Manosphere

Saturday

Bridget Phetasy

The male Kardashians

Hello, it’s me, your Gen X auntie who spends too much time online. I regret to inform you that I’ve been on a journey and, like Hermes bringing information from the underworld to mortals, I am here to tell you about the poor, unfortunate lost souls I’ve become aware of against my will. They have names like Sneako and Clavicular – and if I have to know about them, you do too. It starts with a livestream and a boys’ night out, although these aren’t your ordinary frat boys or celebrities. They are some of the internet’s most infamous edgelords, caricatures of men, masculinity and fashion.

male kardashians

Wednesday

Laura Powell

Gun-toting Newsom’s alpha male rebrand

In a 2023 interview, California Governor Gavin Newsom was asked how he ended up in a leadership position. After struggling with his response, he eventually paraphrased a line from George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant: “I put a mask on and my face grew into it.” It was a remarkable admission that inadvertently validated his most common critique – that he is fundamentally inauthentic. Newsom has always seemed as though he were grown in a lab to be a politician. In a way, he was. The son of a well-connected judge and insider of the Getty family dynasty, he has glided through public life with the polished ease of someone born to power. He looks like a central casting governor, speaks in political platitudes and has successfully learned to suppress any sign of human spontaneity.

Thursday

Cockburn

Andrew and Tristan Tate touch down in Florida

Andrew and Tristan Tate, social-media influencers in the infamous "manosphere," returned to Florida today after two years of judicial confinement. The Tate brothers were arrested in December 2022 on charges of rape, trafficking of minors and money laundering. Although they have never been formally convicted, the brothers have been in legal limbo in Romania while the investigation is underway. They have only just received permission to visit their home country, the United States, but they are still under judicial controls, meaning they must return to Romania when summoned. Andrew and Tristan were both former professional kickboxers who began gaining notoriety by voicing controversial opinions online.

tate