Latest news with #manosphere
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Six great reads: sports bros, London's most rock'n'roll hotel and Tetris-like architecture
'Today's sports broadcast world,' wrote Aaron Timms in this fascinating exploration of the sports-based manosphere, 'runs according to a new set of rules, in which 'respectable' TV and the demimonde of sports podcasts, streaming, and shitposting increasingly intersect: all engagement is good engagement, and the best type of filter is no filter. Whatever faint norms of decorum constrained earlier generations of professional sports talkers have faded completely. There's a reciprocal flow of testosterone and ideas between these shows, the world of sports, social media and real life. A handful of subjects and themes recur: veneration of the military, glorification of strength and traditional 'male' values, celebration of gambling, the denigration of women and anything thought to represent 'woke' culture.' Read more A new architectural guidebook was written as a love letter to the Ukrainian city – then Russia started bombing it. How will this home to Tetris-like offices and daring curved cinemas be rebuilt, asked the Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright. If you liked this piece, you might also be interested in Charlotte Higgins's feature on the ghost museums of Ukraine. Read more One of the giants of British media, Street-Porter is a regular on Loose Women, a former TV executive, newspaper editor and author – and about to launch a one-woman stage show. Before she dashed out of the restaurant where they met for lunch, she told Simon Hattenstone about love, regrets and her fury with her late mother. Read more Nearly seven years ago, Emmanuel Carrère travelled on the presidential plane with Emmanuel Macron, to profile him for the Guardian. It was at the start of his first term in office, and everything seemed to be going well for him. Now, Carrère wrote on Tuesday, hating Macron is a national sport in France. For the long read, Carrère travelled once more with the French president, this time to Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, for the recent G7 conference most notable for Donald Trump's abrupt departure: 'With [Trump] gone, the tension subsided. We could breathe again but there was no denying that the game had lost some of its appeal. Even though the second day was no more than a half day it dragged on, which was all the crueller given that its star was Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Invited by the G7, he had travelled more than 3,000 miles just to see Trump and beg him once again not to completely abandon Ukraine, and Trump once again humiliated him, this time by leaving just before he arrived.' Read more On Monday, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services. Their story – of a woman born into extraordinary aristocratic privilege and her life with a violent convicted rapist – grimly fascinated Britain. For an extraordinary long read, Sophie Elmhirst spent months attending their retrial and chronicled the chaotic scenes as Gordon chose to defend himself and Marten pushed the patience of the presiding judge to its limits. Read more The Columbia hotel in west London was known for its cheap rooms, its bar's flexible opening hours, and its look-the-other-way attitude. It became a go-to spot for musicians in the 1980s and, in the 90s, became the place to descend on. In this fun history, Daniel Dylan-Wray spoke to those who remember (or perhaps don't) its hedonistic glory days. Read more
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Six great reads: sports bros, London's most rock'n'roll hotel and Tetris-like architecture
'Today's sports broadcast world,' wrote Aaron Timms in this fascinating exploration of the sports-based manosphere, 'runs according to a new set of rules, in which 'respectable' TV and the demimonde of sports podcasts, streaming, and shitposting increasingly intersect: all engagement is good engagement, and the best type of filter is no filter. Whatever faint norms of decorum constrained earlier generations of professional sports talkers have faded completely. There's a reciprocal flow of testosterone and ideas between these shows, the world of sports, social media and real life. A handful of subjects and themes recur: veneration of the military, glorification of strength and traditional 'male' values, celebration of gambling, the denigration of women and anything thought to represent 'woke' culture.' Read more A new architectural guidebook was written as a love letter to the Ukrainian city – then Russia started bombing it. How will this home to Tetris-like offices and daring curved cinemas be rebuilt, asked the Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright. If you liked this piece, you might also be interested in Charlotte Higgins's feature on the ghost museums of Ukraine. Read more One of the giants of British media, Street-Porter is a regular on Loose Women, a former TV executive, newspaper editor and author – and about to launch a one-woman stage show. Before she dashed out of the restaurant where they met for lunch, she told Simon Hattenstone about love, regrets and her fury with her late mother. Read more Nearly seven years ago, Emmanuel Carrère travelled on the presidential plane with Emmanuel Macron, to profile him for the Guardian. It was at the start of his first term in office, and everything seemed to be going well for him. Now, Carrère wrote on Tuesday, hating Macron is a national sport in France. For the long read, Carrère travelled once more with the French president, this time to Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, for the recent G7 conference most notable for Donald Trump's abrupt departure: 'With [Trump] gone, the tension subsided. We could breathe again but there was no denying that the game had lost some of its appeal. Even though the second day was no more than a half day it dragged on, which was all the crueller given that its star was Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Invited by the G7, he had travelled more than 3,000 miles just to see Trump and beg him once again not to completely abandon Ukraine, and Trump once again humiliated him, this time by leaving just before he arrived.' Read more On Monday, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services. Their story – of a woman born into extraordinary aristocratic privilege and her life with a violent convicted rapist – grimly fascinated Britain. For an extraordinary long read, Sophie Elmhirst spent months attending their retrial and chronicled the chaotic scenes as Gordon chose to defend himself and Marten pushed the patience of the presiding judge to its limits. Read more The Columbia hotel in west London was known for its cheap rooms, its bar's flexible opening hours, and its look-the-other-way attitude. It became a go-to spot for musicians in the 1980s and, in the 90s, became the place to descend on. In this fun history, Daniel Dylan-Wray spoke to those who remember (or perhaps don't) its hedonistic glory days. Read more
