Written evidence from Dr Anna Lavis, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Health Sciences & Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham and Dr Jwana Aziz, Research Fellow, Department of Applied Health Sciences, University of Birmingham [MIS0075]

Executive Summary

In response to the Call for Evidence on Misogyny: the Manosphere and Online Content, this submission draws on our extensive research programme into online harms at the University of Birmingham to outline two key points: (1) the grooming of young males into extreme misogyny by online influencers such as Andrew Tate; (2) how Manosphere content and influencers foster misogynistic attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls in UK families and classrooms.

We highlight forms of content that have been largely overlooked in existing discussions of the Manosphere, such as fitness, self-improvement and ‘motivational’ content, and show how these offer key pathways into misogynistic ideologies. To date there has been insufficient scrutiny of how these seemingly harmless content forms contribute to harmful gender attitudes and violence against women and girls.

In highlighting these pathways to radicalisation, we also call for recognition of young males as victims of online grooming. Manosphere influencers actively exploit young men’s offline vulnerabilities for both their own financial gain and to spread harmful rhetoric. To evidence this, we use Andrew Tate as an example. However, his grooming strategies have, more recently, been adopted by other Manosphere influencers. While Tate has garnered widespread public criticism, many of these emerging online figures have been less noticed, making their offline influence more difficult to detect and address. Recognising how their tactics mirror the three-step grooming model used by Tate, as outlined in this submission, offers a way to pre-emptively assess and tackle their harmful influence.

In this submission, then, we evidence how Manosphere content poses harms to both young men and women. It promotes toxic masculinity, acts as a gateway to misogyny, and impacts relationships within families, schools and across society.

Research Team and Funding

Dr Anna Lavis is an Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology. At the University of Birmingham she leads an extensive research programme into online harms. Using the methodology of online ethnography this has explored: what primary school aged children do and see online; content on self-harm and suicide; eating disorders, body image and 'wellness' content; the harms and draws of the 'Manosphere'. Anna sits on Meta's 'Eating Disorders and Body Image Global Experts Advisory Board' and has worked closely with a wide range of key stakeholders and policymakers to shape the design and implementation of the UK Online Safety Act.

Dr Jwana Aziz is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham whose work examines online masculinities and the digital cultures that sustain them. She has conducted in-depth research on the Manosphere and shared her insights at numerous academic forums, shaping discourse on gender, power, and online harm. She is currently working on a project focused on offering underpinning evidence to tackle the harms of the Manosphere in UK practice and policy.

This research was funded by the Barker Family Trust, and the QR Policy Fund at the University of Birmingham.

Introduction

The research drawn on in this evidence submission has been investigating the Manosphere since 2022. Employing the methodology of online ethnography (Kaur-Gill and  Dutta 2017; Winter and Lavis 2020), has enabled us to track hypermasculine content across online spaces and platforms, contextualising these in the wider landscape of social media. This has revealed connections among seemingly-disparate forms and focuses of content and afforded insights into how these may comprise key pathways into hyper-masculine and misogynistic rhetoric. As such, this research offers a vital source of evidence on both pathways into radicalisation and its societal impact.

The submission will evidence:

(1) the grooming of young males into extreme misogyny by online influencers;

(2) how Manosphere content and influencers foster misogynistic attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls in UK families and classrooms.

These focuses are drawn from our report, The Andrew Tate Phenomenon: Online Hyper-Masculine Influencers and the Radicalisation of Young Men and Boys (Lavis and Aziz, 2023) as well as more recent findings from our ongoing research. Although the submission draws on the example of Andrew Tate, the points we present are relevant to Manosphere influencers and content more widely.

We will outline the methods that social media influencers such as Tate employ to render the Manosphere, and therefore the attitudes it extolls, attractive to young men and boys. We will argue that such Manosphere influencers should be understood as online groomers, highlighting how they exploit offline vulnerabilities as a means to radicalise young men into hyper-masculine worldviews.

