Traditional, and often regressive, ideas of masculinity, are becoming a growing a problem among Generation Z men, according to a leading researcher.
Dr Intifar Chowdhury, a lecturer in government at Flinders University, said manfluencers, such as Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan, and the manosphere have revived age-old patriarchal narratives, frequently using their platforms to promote misogyny and sexism.
“The gap in the market is that there isn’t a [male] role model to look up to,” Dr Chowdhury said. “In these online spaces, what people like Rogan and Tate are doing, they’re filling this role, telling younger men that their feelings of anxiety, or feelings of being left behind, is you know, not their fault, and it’s because society is too progressive.”
This victim messaging from manfluencers is not only shaping the attitudes of young men, but also influencing their political leanings, often pulling them toward conservative, right-wing ideologies.
“When this gender gap is opening up, that means there is much space for all these online influences to come in and sort of like navigate these lost men,” she added.
Dr Chowdhury has analysed 35 years of data, focusing on emerging political ideologies which influence how young Australians vote.
In her research, she observed that overall women’s leftward shift is driven by factors including higher education levels, greater participation in professional work, and exposure to feminist values.
In contrast many young men remain more conservative, influencing the gender gap to widen.
Australia’s Gen Z divide follows a similar global trend observed in countries such as the United States, China, South Korea, and Germany.
“Men always are a little bit more conservative than women at an aggregate level, and that gap is opening up, but it’s opening up and on the left, that means women are striding to the left at a faster pace compared to men, men at a much slower pace,” Dr Chowdhury said.
“Worldwide, there is a significant impact in how there is obviously an opening up of the gender divide, particularly amongst the youngest generation, so Gen Z. And, it is rather surprising, because we do expect Gen Z to be politically more progressive … We do expect them to be more favourable towards left-of-centre parties.”
Masculinity was sort of getting compromised, especially with the ‘woke’ movement… I think society works best when men are men and women are women.
The so-called manfluencers frequently push harmful narratives that don’t recognise equity gains by women as being fair, but see them purely as detrimental to men’s status.
Lucas Martinez, a 22-year-old tradie from the Northern Beaches said: “Like we’re not perfect, but I definitely do think that a lot of society is favourable in certain aspects toward women.
“With the generation before us [Millennials] being more left-leaning, I feel like a lot of [Gen Z] blokes, it’s their natural instinct to go against what they’re taught… So you’ll probably find that theres a large shift toward those kinds of characters (male influencers), because we don’t want to do what we are told.”
“They’ve managed to pull so many people because masculinity was sort of getting compromised, especially with the ‘woke’ movement… I think society works best when men are men and women are women.
“A lot of men are lacking motivation and lacking a sort of confidence, and listening to someone talk about being confident and being a real man when they’ve not really heard it from anyone else; I think it’s a bit empowering.”
Elliot Power, a 19-year-old university student, said: “What I’ve seen in the [social] media is that it’s trying to make it OK to be misogynistic and sexist, which is just taking a step back from where we’ve come so far from.”
“I think it (the manosphere) becomes an issue because of the impressionability of young males and young people in general… they’ve got these very loud, very successful guys like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan are presenting upon them these dangerous and toxic beliefs that ultimately end up swaying a lot of young men, which can have really damaging effects on society as a whole.”
Efforts to achieve justice for women have increasingly shaped public discourse, often placing women’s political issues at the forefront.
According to Dr Chowdhury, the increased focus on women has left some young men feeling “sidelined”, with a sense of exclusion that can directly influence their attitudes and behaviours towards women.
“How are they (young men) going to address the tug of war between traditional masculine roles that they’ve seen their fathers and their grandfathers fulfill, versus these newer expectations of being emotionally fluent, but also at the same time, play a role in society that does not ridicule or minimise women or women’s status,” she said.
“Basically as gender roles are changing, so perceptions of what a man or a woman should be or how a relationship should look like, what’s happening is an increase in social anxiety about where particularly young men, fit in.”
Main image by GenCraft AI.
