“Manfluencers”

Oh, for crying out loud

Photo: Tim Mossholder

Yes, dear readers, I really have spent the past week thinking about manfluencers. Like AI (which I also didn’t want to think about), “manfluencers” may be of some political consequence down the road. My enthusiasm for the topic is lacking yet duty calls.

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“Manfluencer” is a neologism but not a recent one. Unaware of its origins in market research, I assumed it had something to do with hegemonic masculinity and distasteful characters like Andrew Tate. But it turns out that manfluencers started with . . . groceries.

Marketers conducted focus groups with men who had been unemployed as a result of the 2007-2008 recession. The recession had a greater impact on employment in male-dominated industries like finance, construction and manufacturing. Women were less affected because more of them were employed service industries where the recession had less of an effect. Because of the disparity between men and women in rates of job loss, University of Michigan economist Mark Perry cutely labeled the economic collapse a “mancession.”

Through focus groups and surveys, market researchers found that more men were grocery shopping and preparing family meals than previously. Sniffing out the trend-setting potential in this unremarkable finding, advertising account execs wasted no time. They jumped to a conclusion and launched a campaign. Behold the advertising pitch (in the original marketese—ed.):

Robbed of their economic potency, men were transforming themselves from chest-waxing metrosexuals into helpmates.

Right. How many “chest-waxing metrosexuals” did you know in 2007? Did these chest-waxing hunks work in construction and respond to the Great Mancession by grocery shopping? Ay-ay-ay.

“Manfluence” was trademarked in 2013. Account executive Julie Murphy came up with this buzzword for a public relations campaign to promote Midan Marketing’s survey results.

Midan conducted a survey that revealed that 47% of men in the US are buying most of the groceries and doing most of the cooking in their homes. Murphy decided to call this group “Manfluencers™” in order to highlight their newfound power over purchasing decisions.

Stripped of the nonsense, the marketing insight is this: when promoting groceries or home products don’t assume the consumer is female.

Does this represent a higher level of social awareness by advertisers? A recognition that both men and women can contribute in the home, that the “breadwinner” role can be shared? Seems basic but . . . baby steps, I guess.

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Social media marketing took off. By 2020, the top female brand influencers were making good money on TikTok and Instagram. It was not long before the guys moved in.

Philip Bradford, a DIY hobbyist, was an early Instagrammer with a website called Phillip_or_flop. Dr. Bradford—he’s a PhD in chemical engineering—was promoted by Parker Talent Management (PTM), as “a lead male influencer in the digital media space” with 200,000 Instagram subscribers.

PTM’s “Influencer Spotlight” features a Q&A with Bradford: On Becoming a Manfluencer in a Predominantly Female Industry

I think that being one of the only large male influencers in the home/DIY space makes me pretty memorable. I think it does help drive some story views as well; I am different than what they see when they flip to the next person. In general I am just a contrast to what they’re seeing on a daily basis.

There are plenty of female DIYers that are just as skilled as me and I love being the odd man out in the group. . . I am only where I am today because of the extremely talented women behind @Frills_and_drills and @Angelarosehome (both on the Parker Talent Management roster). Lindsay, Angela and I have spent so much time analyzing and swapping notes on what kind of content the DIY loving community wants to see, and how to use the Instagram platform to its full potential. . . .

“Manfluencer,” in 2020, was still a soft label, with a hint of gender equality. Bradford acknowledged his debt to the female influencers in the DIY field and described collaborating with them. Engagement and reach—influencing eyeballs and purchases—was the name of the game.

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“Manfluencing” took a darker turn by 2022 when it blipped on my radar. Andrew Tate had entered the scene and the manosphere got a boost.

If you don’t know who Andrew Tate is, congratulations! you lead a classy life. Here’s the tl;dr. Andrew Tate is a former British kick-boxing world champion who, after retiring from the sport, became a social media personality and a “businessman” involved in several sketchy-but-profitable endeavors. These included Hustlers University and War Room, online ventures that purported to teach young men “physical, mental, emotional, and financial development.” Andrew and his brother Tristan (they co-owned the “businesses”) have been criminally investigated in two countries for rape, human trafficking and organized crime. The Romanian authorities have seized the Tates’ assets; Andrew and Tristan are currently awaiting trial in Bucharest. If you want more details on their (alleged) criminal activities, click here.

The Tates’ exploits would provide ample material for a Netflix true crime limited series. But what concerns us here is the result of Tate’s activities. Andrew Tate has become a highly successful retailer of sexist ideology; he sells the ideal of unequivocal male dominance to an international audience. Tate launched his violent, misogynist ideas from major social media platforms: Twitter (7.5 million followers), Instagram (4.7 million followers), and YouTube (760,000) subscribers. (Although Tate was kicked off Twitter in 2017, his account was reinstated on “X” thanks to You-Know-Who).