Outlining these pathways into radicalisation evidences the urgent need for the inquiry to reflect on content forms that, to date, have largely not been included in discussions of the Manosphere or of online harms more broadly. Central to these are fitness, self-improvement and ‘motivational’ content, which can act as key gateways to the Manosphere, especially for teenaged boys.

This submission, then, will:

(a) Reframe victimhood to recognise that young males are groomed into misogynistic and extremist ideologies, arguing for the need to hold influencers accountable for their predatory tactics;

(b) Expand the definition of Manosphere content to include self-improvement and ‘motivational’ content that cloak misogyny in aspirational language;

(c) Centre the voices of women, particularly mothers, sisters, and partners, whose lives are directly affected by the spread of online misogyny, through firsthand testimonies collected from online spaces during our ongoing research.

The Use of Grooming Tactics by Manosphere Influencers: The Example of Andrew Tate

Conceptualisations of grooming have tended to focus on young women and girls (Gijn-Grosvenor and Lamb, 2016). However, our research shows the need to also recognise how young men and boys become targets of online grooming. Specifically, some Manosphere influencers use grooming techniques to intentionally manipulate boys’ and young men’s beliefs, emotions, and behaviours to radicalise them into adopting harmful worldviews and also financially exploiting them.

To elucidate this, we outline how Andrew Tate has successfully cultivated a loyal cult-like following, and thereby spread misogynistic content:

Step One – Destabilise: The first step in Tate’s strategy is to destabilise his audience’s perception of reality. He frames the world as a rigged system - “the Matrix” – which he says is designed to intentionally keep men weak, disempowered, and subservient. Tate suggests that if a man is dissatisfied with his body, trapped in an unfulfilling job, struggling with mental health, or facing loneliness, this is due to the Matrix working to keep him ‘weak’.

“Scammers and demons walk amongst you. The Matrix is designed to promote an ideology that makes you weak, poor, and alone.”

Andrew Tate @Cobratate

“They appear when required, any “normal” person still connected to the Matrix can become an agent. If you are not one of us. You are one of them.”

Andrew Tate @Cobratate

Online testimonies from young men who follow Tate show that they can come to believe “The Matrix is real” and that this fundamentally distorts their sense of reality. He successfully creates a worldview in which everything is suspect and nobody can be trusted. This serves to lead young men to feel unsafe, mired in deception and fear. In this first phase, then, there is an intentional isolating of a young man, and an attempt to break down his existing support systems, leaving him disoriented and searching for meaning.

Step Two – Groom: Having destabilised his followers’ sense of reality and trust in the world around them, Tate positions himself as a protective defender – a rescuer - the only one who truly understands the Matrix and who “tells it like it is.”

“Once you reach a point of empowering influence, you're marked by The Matrix as a criminal. The Real World has been too successful for my own good. Once you have empowered too many people, they lock you in a cell.”

Andrew Tate @Cobratate (from prison in Romania)

The result is an “us vs. them” mentality that binds followers to Tate’s narrative. He validates their feelings of powerlessness and insecurity to then present himself as a “big brother,” offering guidance rooted in self-improvement, self-discipline and personal transformation.

The advice that Tate offers centres on going to the gym, cutting out sugar, stopping drinking, increasing productivity, and toughening up. It is therefore by seeking fitness-focused content that young men and boys can first stumble into the landscape of the Manosphere.

Crucially, our research also shows how young men’s offline vulnerabilities are exploited as Andrew Tate expounds keeping fit and going to the gym as key to overcoming problems and thereby “becoming a real man.” Online, there are testimonies from young men who describe having been drawn to Tate because of offline challenges such as being bullied at school or experiencing depression or even suicidality. They describe “feeling better” after following his advice, recounting how their bodies feel stronger and their self-image has improved. There are also accounts, therefore, of how Andrew Tate “saved me.”

