Pseudo-coaches in seduction, misogyny, anti-feminism… How masculinists take over social networks

In its latest report, the High Council for Equality is concerned about a greater adherence of 24-34 year olds to the masculinist clichés conveyed by numerous accounts on social networks.

While women’s voices are being freed, a movement is developing in total opposition: “masculinism”. This movement, which starts from the principle that men suffer from the emancipation of women, is growing. Particularly on social networks, where numerous “masculinist” videos flourish.

“We are in a generation of fragile men, of ‘beta’ men, women are more ‘alpha’ today than men. It’s a fucking problem”, says one of these masculinist videos. “The beta man” is one of the themes that comes up most often, in opposition to the alpha man, the dominant male, that these “masculinists” propose to become. Because according to them, if a man is not strong enough, “he gets ‘stupid’, he gets castrated by his wife. Because you’re ashamed of being a man today and you become her victim, you become her dog, you do what she wants”assures another video.

In these videos, there are a lot of clichés about women “psychologically fragile” “because when you know women, they are very unstable, etc. They want a man who can handle everything”, says another video found on social networks. Videos that convey even more stereotypes, such as women are mainly “interested in money. These masculinists also give advice to avoid certain types of women, those who go out too much or who dress lightly for example.

Seven to eight million people affected

These videos have an impact, since in its latest report, the HCE, the High Council for Equality, is concerned about a greater adherence of 24-34 year olds to these masculinist clichés. These accounts are indeed very popular, according to Bloom, a company specializing in social network analysis. “This is not a minor phenomenon, believes Bruno Breton, CEO of Bloom, there are approximately seven to eight million actors who are involved in this subject. So it’s still a phenomenon.” In France, seven million people comment, react or publish masculinist content, even if not all of them are necessarily activists and most are not violent. “It’s not a radical movement. There are some, but it’s not the majorityassures Bruno Breton. Then, on the side, there may be communities that form around these ideas, which will have misogynistic, anti-feminist interventions, etc. But that’s not the origin of most of these accounts.”

On the other hand, in certain cases masculinism can lead to the worst. On January 25, YouTuber Mickael Philetas was sentenced on appeal to life in prison for killing his ex-partner with 80 stab wounds, because he couldn’t stand her leaving him. This man had published 1,300 videos on seduction and masculinism. One of the psychiatric experts explained during the trial that this man had “hatred of women”.

Digital raids against women

This hatred, feminist associations believe that it “contributes to silencing feminist activists and women politicians.” VSThis is what Lucie Daniel, of the feminist association Equipop, says in particular. For her, “masculinism is a continuum of violence. That is to say, there is really a continuum between the pseudo-seduction coach who will give advice to men online and the men who will ultimately move on to offline act, by very violent acts against women.”

This sometimes physical violence is also accompanied by online violence, as evidenced by the increase in “digital raids” on social networks. “There is really a desire, behind these attacks, to silence these women and ultimately to discourage them, deplores the activist. We see women who withdraw from the digital space, and we understand them, for fear of being harassed.”

“It’s also a question of democracy. Women’s voices must be heard in these digital spaces too.”

Lucie Daniel, member of the Equipop association

at franceinfo

Lucie Daniel adds that, from a political point of view this time, there is a real porosity between the extreme right and masculinism.

“A cruel lack of virility”

Franceinfo met a young far-right woman who defends these ideas. She is the only person approached among the masculinists who agreed to speak. Thaïs D’Escuffon is the former spokesperson for Génération Identitaire, a movement dissolved by the government three years ago. She is now a content creator around gender relations. On her various social networks, where she is followed by 400,000 people, she says for example: “Gentlemen, stop looking for a quality girl in a nightclub, because she is not there […] no woman of worth would dress provocatively.”

“The fact that I am a woman who can make this type of speech can challengeadmits Thaïs D’Escuffon. I am aware of this because most of the people who say this are men. And in general, feminists will say ‘it’s an obvious logic of gender struggle, they’re men, so obviously they’re defending their piece of meat’.” The content creator justifies herself: “Whereas, precisely, I am a woman who deplores that there is a cruel lack of virility among my male contemporaries. And I think that it is in the crucial interest of women that men understand women again and know how to make them vibrate again because they have understood what their deepest needs are, which feminist ideology denies.”

This is one of the illustrations of the gap denounced by the High Council for Equality, between, on the one hand, the awareness in France of inequalities between women and men and, on the other, the maintenance stereotypes that continue to shape mentalities and behaviors.