Featured Image Credit: YouTube/This Morning
Topics: News, UK News, Film and TV
Kit Roberts
A man has opened up about how he got drawn into the world of the 'manosphere', and how he was able to escape.
The manosphere refers to an online world of content creators and personalities who push antifeminist and misogynist ideas about women and relationships at men and boys.
It's been thrust into the spotlight recently following a documentary by Louis Theroux for Netflix called Inside the Manosphere, in which the investigative journalist takes a deep dive into this murky social media world.
Theroux's documentary also follows on from the prestige TV drama Adolescence, also released on Netflix, which follows the life of a teenage boy who murders one of his female classmates after being radicalized online.
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Will Adolphy is a psychotherapist who became drawn into this world and now helps other men and boys in getting out of it.
On UK show This Morning, Will opened up about how he got caught up in the manosphere, sharing that he was having a difficult time in life, including daily panic attacks.
"I was feeling like I wasn't matching up to this idea of what a successful man is," he said. "I was living in a flat trying to make some money with a few friends and having these experiences of panic and anxiety and depression.
"So my mental health was in a very fragile state, and I was also experiencing a lot of confusion about what it meant to be a man.
"There was this kind of pressure to not be toxic that I was feeling, and this pressure still be a quote unquote 'real man', you know a successful man.
"It didn't feel like there were many spaces to validate that confusion that I was feeling."
Will described the manosphere as 'spaces online that are offering boys and men answers to the questions they have today about being in the world', and that resonated with him when he was in that vulnerable position.
"What often ties all these varying perspectives and different ideologies together is a sense of anti-wokeness, anti-feminist, and misogyny at times," he explained.
"It kind of gets seeped in, what can feel like very useful life advice."
Fortunately, Will was able to get help and move away from that space, and now helps others do the same.
"My suffering overwhelmed my fear of change, and I asked for help," he said. "And it turns out that there was a lot more help available than I actually realized."
He ended up attending a therapy group which changed his perspective.
"But I had to get to that point to get through this fear of appearing weak I didn't even know I had. I didn't want to be a burden," he said.
Will also offered some advice for parents who are worried that their sons may be getting sucked into this world.
He said: "All we can do sometimes is build a bridge so that when our boys get to that point then at least they know that help is available."