{"id":1824900,"date":"2026-03-13T17:27:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1824900"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:27:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:27:56","slug":"inside-the-manosphere-the-rise-of-conservative-non-monogamy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1824900","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Manosphere: The rise of conservative non-monogamy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1050\/42-0-1050-700\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441592.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/life-culture\/article\/69908\/1\/inside-the-manosphere-the-rise-of-conservative-non-monogamy-louis-theroux\" data-article-id=\"69908\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.71\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Louis-Theroux-Inside-the-Manosphere-6\" class=\"img\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441592.jpg\" width=\"1200\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Louis Theroux: Inside <span class=\"nowrap\">the Manosphere<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-13T17:27:56+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"13 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"13\">13,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - life-culture\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/opinion\">Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\">Life &amp; Culture<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/opinion\">Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>Inside the Manosphere: The rise of <span class=\"nowrap\">conservative non-monogamy<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>Louis Theroux\u2019s new documentary spotlights a hedonistic, libidinal vision of masculinity, which seems curiously detached from traditional conservative values which valorise the <span class=\"nowrap\">nuclear family<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-13T17:27:56+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"13 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"13\">13,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-13T17:27:56+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"13 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"13\">13,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/JamesGreig\">James Greig<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The rise of non-monogamy has been a highly discussed topic over the last decade. It\u2019s generally been coded as a left\/liberal phenomenon \u2013 a groovy alternative lifestyle associated with Portland polycules, self-described \u201ckinksters\u201d, people with dyed green hair and septum piercings, fans of boygenius and <\/span><em><span>Steven Universe.<\/span><\/em><span>\u00a0But during this same period, as Louis Theroux\u2019s new Netflix documentary,\u00a0<\/span><em><span>Inside the Manosphere,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>shows, right-wing men have been cooking up their own, kind of evil version of the alternative relationship model: one-sided monogamy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Out of the four key figures profiled in the documentary, two of them \u2013 Myron Gaines and Justin Waller \u2013 enjoy an arrangement where they can sleep with whoever they like and their partner cannot. While this doesn\u2019t apply to content creator Harrison Sullivan, who is single, he embodies a similar contradiction: he disdains women who do sex work, but happily uploads a video of himself getting his dick sucked to a paywalled Telegram channel; he disapproves of female promiscuity, but spends his own evenings chatting up women on the streets of Marbella.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Obviously, these contradictions are as old as time, and \u201cmen gain respect for sleeping around while women get called \u2018sluts\u2019\u201d is such a blatant injustice that most 12 year olds figure it out for themselves. Women have always been more harshly punished for infidelity (a theme explored in quite a few classics of Western literature), polygamy is neither a new nor extinct practice, and \u201cone-sided monogamy\u201d was effectively the norm for men in ancient Rome and Greece. But watching the documentary last night, it still struck me how <\/span><em><span>untraditional <\/span><\/em><span>this vision of masculinity is. It is libidinal, hedonistic, and unmoored from most (though not at all) traditional conservative values, particularly in the US, where conservatism is so bound up with Christianity. These people are committing all seven deadly sins within a half hour of streaming.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>An avid Trump supporter, Justin Waller prides himself on playing the traditional role of provider, but refuses to marry his long-term partner and the father of his children (for financial reasons, it\u2019s implied). Myron Gaines, similarly, ends a long-term relationship with his girlfriend \u2013 a heartbreakingly sweet character \u2013 because she wants to start a family and he does not. Ironically, these men have benefited a great deal from the social liberalism they despise, which has freed them from boring, cumbersome ideals like honour, duty and restraint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Thirty years ago, behaving like they do would have made you a social pariah at the local Republican club (men cheated on their wives, sure, but social etiquette demanded a little more discretion). Today they can do whatever they want, indulge all of their basest impulses, and for the most part only receive criticism from feminists and liberals, who they can cheerfully dismiss as shrieking harridans and soy boy cucks. It\u2019s a good deal for them, even if their lives appear soul-crushingly vapid and empty, a kind of spiritual hell. For women, it seems, it\u2019s the worst of both worlds: all the domination of traditional patriarchal relationships, with none of the responsibility or commitment (even if this was an ideal which men very often failed to live up to).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Not everyone on the modern right is on board with this more licentious, even Nietzschean form of masculinity and the alternative sexual lifestyles that come with it. While happy to endorse the philandering alleged rapist Donald Trump, some conservative men still take seriously the idea that men should be dutiful fathers and husbands. <\/span><em><span>Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs<\/span><\/em><span>, a 2023 book by Republican Senator Josh Hawley, for example, shares the manosphere\u2019s assumption that men are under attack, but argues that the solution is a reassertion of traditional masculine values. Hawley rails against liberal \u2018wokeness\u2019, but also influencers like Andrew Tate, who he describes as \u201cthe king of toxic masculinity\u201d, and the corrosive effects of pornography, promiscuity, consumerism and social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Of these two competing visions of modern masculinity, it\u2019s not surprising that more young men are drawn towards the one that tells them they can do whatever they want, and that their only obligations in life are to go to the gym and make money. But as Theroux\u2019s documentary shows, these two visions are very easily reconciled. The subordination of women is a unifying principle, and as someone like Sullivan sees it, there doesn\u2019t need to be any relation between your professed values and the way you act. You can offset the contradiction between railing against pornography and promoting it for financial gain, for example, as long as you\u2019re willing to acknowledge your own cynicism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Over the last few years, there has emerged a left-wing critique of non-monogamy, which \u2013 put simply \u2013 argues that it\u2019s a symptom of neoliberal capitalism and its demands for flexibility and choice. