How to generate a culture shift around hegemonic masculinity

By Sian Mantovani, Sociology Lecturer at York College and Research Further Scholar

Sometime in 2022, my 17-year-old son asked if I had “heard of this guy, Andrew Tate?”

At that point, like a lot of a slightly older generation, I was oblivious to the burgeoning online content dedicated to misogyny, homophobia and hyper masculinity.

Today, my understanding is very different, and sadly, while Tate may be the first superstar influencer of this so-called ‘manosphere’, but it seems, he isn’t the last. As Tate faces multiple criminal charges including human trafficking, his online presence has been somewhat curtailed. However, there are plenty of other would-be ‘saviours of contemporary mankind’ eagerly filling the void; podcasters such as Matthew Hyman, Ed Matthews and the Fresh and Fit crew all command vast audiences. They too promote a particular brand of body conscious ‘fitness’ regimens, coupled with searing criticisms of the rise of feminism that has somehow left men behind.

Alongside the dietary tips and advice on bulking up your triceps, Myron Gaines of Fresh and Fit promotes his book “Why Women Deserve Less” as opening men’s eyes to the realities of the modern dating world where women dangle the prospect of sex, so that men will “ provide them with money, attention and resources, making you their part-time slave”.

Matthew Hyman, the self-styled ‘dating coach’ advises young men how to gamify dating, reducing relationships down to winners and losers. The kind and considerate male is dismissed as likely to be unsuccessful in attracting partners. Hyman encourages men to adopt an uncaring, dismissive approach to women which he contends will make her want you all the more.

The reach and impact of the manosphere cannot be underestimated. An online survey of 1,316 teens conducted by the Pew Research Centre in 2022, found that 47% of those surveyed declared themselves online constantly. Whilst we may wonder just how representative the sample is, or how it’s even possible to be online constantly, it’s still likely that a considerable amount of young people’s time is spent online. It’s plausible then, that the ideology of the manosphere is influencing attitudes and behaviour both within and outside the classroom. The thought that this was a growing, rather than declining, movement is beyond worrying.

As a teacher of sociology, I have spent many years researching and discussing the role played by gender in contemporary society. Of particular interest is Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity. She contends that a version of what it is to be ‘truly’ masculine predominates in contemporary Western society: strong, productive, virile, a leader, the alpha male. Whilst other expressions of masculinity do exist, Connell claims these versions are superseded by the alpha stereotype and thus other expression of masculinity are deemed inferior or subservient to the dominant version. The manosphere appears fixated on hypermasculinity and the promotion of the ultra-alpha male, with the potential to be both limiting and even damaging to those trying to live up to its ideals.

As a representative of York Colleges’ equity, diversity and inclusion strategy group, I was fortunate to attend a workshop delivered by the Men at Work: 12 Dialogues Facilitating Engagement with Young Men and Boys. My feedback sparked a collaboration between myself and Jack Wilson, a progress coach also at York college who works closely with construction students, most of whom happened to be male.

Jack had already developed some tutorials around the work of Matt Pinkett, the author of Boys Do Cry. The core aim of this work had been to improve boys’ mental health and wellbeing, and Jack had been able to make great use of his relationship with his students and his own personal experience. As a self-confessed lover of both football and musical theatre, Jack encouraged conversations about the pressures and pitfalls of conforming to hegemonic masculinity. The tutorials had gone down well and elicited great discussions, although delivered to a limited number of students. Together, we decided to take these ideas, expand on them and look to roll out a strategy with much wider reach and impact.

Jack and I pooled our resources to develop a training programme with the long-term goal of generating a culture shift. Ultimately, we all want our colleges to be safe environments where everyone feels valued and to that end, we should be tackling any barriers to inclusion. Our strategy was to first introduce all staff to the idea of hegemonic masculinity and its impact, with a view to broadening the conversation to students once we had recruited dedicated and specially trained staff.

Our initial sessions were delivered across curriculum during our colleges’ Festival of Learning weeks. Entitled ‘Boys will be Boys? An introduction to facilitating conversations around hegemonic masculinity’, we hoped that by challenging some deeply held beliefs in a positive and supportive manner, we could foster a climate of openness.

Our sessions covered a great deal of complex issues but in essence, we explored how the rise of the manosphere necessitates a counter discussion and how this might be framed. We counselled against the use of terms like ‘toxic masculinity’ because it creates negativity, a blame culture and can close down conversations before they have even begun. Instead, we advocated for introducing the concept of hegemonic and hyper masculinity as cultural and social norms which pervade many areas of life that we are invited to share, but that we do have the option to resist.

We employed accessible activities, such as getting participants to come up with what we term the ‘Man Rules’, stereotypes of how men should and should not behave, and compared gendered clothing to illustrate the deep rootedness of sexist thinking.

These conversations were centred around not only making boys feel safe, but also safe to be around. To emphasise the dangers of hegemonic masculinity for men and boys we explored deeply shocking statistics around male suicide, self-harm and mental health issues. We think it is important to raise these issues, but this must be rooted in safety, risk awareness and safeguarding. We examined how hyper masculinity can make men and boys less safe to be around by discussing issues such as the relationship between gender and the perpetration of crime and victimisation. The sessions were lively and well received.

The feedback from these sessions was fantastic, generating staffroom discussions and encouraging volunteers to come forward who wanted to take the training further. As a result, Jack and I are now working with the wellbeing and safeguarding teams to capitalise on the inroads we have made.

We were asked to provide further training on the topic at the start of the academic year and this time we focused on a ‘who’s who’ in the world of the manosphere and the distinction between banter and hate crime. In this, we introduced staff to slang terms like soy boy, twink and beta to encourage discussion about the hidden misogyny and homophobia in the language students commonly use to and about each other. As one staff member said: “Sometimes students don’t really know what the terms really mean, it’s just words to them and half of the time, I can’t keep up with the latest slang”, which helped us to consider how language is evolving and how helpful is to keep abreast of the zeitgeist.

Now the groundwork has been laid, we are engaging in training with our progress coaches and developing bespoke materials to be delivered to our students. I can’t wait for those conversations to properly begin.

We are also exploring how we can establish an ongoing support group for students whose challenging behaviour may lead to suspension and even exclusion. There’s much to do and we are very mindful that we want to make the conversations as inclusive and intersectional as possible.

Potentially we will hit obstacles and even resistance, however, right now the ideas and inspiration are coming in thick and fast, with staff engagement helping to drive us forward. I’ve been sent Tik Toks, stopped in the lift and received some touching emails from staff. They have been mostly from men, opening up about the challenge of never quite fitting into their gender box.

Change won’t come overnight, but at least we’re facilitating the conversation.