The Role of Online Influencers in Everyday Misogyny
It’s estimated that around 2 million women in England and Wales are victims of violence each year (NPCC, 2024). To put that into context, the O2 Arena in London can seat 20,000 people. Now imagine filling that arena every night for three months – that’s how many women this figure represents. One woman being a victim of violence is too many. Two million is a nothing short of horrific.
In July 2024, the National Police Chiefs Council released a statement on violence against women and girls (VAWG), calling it a national strategic threat. They identified critical threats to women and girls, and highlighted online and tech enabled VAWG as a particular challenge due to the speed at which it is evolving. Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said the problem was growing quickly, with ever more complicated types of offending, and specifically noted the challenges posed by online influencers who seek to radicalise young men and boys into misogynistic beliefs and behaviours.
Misogyny and social media
The 2022 Scottish Government’s working group on misogyny and criminal justice described misogyny as “a prejudice, malice and/or contempt for women”. which has evolved to include attitudes and beliefs that aim to keep women in a subordinate position to men. The Scottish Government noted that these attitudes, and the behaviour that flows from them, prevents equality. In February 2024, the Guardian reported that social media platforms were regularly amplifying accounts containing extreme misogyny and sexist culture. Views on these accounts ranged from declaring a woman’s place to be in the home/kitchen/bedroom, expressing disgust at any part of woman’s body that they deemed to be unfeminine, or blaming women for being victims of sexual abuse. In short, they espoused patriarchal attitudes, designed to keep women ‘in their place’. Sadly, there is much to be gained by online influencers by pushing this misogynistic narrative. Many gain followers, status and, as a result, financial success through leaning into these problematic ideas, as young impressionable followers eagerly consume their content and adopt their ‘teachings’.
Why are some men, especially young men, so influenced by misogynistic content?
In short, they perceive these influencers as successful, even in the context of extremely problematic behaviour. Duffy, Campbell and Skinner (2024) examined 16-29 years olds’ perceptions of a well-known misogynistic male influencer and found that three times as many males held a favourable view of this influencer when compared to females. Amongst the young males who were aware of the influencer’s extremely misogynistic views, 30% still thought he raised important points about threats to male identity and gender roles and 20% of the young males who were aware of these views said that they did not find them offensive at all. Based on these findings, and the NPCC statement, there is clearly something in the message that these influencers put across which is appealing to young men, in terms of financial success, perception of gender roles or simply what it means to be a man. A 2024 Guardian article reported that many young men believe feminism has done more harm than good, which suggests fear and resistance to equality. This is a concerning perspective, as feminism is not seeking to raise women above men, but rather is seeking that women have the same rights and opportunities as men. However, it appears that this is being perceived by some men as them losing something, especially if their favourite TikTokker or YouTuber is assuring them that this is the case. As the well-known phrase goes, when you are accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression.
Levant & Richmond (2016) found that perceptions of masculinity are still frequently linked to rigid behaviours and traits, particularly around sexism and lack of emotion. For example, if a teenage boy shares a misogynistic meme with their friends on WhatsApp, even if the friends are uncomfortable with this or recognise it as problematic, the ‘traditional’ definition of what it means to be masculine dictates that the ‘correct’ response is to laugh along, and perhaps continue the ‘joke’ by sharing something even more extreme themselves. Burrell’s (2021) study of male student athletes even found that behaviours which would typically be considered problematic, such as turning up drunk at a partner’s house and demanding to be let in, were viewed sympathetically by other males when considered through the lens of expected masculine behaviours. The pressure to perform this idea of masculinity can lead to some men’s attitudes and behaviours being driven by others’ expectations, rather than their own wishes and values. In this context, it’s easy to understand how misogynistic online influencers can find an appreciative audience in some young men.
How do we tackle misogynistic influencers?
The challenge lies both with the influencers themselves and the online platforms that promote them. The 2024 Safer Scrolling study by University College London and the University of Kent monitored the type of content offered to online users through the TikTok algorithm. The researchers found a four-fold increase in the level of misogynistic content offered to individual users over just a five day period, with the algorithm offering up increasingly extreme videos, many of which directed anger, blame and violence toward women. While this study focused on TikTok, the researchers noted that their findings were likely to apply to other social media platforms as well. One solution which is often put forward is banning phones, social media or even the internet itself, however the Safer Scrolling study noted that this was unlikely to be effective and instead called for a ‘healthy digital diet’ which combined less exposure to misogynistic online material, with better education for people about how to respond if they do encounter it.
