The Manosphere Promotes Sexual Violence and Objectification of Women

Misogyny pays, and it gets clicks and views in today’s virtual attention centered economy. The Manosphere teaches men and boys to be violent and controlling toward women, who the members of the Manosphere frequently call “females”. The Manosphere especially promotes sexual violence and the exploitation and objectification of women.

The first way that the Manosphere teaches men to objectify women is by focusing on a woman’s number of sexual partners, much like purity culture. Men like Andrew Tate and the dating coaches and podcast bros who follow him claim that the higher a woman’s “body count”, the more worthless she is, calling her anything from a used car to a 304 (hoe) who is “for the streets”. Historically, body count was a term reserved for the number of people killed during a battle or some kind of disaster. Calling a woman’s number of sexual partners a body count is a violent way to quantify a number of sexual partners. These men label a women with a high body count as “used up”, “ran through”, “for recreational use only” and “for the streets”. They frequently use objectifying language, comparing women to a lock that can be opened by any key, a used car with high mileage, food or a glass of water who anyone can dip their finger in, a used pair of shoes, or chewed gum. The Manosphere teaches that women are objects for men to posses, and specifically a woman’s worth is based on how many times her body has been used by different men.

Another way that Mansphere men objectify women is the memeification of women’s body parts, especially as they relate to body count. On TikTok live for instance, wannabe podcast bros are frequently seen with lists of what they consider the perfect woman, including features like “bubblegum pink” referring to the color or a woman’s labia, or even implying that if a woman’s labia looks like “roast beef” that it means she a “ran through” woman with a “high body count”. Memes such as the ones below are posted and shared in these Manosphere communities, making shallow and disgusting commentary about the way a woman’s body looks.

In a recent Jubilee video with Mark Manson, one of the pro Manosphere participants associates “taking dick” with low self esteem and other negative effects. The same kind of attitude can be said of the term body count. The words being used to describe sex with women are often violent and destructive. Women are used, or smashed. One man said “A woman is getting penetrated, a man is having his way with her” and that indicates to him that the woman is a risk taking individual. But again, look at the terms this man is using. A man is “having his way with her”. The woman is the receiver of an action that he believes harms her and is ultimately destructive to her value. The man is doing the using.

I think it says a lot about the way these men view sex, as an act that corrupts the value of a woman. Another man says that men want a woman that no one else has “had”, implying shared ownership over her body if other men have “had” her. He also says that he wants a partner that is inexperienced so that her and her sexuality are “malleable” to him. Does the imaginary woman in these scenarios have any agency here? Has she had any sexual experiences that were non violent or destructive, that she enjoyed and was a willing partner in participation in, not just someone passive who has had these sexual experiences done to her?

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were recently arrested in Miami, and while his outfit has been the center of hilarious discussions, we need to talk about his legacy and the negative effect his popularity as an “influencer” has had on a generation of men and young boys. In an interview with Tucker Carlson three years ago, Andrew Tate claims that he was targeted by investigations for coercing women into making TikTok videos.

In a recent article written by Heidi Blake and published in The New Yorker however, records show that Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were actually being investigated for allegedly trafficking women by using the “lover boy” method to recruit and coerce them into making pornography. The Tates were also running an online network called the War Room, charging around $8000 to teach over a hundred men how to do the same. The beginning of their fortune was made on the backs of allegedly coercing and manipulating women into working as cam girls while Andrew Tate himself chatted with men and get them to part with their money.

Some of the charges that Andrew Tate is facing are

Assault

Several counts of rape

Multiple trafficking offenses

Several charges regarding indecent images of a child and extreme pornography

During the interview with Tucker Carlson, Andrew Tate also claimed that he considered men who were addicted to porn and therefore not having sex anymore to be “cucked”, insinuating that pornography had become a problem for men and was causing them to not have sexual relationships with women. This really is the height of hypocrisy; creating a business model of trafficking women to make money for the brothers while saying that pornography is detrimental to men.

The Tates are not the only Manosphere grifters making money off the backs of women, especially sex workers. The Whatever Podcast and Fresh and Fit are two who come to mind who have a habit of inviting OnlyFans creators to their show so that they can voice misogyny toward them and try to make them look stupid, a practice they also use against feminists. If there is one thing that riles up misogynists, it is the opportunity to spew vitriol against sex workers and feminists, and it is a very successful business model.

Manosphere influencers seem to hate women who do OnlyFans, unless they can make money off of them. HSTikkyTokky, real name Harrison Sullivan who has a combined 1 million followers across social media, is another example who speaks of promoting OnlyFans creators on the Louis Theroux Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere. On the documentary, HSTikkTokky also holds a disrespectful interview with porn star Bonnie Blue, who he at one point calls a dumb blonde. The disgust and disrespect that the men of the Manosphere have for the women they use is very apparent.