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s always true, but it does seem like a fitting way to think about right-wing non-monogamy. It\u2019s about misogyny, of course \u2013\u00a0but it\u2019s also an expression of a culture that preaches self-discipline while being driven by rapacious consumption and bottomless greed. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. 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Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The rise of non-monogamy has been a highly discussed topic over the last decade. It\u2019s generally been coded as a left\/liberal phenomenon \u2013 a groovy alternative lifestyle associated with Portland polycules, self-described \u201ckinksters\u201d, people with dyed green hair and septum piercings, fans of boygenius and <\/span><em><span>Steven Universe.<\/span><\/em><span>\u00a0But during this same period, as Louis Theroux\u2019s new Netflix documentary,\u00a0<\/span><em><span>Inside the Manosphere,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>shows, right-wing men have been cooking up their own, kind of evil version of the alternative relationship model: one-sided monogamy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Out of the four key figures profiled in the documentary, two of them \u2013 Myron Gaines and Justin Waller \u2013 enjoy an arrangement where they can sleep with whoever they like and their partner cannot. While this doesn\u2019t apply to content creator Harrison Sullivan, who is single, he embodies a similar contradiction: he disdains women who do sex work, but happily uploads a video of himself getting his dick sucked to a paywalled Telegram channel; he disapproves of female promiscuity, but spends his own evenings chatting up women on the streets of Marbella.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Obviously, these contradictions are as old as time, and \u201cmen gain respect for sleeping around while women get called \u2018sluts\u2019\u201d is such a blatant injustice that most 12 year olds figure it out for themselves. Women have always been more harshly punished for infidelity (a theme explored in quite a few classics of Western literature), polygamy is neither a new nor extinct practice, and \u201cone-sided monogamy\u201d was effectively the norm for men in ancient Rome and Greece. But watching the documentary last night, it still struck me how <\/span><em><span>untraditional <\/span><\/em><span>this vision of masculinity is. It is libidinal, hedonistic, and unmoored from most (though not at all) traditional conservative values, particularly in the US, where conservatism is so bound up with Christianity. These people are committing all seven deadly sins within a half hour of streaming.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>An avid Trump supporter, Justin Waller prides himself on playing the traditional role of provider, but refuses to marry his long-term partner and the father of his children (for financial reasons, it\u2019s implied). Myron Gaines, similarly, ends a long-term relationship with his girlfriend \u2013 a heartbreakingly sweet character \u2013 because she wants to start a family and he does not. Ironically, these men have benefited a great deal from the social liberalism they despise, which has freed them from boring, cumbersome ideals like honour, duty and restraint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Thirty years ago, behaving like they do would have made you a social pariah at the local Republican club (men cheated on their wives, sure, but social etiquette demanded a little more discretion). Today they can do whatever they want, indulge all of their basest impulses, and for the most part only receive criticism from feminists and liberals, who they can cheerfully dismiss as shrieking harridans and soy boy cucks. It\u2019s a good deal for them, even if their lives appear soul-crushingly vapid and empty, a kind of spiritual hell. For women, it seems, it\u2019s the worst of both worlds: all the domination of traditional patriarchal relationships, with none of the responsibility or commitment (even if this was an ideal which men very often failed to live up to).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Not everyone on the modern right is on board with this more licentious, even Nietzschean form of masculinity and the alternative sexual lifestyles that come with it. While happy to endorse the philandering alleged rapist Donald Trump, some conservative men still take seriously the idea that men should be dutiful fathers and husbands. <\/span><em><span>Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs<\/span><\/em><span>, a 2023 book by Republican Senator Josh Hawley, for example, shares the manosphere\u2019s assumption that men are under attack, but argues that the solution is a reassertion of traditional masculine values. Hawley rails against liberal \u2018wokeness\u2019, but also influencers like Andrew Tate, who he describes as \u201cthe king of toxic masculinity\u201d, and the corrosive effects of pornography, promiscuity, consumerism and social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Of these two competing visions of modern masculinity, it\u2019s not surprising that more young men are drawn towards the one that tells them they can do whatever they want, and that their only obligations in life are to go to the gym and make money. But as Theroux\u2019s documentary shows, these two visions are very easily reconciled. The subordination of women is a unifying principle, and as someone like Sullivan sees it, there doesn\u2019t need to be any relation between your professed values and the way you act. You can offset the contradiction between railing against pornography and promoting it for financial gain, for example, as long as you\u2019re willing to acknowledge your own cynicism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Over the last few years, there has emerged a left-wing critique of non-monogamy, which \u2013 put simply \u2013 argues that it\u2019s a symptom of neoliberal capitalism and its demands for flexibility and choice. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s always true, but it does seem like a fitting way to think about right-wing non-monogamy. It\u2019s about misogyny, of course \u2013\u00a0but it\u2019s also an expression of a culture that preaches self-discipline while being driven by rapacious consumption and bottomless greed. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69908\/1\/inside-the-manosphere-the-rise-of-conservative-non-monogamy-louis-theroux&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1050\/42-0-1050-700\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441592.jpg&#8221;] Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere March\u00a0 13,\u00a0 2026 Life &amp; Culture \/ Opinion Life &amp; Culture \/ Opinion Inside the Manosphere: The rise of conservative non-monogamy Louis Theroux\u2019s new documentary spotlights a hedonistic, libidinal vision of masculinity, which seems curiously detached from traditional conservative values which valorise the nuclear family March\u00a0 13,\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1824900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1824900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1824900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1824900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1824900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}