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The manosphere can operate like a vortex, pulling in the uncertain young men who are often lost and seeking self improvement. Flynn Martin is one who says he was radicalised by the manosphere. He was 20 years old. A uni student. A self-professed doomscroller. But once the anti-women algorithm infiltrated his social media, it took just months for the hobby content creator to become another online prophet of misogyny. A video Flynn Martin posted about being a "straight white male" went viral in 2022. (Supplied) In late 2022, he posted a controversial video of himself ranting on social media. It was deliberately provocative, he tells 7.30 — "rage bait" for more "clicks and views". From the front seat of his car, he rhetorically asks: "Is it actually OK being a straight white male?" Then he turns his focus on women. "It's all pretty convenient when they say men are only good for 'that, that and that' … but as soon as they open their little f***ing useless mouths, I don't want to f***ing hear it." The videos went viral. The backlash was swift. But Flynn says — at the time — he did not care. "When you become so intoxicated by the idea of garnering as much attention as possible … you don't have a regard for what you're saying," he says. Flynn says he had become convinced the world was rigged against "straight white men" and women were to blame. Flynn Martin suffered severe public backlash after his viral video in 2022. (ABC News) "I was the perfect example for someone who can be exposed and susceptible to that content," he tells 7.30. Two years out of school, isolated through COVID and a year into a film degree, he was, in his words, "super lost and confused". Flynn felt his frustration boiling over into anger because he did not know what he was meant to do, or where he was going in life. "That was when all this manosphere content just started flooding my algorithm," he says. The clips he was seeing bombarded him with a familiar formula, peddled by prominent anti-feminists. Flynn says the manosphere content he was exposed to on social media fuelled his insecurities and internalised self-hatred. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer) They ranged from alpha-male self-improvement and get-rich advice to pseudo-scientific claims that women are inferior and "can't come to logical conclusions". Flynn says he barely noticed the effect such content had on his mindset but admits it changed the way he thought. "You just become so insecure that it becomes a lot of internalised self-hatred … and that can very easily spew out into misogyny, taking that self-insecurity and self-hatred and taking it out on other people," he says. "It just started spewing out into how you speak and what you talk about with people." He says it did not take long until he had adopted the language of the manosphere as his own. Flynn's experience is mirrored by admissions made by several other young men in new research documenting pathways into the manosphere. A team from Queensland University of Technology, Deakin University and Dublin City University interviewed more than 50 men across Australia and Ireland who had spent time in its online communities. While the work is ongoing, clear patterns are emerging. The manosphere, they say, has gone mainstream — no longer a fringe society or a niche that men must seek out. "Anyone going online … will very quickly encounter it," Professor Michael Flood, who was part of the research team, tells 7.30. Professor Michael Flood has been mapping the pipeline to the manosphere in new research. (ABC News: Chris Gillette) Professor Flood has spent more than 30 years studying men, masculinity and gender-based violence and says anti-feminist groups have existed for centuries. "What's shifted is that they've now moved online and proliferated and expanded in troubling ways," he says. "And there have also been really significant changes in how people come to the manosphere. "It's very easy to go down those rabbit holes." What starts as a search for advice on self-improvement can often lead young men down the manosphere. (Supplied: Adobe Stock) To protect the men's identities, the researchers gave them pseudonyms. Some described the draw to online anti-women spaces as the chance to live out a "power fantasy". Henry* was 15 when he developed a habit centred around "hate". He told researchers "it was fun" to talk about how much he despised women, and at one stage, the now-28-year-old saw it as a competition. "I'd post something hateful, see someone double down and take it further, and I'd think: how can I take that even further, to just be the most vile person posting right now?" he told the researchers. Others echoed that experience. "There's something about … at least some part of every teenage boy which is going to just wanna [do] the politically incorrect … you're gonna see how far you can take things, just to see how far you can take things," said Sebastian*, 19. Brandon*, 33, said manosphere content was "hilariously confronting", telling researchers "you get numbed to it the more time you spend getting bombarded with stuff". Andrew Tate is a leading influencer in the manosphere. His content promotes an 'alpha male' lifestyle and tips on how to coerce women. (Reuters: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea) Professor Flood says in many cases the men did not go looking for manosphere content but it still found them. "They were looking for information on fitness or financial advice or sexual success. And