While this elucidates Tate’s strong appeal, it is important to note that Tate never directly addresses followers’ challenges in any helpful way. Instead, in presenting himself as a saviour, he channels their distress into becoming a “real man”. We suggest that it is the reinforcement of male dominance and social power that underlies their reported feelings of improvement, rather than any genuine resolution of deeper issues.

Step Three – Recruit: At this stage, many of these boys and men feel indebted to Tate. They believe he is the only one who understands them, who validates their struggles, and who helps them feel empowered. This emotional loyalty leads them to fully adopt his worldview, and internalise his beliefs, including his misogynistic attitudes towards women.

This evidences that what may, at first glance, appear to be harmless "self-improvement" advice - such as going to the gym – is a crucial gateway to radicalisation.

“Become the man who makes money, not the man who is made by money. Don’t be a Crypto dork. I’ve made millions and millions of dollars from crypto and I STILL do, but the difference between me and a Crypto dork is that you can take all my money away and I’m still a super hero.”

Andrew Tate retweeting THE WAR ROOM @ReachTWR

It should be noted that through this three-step grooming process, Tate also recruits followers into a fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme. Rebranded as “The Real World,” this reinforces Tate’s narrative that the outside world is artificial and that only through him can be accessed “the real, authentic world.”

Wider Context: Beyond Andrew Tate

While Tate has played a key role in pioneering a model of using fitness and self-improvement content as a way to groom young men into misogyny and both retrograde and rigid imaginings of masculinity, similar tactics are now being widely replicated across social media; many emerging Manosphere influencers are adopting Tate-like strategies in pursuit of notoriety and fame.

As such, fitness and self-improvement content pose a key danger point in that they can lead boys, even as young as late primary school age, to stumble across Manosphere content when searching online to ‘get better abs’ or ‘eat more healthily’ for example.

Our research has shown that such searches lead a young man to be offered content by algorithms that is created by Tate and other Manosphere influencers who self-style as self-improvement gurus but whose rhetoric may mix that focus with misogyny and harmful gender attitudes. It is therefore crucial that the inquiry recognise the wider ecosystem in which Manosphere content is embedded.

The Manosphere’s Fostering of Misogynistic Attitudes and Behaviours

Our research has revealed online testimonies written by women, including girlfriends, mothers, and sisters, who have witnessed behavioural changes in the men and boys in their lives following their engagement with online content, particularly that of Andrew Tate. These accounts illuminate how such influencers can normalise and amplify misogynistic attitudes and behaviours in private and domestic settings.

Impact on Partner Relationships

Women reported that after their male partners began engaging with Tate’s content, their behaviour shifted markedly. Common patterns included:

• Degradation and Control: women described their partners beginning to speak to them in demeaning and hostile ways, attacking their character as a way to assert dominance over them. Several women shared their difficulties in leaving long-term relationships under these conditions, citing fear for their safety and the need for planned exit strategies.
• Misogyny and Rape Apologism: women also described how some male partners began to openly state they wanted a “submissive” partner, using terms such as “sluts” or “whores” to describe women as a collective. One woman noted that her boyfriend became “more aggressive” the more he watched Tate, telling her he wanted to “fix his bloodline” and ensure he “never had a promiscuous daughter.” Another woman described her despair upon hearing her partner say that “women who dress slutty deserve to be raped.”

Testimonies from Mothers

Mothers of adolescent boys, particularly those aged 11 to 17, reported significant behavioural and attitudinal shifts following their sons' exposure to Tate’s content:

• Self-improvement and hyper-masculinity: Women described how boys became intensely focused on diet, weightlifting, and daily gym routines, aligning with Tate’s emphasis on physical toughness and self-discipline. Some expressed a desire to join combat sports like kickboxing to mimic Tate’s self-styled image of masculinity. “I don’t know what happened to him”, one mother wrote describing the shift in her son’s behaviour, “all he wants to do is work out and focus on his eating. He is just obsessive and he won’t listen to me.”
• Aggression and superiority: influenced by Tate’s rhetoric, boys were described as increasingly adopting the belief that men who are not physically strong are weak and vulnerable, which had resulted in physical fights at school.
• Disrespect and hostility: Mothers frequently noted growing disrespect at home and school, with their sons using misogynistic language and refusing to listen to female authority figures. One mother shared that her previously gentle son had begun to tell her to “shut up” when challenged.

