{"id":127,"date":"2026-04-15T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/from-market-value-to-levelling-up-the-manosphere-is-shaped-by-a-financial-mindset\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:00:34","slug":"from-market-value-to-levelling-up-the-manosphere-is-shaped-by-a-financial-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/from-market-value-to-levelling-up-the-manosphere-is-shaped-by-a-financial-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018market value\u2019 to levelling up, the manosphere is shaped by a financial mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> oneinchpunch\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Louis Theroux\u2019s recent Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere shines a spotlight on masculinity influencers and the dangers of online misogyny, conspiracy theories and anti-feminist ideologies. Responses to the documentary<\/a> have ranged from outrage to disbelief, criticising how the manfluencers treat the women in their lives<\/a> and discussing the importance of role models<\/a> in countering manosphere influences. <\/p>\n

But what has been less talked about is how it reveals the relentless pursuit of financial gain driving these \u201cmanfluencers\u201d<\/a> and the language they use to normalise their views.<\/p>\n

Amid a cost of living crisis and a declining job market, Theroux shows why \u201cmanfluencers\u201d resonate so strongly with their target audience of boys and young men. Theroux meets four key figures in the manosphere, all of whom sell a carefully curated lifestyle<\/a> based on conspicuous consumption, hypersexuality and an \u201calpha masculinity\u201d mindset to their millions of followers. <\/p>\n

Although this may seem like a tempting lifestyle to some, the main effect is to reinforce a sense of inadequacy and failure among their audiences. Do this enough times, then you can sell the solution<\/a> to become a \u201creal man\u201d. <\/p>\n

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\n Read more:
\n How boys get sucked into the manosphere<\/a>
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\n <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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In Theroux\u2019s documentary, two fans of a manosphere influencer suggest that \u201clife as a man, you\u2019re born without value. We have to build that value. You have to work for every penny\u201d. <\/p>\n

The language used in the manosphere is the language of financial markets, with discussion of optimisation, levelling up and marginal gains. Phrases like \u201csexual market value\u201d, \u201chigh\/low value man\u201d and \u201cmaxxing<\/a>\u201d convert intimacy into a market and the body into an asset class. Manosphere guidance encourages young men to inspect themselves from the outside, as if conducting a performance review<\/a>. Men\u2019s bodies are seen as measurable assets and an index of \u201cmasculinity\u201d. <\/p>\n

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\n Read more:
\n The pseudoscientific attractiveness scale that grew out of incel forums and is now making money for looksmaxxing influencers<\/a>
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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Glow-ups, routines, hacks, looksmaxxing, courses, tips and videos on \u201cways to increase your value\u201d are deployed as strategies<\/a> to help fans unlock the secret of being a \u201creal man\u201d. In these spaces, the broader system that turns masculinity and relationships into metrics is never the problem. Instead, men are told that failure lies in their inability to increase their own \u201cmarket value\u201d. These discourses of \u201cself-improvement\u201d are, in reality, damaging forms of self-surveillance. <\/p>\n

Manosphere adherents end up caught in a loop of aspiration and self-loathing: improve, compare, fail, repeat. In this context, the language of \u201clevelling up\u201d becomes especially insidious. Although it sounds playful and empowering, this mindset traps fans in a permanently unwinnable game<\/a>. There is always another goal to strive for, another skill to master, another level to unlock. <\/p>\n

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\n \u2018Manosphere\u2019 influencers place high value on physical fitness and attractiveness in both men and women.<\/span>
\n MDV Edwards\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>
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The dating market<\/h2>\n

The consequences of this mindset for both men and women is most evident in the language around dating and the idea of the \u201csexual market\u201d. Attraction is viewed as quantifiable (\u201chigh\/low value\u201d), competitive (\u201cwinners\/losers\u201d) and impersonal (\u201cit\u2019s just sex\u201d). Women and men are both consumers and products competing for scarce demand. Rejection is \u201cmarket feedback\u201d.<\/p>\n

These metaphors reduce a deeply social and emotional sphere of life down to a superficial economic reality. By treating people and relationships as metrics, it becomes easier to view them<\/a> only in instrumental terms. Framing relationships as one-dimensional, transactional and based on hierarchy has negative effects for both men and women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Inside the Manosphere, one influencer reveals that he filmed a woman performing a sex act on him for \u201cclout\u201d. Theroux shows a clip from one influencer\u2019s social media arguing that women are \u201csubordinate\u201d to men and should always make themselves sexually available. In one of the most discussed scenes from the documentary, one man advocates for \u201cone-sided monogamy<\/a>\u201d, where he sleeps with other women while his wife stays at home as the main caregiver. <\/p>\n

This man reduces women to an \u201cattractiveness score\u201d, saying that if a man isn\u2019t tall but is physically fit, muscular and makes money, \u201cMaybe [he doesn\u2019t] come to Miami and pull Miami 10s, but I\u2019ll be damned if [he] can\u2019t pull a couple of 8s or 9s in a small town in America\u201d. <\/p>\n

Some of this corporate language is used to make misogynistic ideas sound neutral, data-driven and common sense. While recording a podcast, one man uses his \u201cfemale delusion calculator\u201d to draw attention to the unrealistic expectations a female guest has of a prospective partner. Although presented as a mathematical model based on demographic data, its primary function is to highlight what he claims is the \u201cirrational\u201d nature of women in the contemporary dating scene, and conclude that women \u201coverinflate [their] own sense of self-worth\u201d. <\/p>\n

By framing this commentary as a form of objective analysis, it makes hierarchy seem an everyday and commonplace part of life and hides its misogynistic underpinnings.<\/p>\n

Influencers in the manosphere often pronounce that they are seeking to elevate the position of men through the language of empowerment. The self-improvement narratives are compelling, but they don\u2019t stand up against the evidence that these men are very much in it for themselves.<\/p>\n

The documentary highlights how the manfluencers\u2019 central goal is ultimately self-enrichment, often at the expense of their followers. Theroux \u201cinvests\u201d \u00a3500 into an interviewee\u2019s trading platform, only to see it whittled away over the course of a few weeks, with the influencer taking his cut. Fans of one influencer pay to have their comments read out live on air. Another influencer courts conspiracy theories to create viral content, describing those in the manosphere as \u201ctrying to make a buck\u201d by selling ideologies. <\/p>\n

There is a sense that compromising the social contract doesn\u2019t matter, so long as you have a Rolex on your wrist, a Lamborghini to drive and a fancy apartment to hide away in. The ideologies promoted by the manfluencers in the documentary are rooted in misogyny, sexism, violence and exploitation \u2013 and there is clearly a market ready and willing to buy them.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Robert Lawson is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

oneinchpunch\/Shutterstock Louis Theroux\u2019s recent Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere shines a spotlight on masculinity influencers and the dangers of online misogyny, conspiracy theories and anti-feminist ideologies. Responses to the documentary have ranged from outrage to disbelief, criticising how the manfluencers treat the women in their lives and discussing the importance of role models in countering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}