One of the most basic issues in tackling this problem is getting people to recognise that misogyny is never okay. There can be a temptation to laugh off milder forms of sexist behaviour or to see it as just a joke or banter, rather than the very real problem that it is. Steve Connell (2016) tackled this issue brilliantly in his spoken word piece ‘We Are The Lions’, where he noted that we often fail to notice the link between the things we don’t have a problem with (such as a sexist joke or advert) and the things that we do have a problem with (such as sexual violence) and this lack of understanding requires education to fix. If we just brush off the small things, because they’re not that bad or just ‘banter’, we normalise that attitude and send a message that it is acceptable. So when do you decide that the misogynistic comments have gone too far? When it’s about someone you know? When it makes people in your group uncomfortable? It’s a difficult line to draw as once you start allowing some misogynistic comments and behaviours to slip by unchallenged, the dam opens and more problematic comments and behaviours creep in.
Education is key in understanding what’s okay and what not. There are lots of ways to educate yourself - attend a bystander programme, read up about misogyny online or just listen to your female friends when they tell you about their experiences of misogyny (and yes, most will have had them). You could also turn to many of the positive social media influencers. DazGames, a popular YouTuber with 8.6 million subscribers, devoted a 54 minute video to a prominent misogynistic YouTuber in 2022, where he went through what this influencer had said and done, and discussed exactly why he thought it was problematic. He even addressed some of this influencer’s beliefs that people admired, such as their take on male identity and how to be successful, and highlighted that just because you like some of the beliefs of a person, that doesn’t cancel out the problematic beliefs they also have (such as it being okay for men to beat their partner). The DazGames video has been viewed over 11 million times and is particularly effective as it demonstrates that young people don’t have to forego social media and influencers altogether to reject misogyny – they just need to be a bit more discerning about whose voice they listen to.
Once you can recognise misogyny as a problem, you can start to challenge it as an active bystander. This might involve you directly intervening when you encounter problematic comments or behaviours, but it can also take the form of indirect actions such as letting others in your groups know that you’re uncomfortable or muting/leaving a WhatsApp group when people share misogynistic memes. There are lots of things that you can potentially do to challenge misogyny, but the most important thing, and the thing that makes you an active bystander, is to do something. So the next time you see an online commentator waxing lyrical about how women footballers don’t really understand the game or hear an influencer calling a female pop star slutty because she’s had more than two boyfriends in a decade, don’t just laugh it off. Recognise it for what it is – misogyny – and decide how you can safely and effectively intervene.
Change is never easy, and an enormous issue like tackling misogyny can sometimes feel insurmountable. However, I recently heard the Rt Reverend Rachel Treweek, Bishop to Prisons, speaking at a violence against women event and she noted that we don’t have to alter everything at once to create change. We just have to do enough to create one degree of change. One small degree of change sounds achievable, yes? And if we can just keep going and enough people also work towards that change, we can eventually achieve that one degree of change 180 times over, till we’re in a completely opposite position from where we started. So if the fight to tackle misogyny feels too great or even unwinnable, just focus on what you can do to help achieve one small degree of change and together, over time, we can move mountains.
Here are some further ideas about how to challenge misogyny safely and effectively:
Keep talking – Discuss the issue with the people round you, including friends and family, so more people can understand the extend of the problem and the different ways that it can impact the lives of women and girls.
Share resources – Encourage others to do their own research by visiting websites such as the Everyday Sexism Project and the National Education Union.
Be an active bystander – When you see something problematic, make the conscious decision to do something to help, either directly or indirectly. Learn more about what it means to be an active bystander.
Trust your instinct – Learn to trust your gut feel about whether you are uncomfortable with something, whether that’s due to a misogynistic comment, a supposed joke or someone’s behaviour. Gavin De Becker’s book ‘The Gift of Fear’ is an excellent resource for training your instincts to recognise when something isn’t okay.
Talk to your children – Let them know that they don’t have to laugh at something or go along with problematic behaviour just because everybody else is. UK Feminista has created an excellent resource with examples of how to bring about equality and reduce sexism in schools.
Online communities – If you’re in an online group or community, see what the rules are about how people should interact with other and check if those are enforced. For example, is it just accepted that female gamers will face sexist comments when they play in your gaming community or is that behaviour called out and shut down? Be clear about how people should interact with each other, and if the current guidance isn’t sufficient, then think about who you can make it better.
Respond to discrimination – This was a suggestion from Tower Hamlets Council in their tackling misogyny resources. If you see examples of sexism or misogyny by a business, including in their advertising, call it out. This could be talking to the people around you about it, raising it on social media or contacting the company directly to challenge it. You can also amplify positive campaigns to tackle misogyny, such as the Right To Be campaign and the That Guy campaign.