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ex-RNC Spokesperson Says Trump Is In 'Deep Trouble' With This Key Group
Former Republican National Committee spokesperson Tim Miller on Friday argued that Donald Trump's support is weakening in the so-called 'manosphere' — an online community of hyper-masculine, anti-establishment comedians and podcasters that were a key component to his election win. Miller, now with the anti-Trump conservative site The Bulwark, joined MSNBC to address Trump navigating backlash from his coalition over his administration's handling of files tied to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Miller, citing Trump's famous Fifth Avenue comments, predicted that the president's main base would 'come back around to him' but the manosphere's support has been fading because 'they don't like being played for fools.' 'They're not in the cult, they were with Trump as a matter of convenience,' he told host Nicolle Wallace. Podcasters like Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, Joe Rogan — all of whom hosted Trump on their shows last year as the campaign looked at young men as a key voting cohort in the lead-up to the election — are among those whohavecriticized the administration over the Epstein files in recent weeks. Miller, while arguing that Trump's support with the manosphere is dwindling, pointed to comedian Shane Gillis' ESPY Awards hosting gig where he quipped that a joke about Epstein got 'deleted' from his opening monologue. He noted that Gillis has appeared on Schulz's 'Flagrant' podcast. 'So he's in deep trouble with that crowd,' Miller stressed. Moments earlier, Miller declared that Trump 'totally misjudged' whether his base cared about the Epstein case. Elsewhere in the segment, Wallace claimed that Trump's 'miscalculation' may have been his lack of appreciation for 'the depths' to which FBI director Kash Patel and FBI deputy director Dan Bongino were invested in Epstein conspiracy theories. She added that Trump also may not have appreciated what animates the manosphere: conspiracy theories and 'distrust of institutions.' 'It's not that they liked Trump, they liked Trump to the extent that he was adjacent to the conspiracies, that he seemed like a fellow traveler in helping them get to the bottom of them. They didn't like him for his policy positions or his looks,' Wallace said. Related... 'Blackmail': Rosie O'Donnell Rips CBS For Kissing 'Madman' Trump's Ring After Colbert News Trump's WSJ Lawsuit Has Social Media Users Cheering For 1 Unexpected Reason Trump Sues WSJ Reporters, Murdoch For Libel After Epstein Birthday Card Story
ABC News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
'Not all men': How the shifting political terrain is making harmful rhetoric seem moderate - ABC Religion & Ethics
There's a growing discomfort with some of the language we use to describe gendered harm. The debate over toxic masculinity is familiar, fraught and often circular. But a newer unease has emerged in social media discussions: the suggestion that even terms like manosphere — the longstanding descriptor for the online ecosystem of influencers, activists and communities that espouse men's grievance and promote male dominance — may now be too harsh, too alienating, too gendered. This is part of a broader commentary suggesting that the use of gendered language to describe male-dominated networks of harm risks shutting men out of the conversation. On the surface, this can sound like progress — part of an authentic effort to 'meet men where they are' and broaden their engagement in gender equality and violence prevention. But it's worth asking, Why now? Why are terms long used in research and advocacy increasingly being labelled divisive? What has shifted to make naming gendered harm feel too uncomfortable? Part of the answer lies not in the words themselves, but in the shifting political ground beneath them. We are living through a moment where discourse around gender and power is polarised and polarising. As far-right ideologies become louder, more organised and more visible, they promote traditional, hierarchical gender roles. Those who reject such extremism but remain wary of structural gender analysis begin to sound moderate by comparison. The political rightward shift not only amplifies the extreme — it repositions suspicion of feminist ideas as balanced, and even reasonable. Nick Adams addresses the DC Young Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club on 29 January 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post via Getty Images) Just look at what's happening in the United States. Earlier this year, Donald Trump, Jr offered praise and support for Andrew and Tristan Tate — high-profile figures known for espousing misogynistic, authoritarian worldviews under the guise of male empowerment, and currently facing charges of sexual assault and human trafficking. Then, just days ago, President Trump nominated Australian-American Nick Adams — a self-styled 'alpha male' and anti-woke provocateur — as ambassador to Malaysia. These aren't fringe actors. They're being platformed and legitimised by the highest levels of political power. This is the context in which softer critiques of feminist language start to look reasonable. The psychologist who questions the use of manosphere , the commentator who says we should avoid 'gendered generalisations' — they are absolutely not promoting hate. But their discomfort with naming gendered power now lands in a conversation that is already being pulled sharply to the right. And in that climate, simply appearing not-too-extreme becomes a kind of authority. This rhetorical repositioning matters. It shifts focus from how