Crisis of masculinity or crisis of privilege?
In recent years, we seem to be witnessing a quiet but steady turnaround. Research in Europe and beyond shows that a part of young men is moving in a more conservative direction in terms of politics and values, while at the same time there is a growing belief that women and minorities have acquired “too many rights”. What only a few years ago functioned as fringe views, today is increasingly entering everyday conversations, social networks and popular culture. This shift did not occur in a vacuum. It is intertwined with the uncertainty of modern life, with loose notions of gender roles and with the feeling that the rules of the game are less clear than they used to be. In such a space, explanations that promise order, clarity and simple answers gain special weight – even when these answers are conflicting or exclusive.
That this shift is no longer limited to the fringes of the Internet is also demonstrated by the recent massive response to Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere. In it, Louis Theroux does not seek exotic extremes, but shows how ideas about masculinity, relationships and power are created, circulate and gain an audience, especially among young people. What it reveals is not a closed or inaccessible world, but a space that has become part of the everyday digital experience. A space where ideology is not presented as ideology, but as advice. As a lifestyle. In response to feelings of insecurity and failure. Today, we know this space under the collective name of the men’s sphere.
What is the masculinity anyway?
The word “masculinity” sounds as if it denotes a unified space, a community with clear edges, perhaps even a certain ideology that can be easily recognized. But in reality it is a much more diffuse phenomenon. Maskosphere is not a movement in the classical sense, but a collection of different online communities, forums, influencers and content, connected by a common starting point: the belief that the relationship between the sexes in modern society has broken down – and to the detriment of men.
The term began to gain traction at the beginning of the new millennium, initially in online forums and blogs where communities gathered to discuss relationships, divorce, fatherhood and the position of men in society. Some of these debates stemmed from concrete experiences – a sense of loss, invisibility or legal inequality – but over time began to transform into a more ideological form. Instead of highlighting individual problems, a general explanation of the world has been pushed to the fore, in which men are presented as a new neglected group.
Leja Markeljresearcher at the Peace Institute and doctoral student in gender studies, characterizes the male sphere as a broader part of neoconservative movements that interpret social changes in the field of gender relations as a “crisis of masculinity”. “This is supposed to be the result of feminism and the emancipation of women, which according to this logic should go too far and start working at the expense of men, who are presented as a new discriminated group,” explains Leja Markelj.
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