If someone is already familiar with the so-called manosphere, this documentary will not offer anything new. Neither does it present much of a commentary or criticism. Theroux instead allows the influencers to speak for themselves with the intention that viewers will recognize how problematic these men’s ideas are. The documentary only scratches the surface of the content that these men produce, much of it being very offensive and disturbing, especially from the Christian perspective. We don’t recommend viewing it unless you are a parent, youth leader, or someone who would like more insight on what young people may be exposed to. We also aren’t going to address every point that is made in the documentary. Instead, we seek to show how the manosphere is more than just a collection of ideas, rather it has deep worldview implications at odds with Christianity.
*Please note this video contains mature content and language.
Human Value
One major worldview issue raised in the documentary is human value. The influencers argue that women are born with value but men are not. Women’s value comes from their bodies, meaning their sexual desirability. Men do not have any intrinsic value but must work to gain strength, skills, abilities, possessions, and power. We can see the many problems that stem from such a mindset. The problematic view of women is obvious: these manosphere influencers have little to no respect for women, seeing them just as objects of sexual gratification. However, their view of men is also troubling. It sees men only through a lens of utility: men are only valuable if they are useful. A strong man is more valuable than a weak man; a skilled man is more valuable than an unskilled one, etc.
The Bible, however, teaches that men and women have equal value, and this value is not rooted in beauty, strength, ability, or utility. Our value comes simply from being created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and does not change whether we are weak or strong, ugly or beautiful, poor or rich (Galatians 3:27–28). We can agree that beauty and strength are good things, but they do not give us our value. We are immensely valuable simply because we are created in the image of God.
How Should We Live?
The men Theroux interviews have a very Darwinian view of life: survival of the fittest. The strong rise to the top and the rest are losers lost in the system. To them, life is one giant competition to be the strongest and most successful, to have the greatest social media reach, to acquire the nicest things, to bed the most women. On one hand, these men do have some good, admirable qualities like hard work, discipline, and self-control when it comes to health and fitness. But they are also driven by lust, greed, and power. These men greatly lack contentment and satisfaction. Such men can never be at peace, as there will always be someone bigger, faster, stronger, younger, better looking, and more successful than they are. And for all of the macho bravado these men exude, constantly comparing oneself to others will only make a person anxious and insecure.
Contrary to what these male influencers teach, the Bible offers a very different perspective on how we should live. The manosphere is completely focused on this world—getting all we can get here and now. Christianity teaches that this life matters, but we should ultimately be focused on the life to come. The purpose of life—eternal life—is to know God (John 17:3). We are not to amass treasures on earth but in heaven (Matthew 6:19–20). God’s nature and commands give us a standard of morality, while many of these manosphere influencers have no moral basis, just their own opinions. They seek to be gods unto themselves. If there were no God, then life would simply be about success or survival. But if God exists, he is the standard for morality and determines how we should live.
From One Matrix to Another
Many of the manosphere influencers use the Matrix as an analogy for being stuck in a system that controls them and keeps them down. They call men to escape the Matrix and to be real men, alpha males. However, we wonder whether these men are calling people to wake up to reality or if they are simply transferring their audience into their own Matrix. The manosphere operates on social media and in message boards. These influencers sell subscriptions and products. They act like they’re liberators and saviors when they’re really salesmen and marketers—which many of them admit. They don’t want you to be an alpha—they want you to be a consumer.
This leads to another irony of the manosphere. Many of these men claim to be anti-woke—especially regarding wokeism’s feminist and gender theory elements—yet they espouse a type of wokeness themselves. Wokeism, formally known as Critical Theory or Critical Social Justice, takes every way that we can categorize people—by race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.—and “weighs” these categories on an intersectional scale that determines to what degree a person is an oppressor or oppressed. According to wokeism, men are the oppressors and women are oppressed. The manosphere flips this, claiming that men are truly oppressed, whether by women, their bosses, the government, or society in general. Once men have realized this, they can be liberated from their oppression and begin to become real men. Sound familiar? This is textbook Critical Theory, just swapping men from oppressor to oppressed. Thus, to be “red-pilled” is just the manosphere way of becoming woke, which is one aspect of what is called the “woke right.” Ultimately, the manosphere is not the solution to the Matrix or wokeness, it just offers its own version.
Conclusion
We’ve given a broad view of the topics raised in Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere and the problems with the manosphere overall. It’s easy to see how young men would be captivated by the hypermasculine lifestyle of having women and success. But we also see from the documentary that these men are never content. They need more clout, more likes, more followers, more subscriptions, more money, more women. They’re prideful, angry, and aggressive. These men claim that they are free, yet they’ve been enslaved by their own sinful desires (John 8:34). Instead of releasing people from the so-called Matrix, they have simply created one for themselves and their followers. There is only one Man who offers true freedom and that is Jesus (John 8:36). This freedom does not come by giving into our selfish desires but by denying ourselves (Luke 9:23). Jesus does not offer a way to success as the world defines it, but he is the way to salvation and life (John 14:6). If you want to be a real man, don’t follow these manosphere influencers—follow Jesus.