power operates to how language feels. It allows a soft revival of 'not all men' logic — not as an internet retort, but as a structural narrative. And while that logic was never especially extreme, it begins to start feeling more moderate, even reasonable, against the backdrop of louder, more overt forms of backlash. The result is a growing reluctance to name masculinity at all. A growing chorus singing that identifying men-dominated networks of harm might alienate the very men we should be engaging. That the real danger is not misogyny, but the discomfort that arises when we try to talk about it honestly. But gender is already in the conversation. It's baked into the structures we're trying to understand. The term manosphere doesn't indict all men. It describes a network of ideologies that organise around male grievance and gender dominance — including incels, men's rights activists, pick-up artists and self-professed misogynistic content creators. Calls to soften this language often come from a place of care, especially within the men's health sector. But when that care comes at the cost of political clarity, we have to ask who benefits. If we avoid naming gender because it feels impolite, we risk preserving the very hierarchies we claim to be addressing. More than that, we reduce gendered violence to individual bad behaviour, rather than expressions of entrenched power. This depoliticises the conversation, obscuring the broader patterns that sustain inequality. And that's the real danger of this shift. It allows harmful ideas to be repackaged as reason. It allows misogyny to hide in plain sight — not in overt rhetoric, but in discomfort with naming the structures behind it. And it leaves us with a strange, unsettling reality: that in a world where the discourse keeps moving right, simply saying 'gender matters' now feels like a provocation. Professor Steven Roberts is Head of School of Education, Culture and Society at Monash University.
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Facing fallout from Epstein and inflation President Donald Trump turns to misdirection
As the president faces a sustained rebellion among some of his most loyal MAGA influencers, and watches younger Americans who make up their audiences turn away, he appears desperate to find a new narrative on which his voters can fixate. Right-wing podcasters are far from the only ones talking about the issue. It has expanded through the so-called 'manosphere' and continues to dominate discussions on X, Reddit and other platforms including YouTube, where a wide range of political commentators are joining the fray. Reports indicate the issue has fractured the president's top advisers. The result: Trump is swinging at every potential issue that comes his way as he searches for a piece of red meat to throw at the hungry wolves. Over the weekend came the president's first and second attempts. A vow to revoke the citizenship of Rosie O'Donnell (clearly a pressing matter, and also, not legal) followed by a strangely-worded plea to his followers: just drop it, guys! Then a third, on Sunday: crashing the on-stage celebration of Chelsea as the club emerged victorious over PSG at the Club World Cup. 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals'?' asked a very normal-sounding Trump on Truth Social over the weekend. 'We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,' he continued. On Tuesday, the administration was hit with another bit of bad news. Inflation ticked up to its highest level in months in June as the president continued to threaten tariffs on the country's closest trading partners, and despite Trump's insistences to the contrary. For months, the president has raged at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, demanding that he cut interest rates. Powell has refused, citing inflation risks; this clearly undermines Trump's insistence. Now, with Trump's so-called 'reciprocal' tariffs set to go into effect in just over two weeks, there will be even more questions aimed at the White House on the issue of how much higher prices will be for the average American consumer. Those immediate price hikes, should they continue or even accelerate, could severely undercut Republican members of Congress as they campaign for re-election into the beginning of next year on the passage of Trump's spending legislation which included the extension of the 2017 tax cuts. And so Trump needed a distraction. On Tuesday, that meant swinging at a familiar target: Adam Schiff, the junior Democratic senator from California. In a Truth Social post, he falsely accused Schiff of mortgage fraud for claiming a home in Maryland as his primary residence. But the practice is common for members of Congress, who spend months at a time working out of the Capitol and in decades past used to move their whole families to the D.C., Maryland or northern Virginia regions for ease of access to their jobs. Political pressure now forces many to maintain residences near the Capitol and back in their home states. This is of course hardly a burden for many members of Congress but can be difficult for younger members with more limited financial means. Legal analysts who looked at the residences have said that Trump's claims of clear illegality are false. And that's to say nothing of the can of worms the president could have opened with the following line: 'he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA.' That could certainly be an awkward line of attack were it to be repurposed against Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama senator (and apparent Florida resident) who is now running for governor in the former state and already taking fire from Democrats on the issue of his residency. Schiff told Inside Washington on Tuesday that the post was 'just the latest example of political retaliation by Donald Trump against one of his perceived enemies'. But the president, right now, seems solely focused on moving his base past the one issue that has now divided it to a greater extent than anything since perhaps January 6. Ironically, that's the same kind of tunnel vision that led his vice president, JD Vance, to fan these flames to start with. It remains to see if he'll be successful, or if the administration can come up with something to satisfy his critics — who aren't growing any quieter. But the White House's current strategy reeks of desperation.
