If you’ve watched Louis Theroux’s new Netflix documentary this week, you’ll know it’s a lot to digest. Theroux gets access to some of the most extreme manosphere influencers, men who package content around fitness, business and self-improvement while slipping in some pretty jaw-dropping views on women along the way.
But we watched it with a slightly different lens. Because underneath all of it, there’s a money story that nobody else is really talking about.
So What Actually Is the Manosphere?
If you’ve been graced with not knowing what the manosphere is, here’s the quick version. The manosphere is a loose network of almost exclusively male influencers and online communities built around fitness, dating and “self-improvement” content. Sounds harmless enough on the surface… right? But at the extreme end it gets dark fast, with influencers profiting from selling hyper-masculinity and some genuinely troubling views on women to very young male audiences. The more extreme the content, the more clicks. The more clicks, the more money. It’s a business model built on ragebait.
Theroux’s documentary pulls back the curtain on exactly how this works. One of the most telling moments involves influencer Justin Waller, who openly preaches male dominance and financial power. His relationship operates on what he calls “lanes.” His partner’s lane is the children and the housework and his lane is providing. He openly dates other women while she isn’t allowed the same freedom. And here’s the part that stopped us in our tracks: when Theroux digs deeper, we find out they’re not actually legally married, specifically because of the financial implications. A man who has built an entire brand on male financial dominance, quietly sidestepping the financial responsibility of legal marriage.
The Bit That Really Got Us
Here’s the irony the documentary exposes so well. These self-proclaimed alpha males who preach financial power and male dominance? Their entire businesses rely on women engaging with their content to generate income. Men who built whole brands on the idea that women don’t need to understand money, quietly depending on women’s attention to fund their lifestyle.
If someone benefits from you not understanding money, ask yourself why.
The Manosphere Has a Money Narrative and It’s Aimed at You
The ripple effect of all this lands on women too. The messaging that women shouldn’t worry about money, that someone else will take care of it, that financial know-how is somehow unfeminine is everywhere. It’s in comment sections, in relationships, in the casual jokes that get laughed off at dinner and never quite addressed.
Here’s what we’d say to that: nobody who genuinely has your best interests at heart would want you to know less about your own money.
So Here’s Our Take
We’re not here to tell you what to think about the manosphere, but we are here to talk about money. Knowing your numbers isn’t a feminist statement or a personality trait, it’s just practical. It means you know what’s coming in and going out each month. It means you have an emergency fund when life gets hard. It means you’re not starting from zero if a relationship ends, a job changes, or something unexpected happens.
You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. Just start somewhere this week:
- Do you actually know your numbers right now?
- Do you have one month’s emergency fund?
- Is there one bill, subscription or outgoing you could cut this month?
The manosphere is loud and it’s not going anywhere, unfortunately. But the antidote isn’t noise, it’s just quietly knowing your own money situation.