as part of that, encountered influencers who were next to the manosphere, or bleeding into the manosphere," he says. In Lachlan's* case he found Andrew Tate and other manosphere figures while looking for guidance his father never gave, "like how to relate to [women] and how to impress them," the 24-year-old said in an interview. Sebastian*, 19, says he went to social media looking for fitness advice and ended up in a manosphere rabbit hole, driven by desires to appeal to women. "There's also the stuff that's really easy to fall into, which is like, 'Do these three exercises to make your shoulders bigger, to become more attractive to women'," he said. Others were exposed or pulled in through otherwise harmless hobbies and special interests, from fandoms for sci-fi series to gaming forums. "As a person who held certain geeky interests, you must be wary of the kind of content you consumed, as you would inevitably be directed towards manosphere content in the process of consuming it," Professor Flood says. "These groups broadly aligned with the interests of young men and boys and often centred on 'geek culture', including gym content creators, Doctor Who fan forums, Star Wars and sci-fi fan fiction communities, soccer fan pages, online atheist content creators and gaming forums," he says. The decision to cast Jodie Whittaker as the first female actor to play Doctor Who sparked an outcry among some male fans online. (BBC) Frankie*, 18, was pouring through Doctor Who forums and came across blogs decrying the show's choice to cast a woman — Jodie Whittaker — as the lead character: "That was what introduced me to the male toxicity side of the fandoms," he told researchers. he said. Nick*, 22, was looking for reviews of Star Wars and found "a lot of the content is centred around the same couple of people, and a lot of them are these, like, manosphere, right-wing activists". Professor Flood says some men encountered manosphere content in spaces where there were "debates over wokeness". "'Disney's gone woke', or 'this franchise has gone woke' … and those debates sometimes led participants into more explicitly anti-women content," he said. For Jan*, 21, "it was probably Minecraft", he admits, watching YouTube videos about the game which eventually led him to more politically-driven content. Brandon* said "one of the guys who was in my World of Warcraft guild at the time was just talking about it … and I'm like, 'oh, f*** it, alright, I'll have a look'". Carolyn Robinson, who founded a domestic violence prevention charity, says the findings correlate with the experience of survivors. Carolyn Robinson is the founder of the charity Beyond DV and says the manosphere is having a detrimental impact on progress made in preventing domestic violence. (ABC News: Scott Kyle ) "There is certainly a link with the messaging that is coming through the manosphere — not all gender inequality is going to lead to domestic and family violence, but all domestic and family violence starts with gender inequality," Ms Robinson tells 7.30. She worries the manosphere is undermining years of work in the prevention space, especially for younger men. "These male influencers online — they are role models to young people," she says.. "And if these men are saying that to dominate a woman, to tell her what her role is, is acceptable, and if they hear it enough, they may be more likely to say, 'Well, this is the behaviour that I should be showing." After Flynn posted his video and it went viral, severe public backlash and a mental health episode led to a break from social media. He says that absence pulled him out of the manosphere. "I can clearly see where I was wrong," he tells 7.30. "Even though it's a really disgraceful video, I think I still hold a lot of empathy for myself in that period because I can just clearly see that that's someone who's struggling and doesn't really know what they're talking about." Flynn Martin is still creating content but now he is focusing on helping other young men avoid the pull and pitfalls of the manosphere. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer) Flynn has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and says treatment helped. "I was just having really in-depth conversations with so many mental health professionals. And I was lucky enough to have access to two really, really supporting and understanding parents," he says. "And also a really, really solid group of friends who were really just helping me throughout that whole time." He is now back creating content and trying to figure out how he can help other young men avoid the pitfalls of the manosphere. "I think if you already are in that space and you're kind of deep within it, maybe you're going to have to learn the hard way like I did," he says. "But if you're kind of in those early stages and starting to form those things, I feel like the best thing that I could say is, all the answers that you're looking for aren't there." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TVThe 'inescapable' manosphere vortex
"It did feel inescapable … once it started showing up, it didn't stop. It was just there, just always there."
The manosphere has gone mainstream
Troubling testimonies
'Geek culture' an easy entry point
"[The show's] writing and quality is used as a Trojan horse to criticise things that some people don't find politically aligning with their views … there are people who just flat out say, 'I didn't like it because it was progressive and a woman was the character,'"
Leaving the manosphere