concern. Being unable to censor all content young people see online, some influencers exploit this for their own advantage. 

UN Women (2025), an organisation ensuring equal standards and human rights for women and girls, has raised awareness of this ongoing issue due to its dangerous promotion of gender-based violence and “growing links to radicalization and extremist ideologies” (UN Women, 2025). Some of these ideologies, and even the ‘manosphere’ itself was unknown to parents and teachers until Netflix’s series Adolescence (Gilmour, 2025). The ideologies including “betafags” and “incels” (Ging, 2019:640) and being “redpilled” (UN Women, 2025). Ging (2019) explains this ‘incel’ culture as a reaction to sexual rejection from women, used as a means by women to maintain societal power. To combat this, the ‘manosphere’ urge society to take the “Red Pill” (Van Valkenburgh, 2018) a concept deriving from The Matrix (Van Valkenburgh, 2018: 87), helping society to ‘wake up’ and realise everything once taught as truth, is a lie. These online communities compare this to women’s true societal dominance, claiming women hold hierarchal power over men by withholding sexual activity. Consequently, the ‘manosphere’ promotes misogynistic ideologies and extreme measures, such as sexual violence, to reinstate male power, inciting the end of gender equality. 

These extreme misogynistic ideologies can be linked to “hegemonic masculinities” (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005: 829-854). Derived from Gramsci’s (cited in Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005:831) theory of hegemony, which explores hierarchal systemic inequalities within social classes, has been further applied to masculinities. These oppressive views often dominate ‘inferior’ masculinities as well as women, encouraging men through fearmongering about poor romantic and economic futures. These fears are demonstrated in Adolescence, as online extremism promoted by social media influencers capitalises on men’s and boy’s insecurities. This further manifests in their search for a solution to these insecurities, leading to some becoming “radicalised” (Gilmour, 2025). “Radicalisation is a gradual process, but it is often triggered by a personal event” (Gilmour, 2025:321), where figures such as Tate can capitalise off negative experiences which are all normal parts of your adolescent years. Instead, Tate villainises females for these experiences, and catastrophises them. 

These young men’s brains are still developing; they are still discovering their own identities. It must become a shared understanding that men cannot project their feelings of embarrassment and insecurity upon women and young girls. Whilst families and teachers play a vital role to help educate our young people to become caring individuals, “56% of young fathers (under the age of 35) approve of Andrew Tate” (Over et al, 2025: 272). Therefore, not only do young people need guidance, grown men in society also require educating. 

Whilst no research currently supports that sexual violence has increased due to the ‘manosphere’ (Over et al, 2025), we must acknowledge that this still could take effect. Over et al. (2025) state that there have been negative consequences for women’s mental health, as well as open discrimination against people of colour and LGBTQ+ members. This needs to change, as the ‘manosphere’ violence is not only gendered, but racialized and homonormative, attacking any diversity as threat, which is simply prejudice. Following Adolescence, we need to call this ideology out for what it is: “toxic masculinity” (Ging, 2019:640) and raise awareness of its damaging effects on young people’s mental wellbeing, sense of identity, and women’s general safety. Women’s safety is not negotiable, and this manifesto demands a change. 

Rather than portray women as “irrational, hypergamous, hardwired to pair with alpha males, and need to be dominated” (Ging, 2019a, cited in Haslop et al, 2024: 2), we need to ensure that men, boys, and society as a whole look beyond figures such as Andrew Tate, the victimising influencer, who profits enormously from these ideologies, and see our women who they truly are. Not villains seeking to dominate society and gendered power, but people: our mothers, sisters, daughters who keep society running. We must hope that violence against women can one day become extinct, and women will choose being alone with a man, as the safest option.  

References

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