Mainstreaming the manosphere: discourses of contemporary masculinity among Estonian manfluencers

The misogyny and antifeminism of the manosphere has received considerable academic and journalistic attention. This article addresses a new troubling trend, the mainstreaming of the manosphere by targeting wide audiences via TikTok. We analyse this process with the case of Estonian manfluencers and their use of international ideologies of the manosphere while drawing on the theoretical concepts of gender performativity, hegemonic and hybrid masculinity, and the attention economy logic. The empirical part focuses on the discourse analysis of TikTok videos (N = 24) from three Estonian manfluencers’ accounts to explore how they construct masculinity and adapt globally circulated manosphere content. The results of this study indicate that Estonian manfluencers mix ideologies common in various manosphere communities with minimal regard to their local context. They stress societal decline and men’s grievances, placing blame on what they term ‘woke society’ and women. ‘True manhood’ is to be achieved through discipline, suffering and domination of women and other non-dominant gender identities. The results of this study demonstrate how previously niche ideologies of the manosphere are increasingly mainstreamed transnationally. In the process of reaching mainstream social media platforms, the various discourses and ideologies common in the international manosphere are combined, advancing the manfluencers’ own personal attention-grabbing agenda but, in doing so, also potentially playing a role in the strategic dissemination of gender-based disinformation.