A typical discussion in Tate’s War Room:

Messages . . . listed methods for men to gain “sole authority” over women by removing “her entire support structure from her life,” such as making her get the man’s name tattooed, forcing her to leave her hometown and recruiting more girls.

Tate carried forward the commercial and marketing aspect of early manfluencing and turbo-charged it. The price for a course from Hustler University was $8000. He expanded engagement (through violent rhetoric) and his international reach (through exploiting multiple social media platforms). The early days of “metrosexual” egalitarian grocery-shopping men and manfluencer DIY pioneers were long gone.

The brothers Tate demonstrated the money-making potential of the misogyny business. But even darker and more insidious is his younger American counterpart, Charlie Kirk.

Charlie Kirk organized Turning Point USA (deemed a “hate group” by the ADL) to train high school and college students for rightwing activism. These young extremists see themselves as the vanguard in a culture war against liberal society.

TP USA bundles anti-semitism, anti-feminism, racial animosity, and hatred of “elites” into one reactionary package. Like Andrew Tate, Kirk foments anger and commercializes it, via social media and conferences that include elected Republicans and candidates such as Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Kari Lake.

The political intentions and action items of manfluencers like Tate and Kirk are unambiguous. Let’s listen in on their conversations . . .

YouTuber Matt Sapaula invited Charlie Kirk on his show to discuss “Andrew Tate becoming the most controversial man” (7 Figure Squad, posted August 30, 2023). Kirk:

Andrew is a very smart man . . . what he says is so powerful. What Andrew Tate is doing is communicating a warning of what happens when society becomes too feminine. Now if I offend you with this, good, because honestly it’s the truth. By the way . . . for the ladies in the audience, I would venture a guess that you are underwhelmed by the feminization of American men. . . I hear it all the time. So . . . what happens when the society becomes too feminine? Well you get disrespect for the rules, customs, and guardrails. You get feelings based societal governance . . .

A conversation last November on X (formerly Twitter) between Andrew Tate and Charlie Kirk¹ went like this:

We all want Trump to win.

What most impressed me about Charlie Kirk’s performances (videos recorded in front of live audiences) was the man’s the extreme confidence. Kirk spouted nonsense and projected absolute certainty. What sprang to mind next was the Hitler Youth scene (“Tomorrow Belongs to Me”) from Cabaret.

Tate, Kirk and their ilk easily move from marketing to grifting to culture war propagandizing; memes, fantasy scenarios and misinformation are their tools and their currency. What happened in the middle of 2022, when “manfluencing” morphed from a fairly benign acknowledgement of increasing gender equality to a virulent male supremacist ideology?

Ah, yes. On June 24, 2022 the Supreme Court of the United States brought forth from on high the Dobbs decision that rescinded American women’s right to bodily autonomy. For half a century women in this country enjoyed a guaranteed right that allowed them the freedom to live as they would choose.

Coincidence?

To be continued . . .

And now, your moment of . . . aquatic resurgence.

Writing—and reading—about serious subjects can be fairly depressing. Grounded will conclude each week with an upbeat piece so that you may leave with a bit of joy in your heart.

Here’s a story about a big turtle. So big they named him Chonkosaurus. Chonk likes to sun himself sitting on rotten wood and rusty chains in the Chicago River.

The turtle appears to be catching some rays on the same metal chain seen in the original Chonkosaurus footage. That didn’t surprise [Field museum biologist Sara] Ruane, who said snapping turtles, like many other animals, are creatures of habit.

“If something works for them, they’ll continue to do it,” she said.

Ruane reminded Chonkosaurus fans to avoid touching, grabbing or poking the turtle if they spot it. Still, even though snapping turtles have powerful jaws, you probably won’t need a bigger boat . . . .

More Chonkosaurus exploits: Two intrepid kayakers narrate this fascinating nature documentary.

Seriously, click on the link. I couldn’t embed the video because some of the commentary is NSFW.

Keep scrolling down (below Notes) to reach the comments, share, and like buttons.

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Notes:

Ja’han Jones, Turning Point USA's AmericaFest puts gaudy GOP extremism on display

Catherine Odom, Return of Chonkosaurus.

Christopher Mims, Thanks to the “manscession,” metrosexuals have become “manfluencers^TM”

Ash Sarkar, How Andrew Tate built an army of lonely, angry men.

Emine Sinmaz, Andrew Tate: investigation that could bring down ‘king of toxic masculinity’

Derek Thompson, It’s not just a recession. It’s a Mancession!

Stephanie Wescott, et al., The problem of anti-feminist ‘manfluencer’ Andrew Tate in Australian schools: women teachers’ experiences of resurgent male supremacy.

1. Public conversation between Charlie Kirk and Andrew Tate, with embedded video. Nov. 27, 2023 on X (Twitter). My policy is not to link to X or extremist websites, if I can help it.