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In my last edition, I promised to share more from my Chevening fellowship, specifically the essay I wrote on the manosphere. You know, that dark, echoey corner of the Internet filled with "alpha males," conspiracy-fuelled TikToks, and enough protein powder rhetoric to choke a gym bro.

The full essay is over 5,000 words – and one day, I’ll edit it into a proper story to share with you all. But for now, here are the bits I can’t stop thinking about.

To understand why so many young boys are getting pulled into the manosphere, I took a train to Luton, a town just north of London, mostly known for its airport and car plant past. And, more recently, as the place where Andrew Tate grew up.

I wanted to understand how a quiet, Pokémon-loving kid from a council estate, raised by a single mother in Marsh Farm, became the most Googled man on Earth. A man who built a global empire selling teenage boys the idea that women are the problem, weakness is failure, and money fixes everything.

What I found in Luton wasn’t just complicated. It felt… familiar.

Luton is majorly made up of immigrant communities, especially from Pakistan and Bangladesh. It's been hammered by austerity, deindustrialisation, and the slow disappearance of things that make people feel safe and seen — youth centres, libraries, mentors, meaning. What’s left behind is often filled with noise. Online noise.

When I spoke to journalist Taj Ali (also from Luton), he told me young Pakistani and Bangladeshi boys are idolising Tate. Even though they don’t really fit his target audience. Even though his fans include people who openly hate migrants. Why? Because Tate speaks the language of survival: Hustle. Power. Control. Don't trust anyone but yourself.

When governments, schools, and platforms don’t show up, of course someone else will.

But Tate is just the loudest face of something much bigger. The manosphere is a sprawling ecosystem of online communities comprising of pick-up artists (PUAs), involuntary celibates (incels), men going their own way (MGTOW), men's rights activists (MRAs) – all loosely connected by one core idea: that the world is stacked against men.

In the 2010s, you had to stumble into a shady forum or Reddit thread to find this stuff. Today, you’re fed it – slick, “motivational”, algorithm-approved content on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram reels. You don’t even need to search. The algorithm delivers it.

When I spoke to Marcus Gilroy-Ware, a researcher and author at SOAS, he summed it up perfectly:

One study from Dublin City University created blank TikTok and YouTube accounts and identified as young boys. Within 23 minutes, they were flooded with manosphere content. Andrew Tate appeared hundreds of times. Not searched. Not followed. Just served up by design.

Perhaps we can’t compete with the algorithm, but there are small acts of resistance. Laura Bates, author of Men Who Hate Women, told me a story I now bring up everywhere. She visited a school in Oxfordshire. The boys had heard a “feminazi” was coming. They were sulking. Dreading the talk.

But the girls had a plan.

They arrived early and strategically occupied every alternate seat, leaving exactly one space between each of them. When the boys walked in, they had no choice but to sit between girls. No safe grumbling zone. No echo chamber.

So, what is the UK doing?

In the UK, there’s growing recognition that misogyny online isn’t just unpleasant – it’s dangerous. As Laura Bates put it: “Misogyny is the terrorism that is unaccounted for.”

Some schools are now discussing Adolescence, the Netflix show that explores misogyny and violence among teenage boys, as part of classroom conversations. And in late 2024, the Education Secretary issued new guidance to help teachers spot signs of incel ideology and radicalisation.

The Online Safety Act 2023 also gives regulators some teeth to hold tech platforms accountable.

In schools, new kinds of workshops are emerging—masculinity-focused, not moralising. I spoke to psychologist Lewis Wedlock, who works with boys across public and private schools. His advice?

What struck me most? How open these conversations are in the UK – among educators, lawmakers, even students.

And What Are We Doing in India?

Honestly? Nothing. We’re still whispering. We treat misogyny as culture, not crisis. Teachers aren’t trained. Parents don’t know what their kids are watching. Tech platforms aren’t held accountable.

When one of the Delhi boys we interviewed for our Decode story said he was a fan of Tate, his mother heard the name for the first time—from us.

It’s easy to ask “What’s wrong with boys today?” But maybe we should start asking: What systems failed them? Why is rage more accessible than care? What are schools doing to make space for vulnerability? How can we teach emotional intelligence alongside algebra?

Because this isn’t just about boys. It’s about the kind of society we’re building.

That’s it from me this time.

I’d love to hear from you: Are you seeing manosphere content show up in your homes, classrooms, feeds? What’s being said– and what’s not?

Hit reply. Or forward this to someone who needs to read it.

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