The Machosphere's Scams to Make Boys and Men Hate Women

What makes a man hate women? How are teenage boys drawn into the macho underworld—which propagates misogyny?

British journalist and author James Bloodworth spent months trying to answer these questions—interviewing gurus who claim to teach men how to control women and attending Red Pill community conferences. The results are in his book, *Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere*.

At one conference in the United States, men paid US$10,000 (around R$55,000) to attend lectures and learn how to become the "man other men want to be."

But one of Bloodworth's key discoveries in writing his book is that he didn't even need to try so hard to find this content.

Social media algorithms took care of doing the work for him.

Recent studies have shown that young boys only need to watch a video with misogynistic content to, within an hour, be exposed to even more aggressive videos that have already been banned in the past. Within hours, their networks are "colonized" with sexist content.

Because of this, many young people in the UK today have a positive image of Andrew Tate, a British-American influencer who proclaims himself a misogynist and has millions of followers on social media. Andrew Tate is accused of rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal group for the sexual exploitation of women.

Tate appears as one of the main influences of the protagonist of the fictional series Adolescence , from Netflix — one of the biggest television phenomena of this year, and which shows how the macho world is capable of radicalizing young boys.

And what did Bloodworth discover by consuming all this sexist content?

Something that really concerned him is that this content spreads online because there's a very sophisticated business model used by a small number of "gurus" who make money. And in reality, Bloodworth says, many of these gurus are simply scammers, exploiting their victims' insecurities to make money.

The model is similar to other scams that exist on the internet in other areas — such as fake romances, making money from gambling, or pyramid schemes.

But with one difference: in addition to financially impacting the direct victims of these scams, the content of these videos promotes the ideological indoctrination of men—especially teenagers—against women. This allows radical misogynistic ideas that were previously confined to a small, marginal group to reach large masses of people.

The main technique of this business model — or scam, as the writer prefers — is to sow insecurity in men.

And one of the main tools present in almost every course and lecture is the 80/20 rule—the idea that there's a shortage of women, and that men need to stand out from the rest. Eighty percent of women would be interested in only 20% of men—the "alpha men," who are successful and dominant.

The fear of not belonging to that 20% serves as a gateway for many men to enter the machosphere.

Another common tactic—also present in the world of online gambling scams—is the illusion of wealth. At a conference in the US, organizers rented mansions and Lamborghinis so attendees could take photos and post them on Instagram, giving the impression they were living a life of luxury.

Check out excerpts from James Bloodworth's interview with BBC News Brasil below, in which he talks about what he discovered in the macho world.

BBC News Brasil: Your book begins at a time in your life when you were seeking guidance from so-called "pick-up artists," who teach men how to pick up women. Can you tell me a little about that period in your life?

James Bloodworth: That was 19 years ago. Basically, I was living in Somerset, which is in the English countryside, with my grandmother. I was going back to college.

My life wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't going out much, and my social skills were kind of atrophied. I'd already been a shy child.

I went back to college thinking it would solve my socializing problems because I would be forced to be around people, but it didn't solve my problems and I couldn't find a girlfriend either.

I thought, "When I go back to college, it'll be easy because I'll be around people and girls again." But it didn't happen. Nothing happened.

One day I came home and was thinking about a girl I liked in college and I googled "how to get a girlfriend".

I found a pickup artist forum where there were these guys who claimed to have all the answers. They claimed to have a script on how to make a woman your girlfriend.

And that was really appealing to me. Until then, everything I had tried had failed.

At that time, Neil Strauss's book The Game — The Seduction Bible had been released and I bought it too.

I then enrolled in a training course that took place in London in early March 2006.

I spent a few months in college trying to approach girls using some of these methods and techniques.

On the forums, they used to create challenges of approaching five women a day on campus and asking for the time or their cell phone number. Some of these things helped me.

I couldn't find this kind of information and was too embarrassed to ask friends and family.

Even with all the misogyny in this community, there was no sense of shame in being in it.

BBC News Brasil: These gatherings and communities you describe from 20 years ago don't seem as dangerous as the groups we see today. But the seeds of a more toxic masculinity already seemed present back then. Looking back now, do you feel you might have ended up radicalized if you had remained in these communities?

Bloodworth: It took me a while to realize these people didn't have the answers. I'd been interested in this stuff for about six months.

The helpful part of this advice was that it encouraged me to get out more. I often say that 20% of what they taught was useful, and 80% was garbage.

That 20% includes advice like going out three times a week and actively making an effort to socialize with people. When you do this, your social skills will gradually improve, and you'll start meeting more women. That part was true.

