A Lancet report by Cambridge academics argues the manosphere should be tackled like smoking and obesity, sparking immediate government action and debate over who bears responsibility.
The report was written by Professors Sarah Hawkes and Kent Buse, founders of Global 50/50, a Cambridge-based think tank focused on gender justice. The manosphere includes diverse online communities and businesses with shared views on masculinity, misogyny and male victimisation.
Online figures and businesses have built a profitable industry around misogyny and resentment about masculinity, the authors say, often promoting its most extreme forms. Social media algorithms boost extreme material, allowing influencers to earn advertising revenue.
The manosphere offers boys and young men belonging, identity and an explanation for why life feels hard.
The report links the manosphere to harms including violence against women and girls, mental health problems and discouraging boys and men from seeking help. Its content blames feminism, rather than structural conditions, for men's difficulties, while turning masculine identity into a market for products and paid content.
Boys and men are not the problem. The problem is the conditions that leave them isolated and without a secure future, and the companies that profit from their anger and insecurity.
The report urges a joint effort by governments, schools, health services and community organisations, drawing on approaches used to tackle tobacco and ultra-processed food as public-health concerns. To address educational marginalisation, social exclusion and isolation, it says boys and young men need better employment prospects and skills, renewed engagement with education, and fair access to mental health and other frontline health services.
The report proposes regulating online platforms, not their users, as with restrictions on tobacco advertising to children rather than criminal penalties for smokers. Rules should improve how platforms moderate content to curb harmful environments, use algorithms to spread positive messages and norms, and address structural features that perpetuate harm, it says.
Government acts on the report
Chancellor John Healey announced a £15m fund to tackle misogyny in schools and workplaces. The investment will back efforts to challenge harmful views about gender and counter misinformation from manosphere influencers.
Deniz Uğur, Deputy Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, welcomed the call for a public health response to misogyny and violence against women and girls. She said harmful online material in the manosphere helps spread and shape this violence.
Preventing harm is where attention must be focused, rather than only waiting until after women and girls are harmed, and men and boys are criminalised, before taking any action. A public health response looking at tackling the root causes of misogyny and abuse is welcome, as this is not just a criminal justice issue. Many women, particularly Black and minoritised women and others marginalised by society, are not willing to report harm and abuse to the police due to the risk they will be dismissed, minimised or even blamed for what happened to them.
The coalition said the public should not confuse a public health concern with treating misogyny as a mental health condition.
The debate over blame
Mark Brooks, who leads policy and communications at the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys, said the report treats this as a public-health issue affecting men, boys, women and girls. He welcomed that view.
Far too often, the manosphere discussion has positioned all men and boys as a problem and not taken into account the broader economic, educational and cultural challenges that drive their engagement.
Not all men and boys engage with this content equally. The centre's research is seeking to find out who faces the greatest risk.
In another study published in The Lancet, Professor Jim Catto examined how patriarchal expectations about masculinity affect men's health. Catto, Professor of Urology at the University of Sheffield, argued that online stories about masculinity and male grievance fill a gap left by a lack of support.
These findings highlight why we need to look beyond individual behaviour and consider the wider environments that shape men's attitudes and actions.
Why action is urgent
Jake Richards called for action without delay, saying toxic online influences are having a clear impact. He is the British Minister for Human Rights responsible for Men and Boys.
This is not just an issue for men and boys - it is a wider societal challenge.
Andrew Tate is among the best-known influencers in the manosphere. He and his brother face 59 criminal charges in the UK.
Those needs are real. A response that only removes the manosphere, without offering something credible in its place, will fail. We need to offer boys something better, not just tell them what to avoid.
Proposals to control or moderate content are often portrayed as curbs on men's freedom, the report says, narrowing the political scope for intervention. Women's rights face serious barriers in many settings, while almost nine in 10 people hold fundamental bias against women.