Impact on Sibling Relationships

Sisters also used online spaces to report alarming changes in their brothers after being exposed toTate’s ideology, such as verbal abuse, body shaming, and acts of monitoring and policing:

• Control and Surveillance: it was described how some brothers attempted to impose traditional domestic roles such as cooking and cleaning on their sisters, monitoring their routines and even dictating how much sleep they should get. Efforts to resist this control were often met with shouting, verbal degradation, or threats. As one sister wrote, “I’m scared of him now. He follows me around the house telling me what to do”.
• Adoption of Rape-Apologist Beliefs: Some brothers echoed rhetoric suggesting that women’s bodies are male property. One sister wrote: “I love my brother but hearing him say that women deserve to be raped makes me hate him.”

Impact in UK Classrooms

Our analysis of Reddit forums also revealed discussions amongst UK-based teachers of the impact of Andrew Tate in their classrooms.

• Teachers reported an uptick in misogynistic attitudes and behaviour among male students, directly linked to Andrew Tate’s content, with some pupils hanging Tate posters around the classrooms. Some boys had begun to refuse to complete assignments handed to them by female teachers or to read texts written by female authors.
• Some teachers felt unequipped to handle the scale of the problem suggesting that it goes “beyond a Thursday morning assembly” and in need of both policy-level intervention and school-based responses.
• Teachers expressed a lose-lose situation where openly discussing Tate risked amplifying his appeal, reinforcing the victimhood narrative that Tate promotes to his followers and further entrenching loyalty towards him.
• Teachers advised one another to critique Tate’s ideas through reasoning rather than confrontation, aiming to foster a dialogue by “extending an olive branch on Tate can yield results.”
• Some teachers repeatedly stressed that Tate is a symptom of deeper societal failures, pointing to the lack of emotional and structural support for boys, suggesting that society has failed to offer healthy male role models. As one teacher put it, “it’s no wonder boys are drawn to someone like Tate.”
• Suggestions included the development of more male mentorship programmes and boys-only support spaces to provide alternatives to toxic social media influencers.
• Teachers concluded that Tate is just the “tip of the iceberg”, and that without tackling underlying issues like gender inequality, poor sex education, domestic abuse, and media representations of masculinity, future generations will remain vulnerable to similar radicalisation.

Conclusion

This submission has contributed to evidence on the impact of the Manosphere by identifying young boys as victims of predatory behaviour and online grooming by influencers such as Andrew Tate. In turn, it has elucidated the significant impact of Tate’s content on women and girls, particularly within UK families and classrooms.

However, while this submission has used Andrew Tate as an example, it is important to recognise that he represents a far broader issue. There is a fast-growing wider ecosystem of Manosphere influencers who exploit male vulnerability for self-gain, often promoting harmful gender norms under the banner of ‘empowerment,’ ‘self-improvement’ and ‘fitness’. For example, another prominent Manosphere influencer, Hamza, produces content that includes “How to Fix Your Life: Full Self Improvement Guide” and ”How To Build An Aesthetic Body (No Bullsh*t Guide)” alongside more overtly ideological videos such as “The Lie of Female Empowerment” and “Feminists are genuinely evil.” This demonstrates the need to recognise self-improvement content as a pathway into radicalisation. It is a key way in which boys as young as late primary school age may first stumble into the Manosphere. Once there the powerful combination of algorithms and influencers’ grooming tactics draw them further into a daily plethora of extreme misogynistic content.

To tackle these harms posed by the Manosphere requires a multi-sectoral approach that comprises regulatory moves on the part of the UK government as well as school and community-level interventions that challenge harmful rhetoric and support healthier gender attitudes.

June 2025