But I soon realized that I could practice this good part and I didn't need all the rest, which was misogynistic and manipulative stuff.

This, in the long run, will worsen your relationships with women. You'll end up ruining your relationships by constantly adopting this pickup artist persona.

Another important difference that prevented me from being sucked into the macho world at the time is that there were no algorithms to pull me deeper into that world. I would log into forums and read posts for a few hours at night.

And I simply closed the forums. My internet browser wasn't "colonized" by various types of content about masculinity, YouTube scammers, and the like.

In 2018, when I started writing this book, it took less than a week, after I watched videos by Jordan Peterson [Canadian writer and influencer who publishes videos considered misogynistic], for my timelines to be filled with people talking about masculinity, blaming feminists for men's difficulties, blaming the left and progressives.

A study in Australia last year showed that a boy who watched a Jordan Peterson video on Instagram would receive a suggestion within an hour to watch an Andrew Tate video. And if he watched an Andrew Tate video, he would receive virtually only suggestions for more Tate content.

The algorithm has made it easier for men to fall into the bottomless pit of extremist content. Some creators only include a bit of more extremist content in their videos, but over time, you end up consuming some pretty sinister videos.

BBC News Brasil: What were the most shocking experiences you saw in this universe?

Bloodworth: For this book, which I began researching in 2018, I returned to that world. I started attending these courses, programs, and workshops.

The most immersive thing I did for the book was go to the US, to Las Vegas, where I spent more than six months, coming and going, undercover, on a course for men called the Men Of Action program, which cost US$10,000 to participate in the program and involved a series of mentoring sessions with a guru, Michael Sartain, the course leader, for a period of six months.

And there were also in-person events, like seminars on how to be a high-status alpha male and photo shoots in the Nevada desert, where the organizing company rented Lamborghinis for the men to take photos for their Instagrams.

It was all about you becoming a high-status man online.

Luxurious mansions were rented out for photo shoots, with huge houses in Nevada for photo shoots—to make it look like the people who paid for the course were living there.

But this was all more embarrassing than exactly shocking.

What was most shocking was the routine language people used about women, which is quite derogatory.

I spent some time in Orlando, Florida, with a red pill movement of the machosphere.

Taking the red pill, for them, means seeing the truth that men are oppressed by women, not the other way around. And feminism would actually be a movement to oppress men.

I expected to hear speeches about women, speeches about feminism, and speeches about false rape accusations, no-fault divorce, and paternity fraud. All of these controversial issues were hotly debated, but there was also plenty of political talk.

There was some kind of affiliation with Donald Trump and the MAGA ("Make America Great Again") movement. At one of the events, I met a guy who was arrested in the US for storming the Capitol on January 6th.

There was a lot of inflammatory rhetoric surrounding the start of a civil war in the US to rid the country of liberals, LGBT people, and feminism. There was a lot of anti-Semitism, too.

Some people bragged about having met Lyndon McLeod and even had photos with him. [McLeod is a misogynistic extremist who wrote science fiction books. In 2021, he shot and killed five people in Denver, Colorado.]

BBC News Brasil: What is the profile of the men in this machosphere?

Bloodworth: I've met different types. I've met ordinary people who've gone through some kind of traumatic situation that created vulnerability or insecurity in them. I've met men who were victims of abusive relationships. Usually, when we talk about abusive relationships, it's the woman who's the victim. But there are cases where the man is the victim, and this minority of cases tends to be taken less seriously.

I've met people who have had issues with women forever, and the material they found online rationalized this hostility they already felt toward women.

This is something that already exists in the mainstream today. There's no clear demarcation between the machosphere and the mainstream patriarchy.

But everything has changed today in the way people are radicalized mainly because of algorithms — and mainly among boys.

I've met young kids who consume material on YouTube. I met a 13-year-old boy who joined YouTube and started watching videos of kickboxing and other combat sports.

This led him to videos of Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer. The boy told me he suddenly discovered Tate, who is very charismatic and knowledgeable, and started watching those videos. And little by little, he began hearing Tate talk about women and feminism.

And Tate made him feel like an idiot, putting him down and belittling him. Saying things like, "You're small, you're a beta male." Tate, on the other hand, is muscular and has a flashy Instagram lifestyle. And he presents himself as a savior and guide.

It's the gurus themselves who make people feel insecure, especially if you're a teenager.

It's like a scam. It's what pickup artists used to do in the past. They used to say, "If you don't listen to my advice, you'll never get a girlfriend."

They say societies have changed and that the 80/20 rule now applies—that 80% of women are chasing only 20% of men. Or even that all women are chasing only 20% of men.

