Two thirds of young men in the U.S. regularly engage with online masculinity influencers ("manfluencers") who often promote sexism, normalize violence against women, and peddle a narrow view of what it means to be a man.
Platforms like TikTok and YouTube use algorithms to push these influencers' messages into young men's social media feeds -- men are told misogyny is "manly," taking testosterone and peptides will get them ripped, and "real men" don't show emotional vulnerability.
Sadly, these damaging ideas have been given a boost by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) and Make America Great Again (MAGA) movements as they have merged with the "manosphere" -- the corner of the digital world where these ideas are peddled. The merger amplifies health risks to men and women. As a physician who now works in public health and policy and the father of a pre-teen boy who will inevitably be exposed to messages from the manosphere, I am increasingly concerned.
Even before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became HHS secretary, he was a hero of the manosphere for raging against "wokeness," rejecting gun control, taking testosterone, and posting shirtless workouts on X. A Fox News anchorman swooned over his "sheer masculinity." His pursuits were coded aggressively hyper-masculine, from cutting the head off a dead whale to extramarital affairs and an allegation of sexual assault.
