\n
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nT<\/span>he article below is an excerpt from the weekly <\/em>Independent Women <\/em><\/strong>newsletter. To get it delivered straight to your inbox enter your email into the box above (and to check out The Independent\u2019s full range of other newsletters), click <\/em>here<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\nHave you seen Louis Theroux\u2019s new Netflix documentary, Inside the Manosphere<\/em>?<\/p>\nIf you have, you\u2019ll probably have some strong opinions about it. My colleague Adam White recently bemoaned the fact that Theroux inadvertently gave these toxic men an extra boost to their platforms simply by making the documentary, while a friend who\u2019s a TV critic on BBC\u2019s Must Watch<\/em> reviewed the show and said she felt Theroux wasn’t asking the kind of direct, probing \u2013 and brave \u2013 questions he used to ask in his previous documentaries; that he gave them, effectively, an easy ride. <\/p>\nEmma Flint pointed out the irony of people only taking the dangers of misogyny seriously when a man makes a film about it, while Chloe Combi interviewed several teenage boys \u2013 some of whom admitted to following manosphere content creators (but mostly for fitness tips) \u2013 and their parents. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the content was well-worn manosphere fare: women are second-class citizens and only useful for washing up and sex; it\u2019s fine to make money from OnlyFans models while calling them \u2018slags\u2019 and \u2018whores\u2019; men can be unfaithful but their partners can\u2019t be; wealth is king, provided it doesn\u2019t come from conventional jobs \u2013 real men make money from crypto,\u201d Chloe writes. And it\u2019s on this third point that I want to pick up here.<\/p>\n
I wanted to find out what the women who come into closest contact with the men in the manosphere really think about them. For some, this means their wives and girlfriends, but for others \u2013 such as Australian adult content creator Skylar Mae, who became a self-made millionaire on OnlyFans aged just 21 \u2013 it\u2019s through working with them, or alongside them. This is what she told me:<\/p>\n
\u2018These men are insecure and a joke\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\nThese guys are such douchebags. They are obviously against the feminist idea of women working. They still hold old, 1900-era beliefs: that a woman should just be cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids while the men work. But now, in this day and age, women should be able to work \u2013 and they can also cook and clean if they decide to. These men think women should be caged in the house, taking care of everything, which is completely wrong.<\/p>\n
Manosphere influencers claim they know what\u2019s best for women. I watched one guy say he knew \u2018more about women than they know about themselves\u2019. The one thing I took from that was that all women want to be dominated, and that men are entitled to put themselves inside their women as they please. For a young boy to hear that, it could seem to condone sexual assault \u2013 and might make them think it\u2019s okay. While some women do like to be dominated in the bedroom, the way they are selling this idea to the world is that men should be dominant in all aspects of life, which I think teaches young men the wrong way that a woman should be treated.<\/p>\n
I view myself as a lioness. No man could just have a normal conversation with me and think he\u2019s dominating me. I generally don\u2019t even associate myself with frat-type men who think they\u2019re superior to women. I can\u2019t stand the sheer stupidity \u2013 especially when I make even more than they do. My advice to men trying to find a relationship? Act normally. Outside of the bedroom (and sometimes not even then), most women absolutely do not want to be dominated and told what to do. That is 1,000 per cent my advice for people trying to get into a relationship.<\/p>\n
I think these manosphere \u2018influencers\u2019 are insane for believing they can go off and sleep with other women, but women can\u2019t go and sleep with other men. If it\u2019s going to be an open relationship, it needs to be open from both sides \u2013 and if they can\u2019t handle that, then they\u2019re losers. Also, the fact that some of them own OnlyFans agencies, yet talk s**t about OnlyFans creators and roast them \u2013 whether it\u2019s for content or not \u2013 shows how insecure they are.<\/p>\n
Some of these men seem to get all excited about \u00a35,000, when I literally make that in an hour on my OnlyFans account. They have to spend their time streaming all day long \u2013 for 23 or 24 hours \u2013 and they\u2019re acting like they\u2019re on top of the world, doing better than most of us OnlyFans models, which is so wrong. They just can\u2019t handle women doing well; they\u2019re so insecure. They\u2019re a joke.<\/p>\n
Get the Independent Women newsletter<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/div>
Independent Women: Sign up to Victoria Richards\u2019 weekly newsletter (The Independent)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nTo receive the Independent Women<\/em> newsletter, simply enter your email address in the box at the top of this page.<\/p>\nYou can also head to our newsletter preference centre to sign up for the email.<\/p>\n
Once there, all you need to do is press the \u2018+\u2019 button and enter your email address to sign up.<\/p>\n
You can also write to me at victoria.richards@independent.co.uk \u2013 or to my alter-ego, Dear Vix, at dearvix@independent.co.uk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more The article below is an excerpt from the weekly Independent Women newsletter. To get it delivered straight to your inbox enter your email into the box above (and to check out The Independent\u2019s full range of other newsletters), click here. Have you seen Louis Theroux\u2019s new Netflix documentary, Inside the Manosphere? If you have, you\u2019ll probably have some strong opinions about it. My colleague Adam White recently bemoaned the fact that Theroux inadvertently gave these toxic men an extra boost to their platforms simply by making the documentary, while a friend who\u2019s a TV critic on BBC\u2019s Must Watch reviewed the show and said she felt Theroux wasn’t asking the kind of direct, probing \u2013 and brave \u2013 questions he used to ask in his previous documentaries; that he gave them, effectively, an easy ride. Emma Flint pointed out the irony of people only taking the dangers of misogyny seriously when a man makes a film about it, while Chloe Combi interviewed several teenage boys \u2013 some of whom admitted to following manosphere …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}