And if you don't take action, you'll be one of those men who gets left behind. That you'll never have a girlfriend and no man will ever respect you.

And then they come up with the sales pitch: I have a course for men like you. Sign up now, for a limited time. What one of the gurus was saying, literally, was that he had Noah's ark—that he could save some men, and that in the future only 10% of men would sleep with all the women.

They constantly harp on this topic of men's insecurity. As you get older, you become more immune to it. But that's not the case for a young teenager, not well-versed in the media world, who receives these messages directly on their phones from charismatic men.

BBC News Brasil: You mentioned very distinct profiles of people—from 13-year-old boys who are online to men who pay for a $10,000 course in Las Vegas. This suggests that the range of men exposed to and seduced by the machosphere is quite broad—including different ages and financial situations. Is that true?

Bloodworth: In Las Vegas, I attended one of the paid courses, but many of these people also offer free content online. If you don't have the money for the course, you can simply watch it online.

In Vegas, on the course, there was a range of ages. Most people were in their 20s and 30s, with a few in their 40s. And occasionally there were one or two people in their 50s.

They were usually people who had recently gone through divorces.

Many obviously had plenty of money, but I wouldn't say they were all rich. I met some young people who had little money but had saved to be there. They felt it was something urgently needed in their lives.

They really believed in the macho rhetoric and the 80/20 rule. That's the glue that holds the whole macho world together—this idea that after the sexual revolution, women are chasing a smaller pool of men.

And there were other men who had plenty of money. Rich people with big, successful businesses who found that money wasn't giving them the elevated status and romantic options they craved.

It was a diverse spectrum of people, and it wasn't just white men. But the more political the events, the more white people there were. Especially in the Red Pill movements.

But it wasn't just these incels. It was a mix of all kinds of people from society.

BBC News Brasil: From what you describe, the machosphere is created by highly sophisticated business models. But do these businesses have widespread reach or remain marginal?

Bloodworth: The more radical machosphere is still a fringe movement, but that doesn't mean that machosphere ideas can't infiltrate the mainstream. I think that's really the danger.

In the case of the Netflix series Adolescence , there was a rather apocalyptic vision of the machosphere, with a boy who murders a schoolmate, apparently because of his interest in the machosphere and some of these toxic ideas.

But that's not what usually happens. There are examples of this type of Red Pill violence, but it's usually a bit more subtle. What usually happens is the emergence of coercive and controlling behaviors, and domestic violence appears in romantic relationships.

Recent statistics show that in the UK, 53% of men aged 16 to 24 believe that most women are attracted to only a small group of men, or in other words, they believe in the 80/20 rule. In other words, it has become a mainstream view—of the majority.

And 51% of the same age group believe we've gone too far in promoting women's equality and are now discriminating against men. Again, this is a majority among Gen Z, compared to 35% of the general UK population who feel this way.

A US survey last year revealed that for most men, society has become too soft and feminine.

A quarter of teenagers have a positive view of Andrew Tate, among those who know him.

This all shows how some of these fringe ideas can infiltrate the mainstream.

The machosphere is on one side and the mainstream is on the other, but there is no clear demarcation of where one begins and the other ends.

BBC News Brazil: Regarding the series "Adolescence ," one thing that shocked many is that even those who come from families that offer some level of support and guidance are still vulnerable to these toxic ideas. Is this a real danger?

Bloodworth: It's great if you have a supportive family and a stable situation.

Many of the men I met seemed normal, so to speak, at least on the surface. But the deeper you dug into their stories, you discovered they came from dysfunctional families, with an abusive father or something like that.

Or they simply had some insecurity since childhood, which is exploited by the machosphere gurus.

But radicalization can still happen even to someone who comes from a stable home.

We all have periods when we feel more vulnerable and insecure, and when we can't talk to our parents. We're all susceptible to this to some extent. I think it's arrogant to think we're not.

You can't completely "vaccinate" your children from the world with just a stable home, but it helps.

Again, I think cell phones and social media have changed the game quite a bit. Because what's happening is that as much as it helps a person socialize—adopting values like women's equality, not treating men as superior—all of this can be circumvented by these macho gurus who speak directly through cell phones, escaping the control of teachers and parents.

They're usually charismatic and have a luxurious lifestyle. If you're a teenage boy, you're seduced by this. This person becomes your role model, and that's a problem.

BBC News Brazil: Many in the macho world denounce "big tech" (large technology companies) as their enemies—saying they are constantly censored and "demonetized." But many see the opposite: "big tech" as responsible for bringing the macho world to the general public. What's your view?

Bloodworth: At a conference I attended in 2022, Anthony Johnson, president of Manosphere [a company that organizes sexist-themed events], gave a speech against big tech companies, in which he compared YouTube to a gulag for demonetizing and removing a lot of masculinity content of this kind.

And there was a period in the 2000s and 2010s where YouTube started taking down these videos and demonetizing videos, preventing these creators from making a living that way.

Facebook and Twitter also had more control. Companies began losing advertising revenue because advertisers didn't want their ads displayed alongside misogynistic, neo-Nazi, or fascist content.

But there was a backlash from the radical right against this, and the emergence of several alternative platforms like Rumble, or Donald Trump's Truth Social.

But now that Trump is back in office in the US, people like Mark Zuckerberg, who are ultimately responsible for moderating Facebook and Instagram, are taking stances like "we're not going to censor so much content anymore" and "we're not going to take down so much misinformation."

There has been a realignment of tech companies against removing people from platforms.

YouTube is a little different, but there's a paradox there.

It was YouTube that really killed the pickup artist community in the 2000s and 2010s. Companies that existed at the time, like Real Social Dynamics, had to shift their content to self-help because they could no longer make money from their pickup videos because of YouTube.

But the paradox is that YouTube's algorithm is precisely the reason some of these people managed to become famous. And banning them ultimately didn't work.

I'm not sure what the solution to this problem is. You can see all of Andrew Tate's content on platforms like Rumble.

Maybe it's better to make searches a little harder to prevent some kids from finding this content. But it was worse when YouTube simply recommended this stuff.

BBC News Brasil: Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, many people who had been banned have returned to social media. Do you see many of these personalities you consider toxic returning to the big networks today?

Bloodworth: Yeah, X has become the epicenter of this content now. All the old gurus are there, like Andrew Tate, and a bunch of macho-sphere scammers.

On X, they're running scams, posting videos, asking for donations, selling courses. Everything has migrated there.

There are shocking things there: misogynistic and racist content, neo-Nazi accounts that have returned. What makes it even worse is that anyone can buy the blue seals [the X certification process].

And so this is content that is pushed by the algorithm to the top of people's feeds.

BBC News Brasil: There's a lot of sexist content that spreads easily online. But have you also encountered content promoting a healthier masculinity?

Bloodworth: There are people promoting this content, but the problem is that they're not scammers. Those promoting this content don't classify it as about masculinity, but rather about politics and culture. And it's sophisticated content—and sophistication doesn't make it to the top of timelines and feeds.

Sophistication doesn't generate shocking images and headlines that stir feelings and attract clicks.

Some people who write about this include Richard Reeves, a British man living in the US who wrote a book called "Of Boys and Men." I went to a retreat on masculinity that I found very good and positive. There's also a retired police officer in the UK named Graham Golden who talks about "positive masculinity." There's an American academic named Scott Galaway who produces interesting content.

But since they're not trying to make a living from it, they haven't set up a scam business scheme.

BBC News Brasil: In your book, you paint a kind of history of the machosphere. And as the book progresses and time passes, this story becomes increasingly sinister. Are things getting worse?

Bloodworth: That's how I felt over the years. Things got progressively worse. At first it was very marginal, and now it's increasingly mainstream.

The most extreme examples of the machosphere are being punished and people are realizing that figures like Andrew Tate are caricatures.

But the bigger problem is the personalities who come later—more politically competent and without a history of controversy and lawsuits. You see some of these figures among the populist radical right in Europe, people who are softer and speak with more nuanced language, but with the same toxic agenda.

Many people today talk, for example, about the fertility crisis, and that the problem is that women are working more instead of staying at home to take care of reproduction.

These ideas continue to trickle into the mainstream and become normalized. And the next wave of these scammers will be more polished and palatable.

BBC News Brasil: How can women protect themselves from all this?

Bloodworth: You need to read about this world and learn to identify the warning signs, such as coercive and controlling behavior.

The macho world makes men feel insecure. This is what I've learned from the many men I've spent time with. There's a deep-seated insecurity. Sometimes it's preexisting, but sometimes it's fueled by the macho world.

This insecurity manifests itself in attempts to control women.

It is useful for women to learn about the machosphere, about the techniques and behaviors that appear there.

There are also communities of "red pill" and "trad wives" women, groups that talk about gender roles defined in society.

But the biggest risk for women is the men around them who enter this world.

I've seen many relationships where men start to become interested in these topics. In these cases, it's easier for these men to get advice from other men, as they tend not to take women seriously—or to feel like they're controlling them. It's best to find a male friend who can talk to this man.

Usually when men realize that these gurus are mere scammers, it becomes easier to convince them to give up on these ideas.