#975 - James Bloodworth - The Manosphere, Pickup Culture & Male Loneliness

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Bloodworth is a journalist reporting on working-class life and society, podcaster, and an author. The manosphere isn’t what you think. Even though it is often labeled as toxic and extreme, the truth is a bit more complicated. So what’s really going on with men, dating, and masculinity as of today? Expect to learn what the current state of the “manosphere” is, what constitutes being a part of it and what most people get wrong about it, what the rise and fall of the pickup community tell us about what men actually want versus what they’ve been told they should want, why the manosphere got harder and more political as started to grow, why gyms now serve as sanctuaries for disempowered men, what a truly male-inclusive progressive politics would look like, and much more… Sponsors: See me on tour in America: ⁠https://chriswilliamson.live⁠ See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 10% discount on all Gymshark’s products at https://gym.sh/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM10) Get the brand new Whoop 5.0 at https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom Timestamps: (0:00) Is the Manosphere the New Toxic Masculinity? (5:45) Did Adolescence Revive the Conversation? (7:39) From the Pickup Artist to the Red Pill Guy (15:05) How Male Judgement is Shaping the Manosphere (18:00) The Influence of Influencers (28:33) Who are the Lost Boys? (35:42) Should We Be Worried About Our Consumption of Manosphere Content? (42:51) The Recalibration of Traditional Male Roles (53:20) Why is There No Left-Wing Manosphere? (56:41) Is Progressivism is Harming Masculinity? (01:01:19) Women are Not Status Objects (01:07:10) Withholding Emotional Connections Due to Image is Destroying Relationships (01:16:26) Find Out More About James Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What wine are you drinking? That's what I want to know. It's a rosé wine that someone, we had a kind of small dinner party yesterday and they left a bottle, so it can't be rude not to have it the next day.
0:11.2	On a Monday. I know, but it's Monday. I worked on the weekend, so I bought to a bit on a Friday. Yeah, exactly. Brilliant. I saw a quote from Richard Reeves earlier on today. I'm worried
0:24.1	that the term Manosphere is going to go through a similar journey to toxic masculinity,
0:28.6	simultaneously being broadened massively beyond its original parameters and breaking out of academic
0:32.9	circles and into mainstream discourse. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think that's a, I like Richard's
0:39.1	work and I think that's a fair, fair point. I think I've seen the, during the course of writing my
0:43.1	book about the Manosphere, I've seen the term has become very, very baggy in terms of how it's used.
0:50.2	So I've seen, I've seen, I've seen, you know, the Manosphere originally at least least referred to, at least in the book it's kind of a, it refers to like male supremacist communities, anti-feminist communities, which is quite specific, I think. But I've seen it over the course of the writing of the book. It's kind of expanded to include almost, you know, if you read The Guardian sometimes or the New York
1:11.0	Times, it's like anyone who does a bench press, anyone who can do a bench press is part of
1:14.6	the Manusphere. Yeah, like Joe Rogan is like the part, like he's, that's kind of accepted
1:23.2	now in the media that he's part of the Manosphere, whereas I think, no, not really. Maybe he's
1:27.4	kind of people in the Manosphere listen to him, but so did a lot of other people.
1:31.0	So, yeah, it has become so broad as has become a little bit meaningless.
1:35.3	The term toxic masculinity, yeah, that kind of went underwent the same thing.
1:40.6	Even in cell, I would say, that term.
1:43.7	Yeah, same trajectory. Just kind of became this
1:45.9	weapon in the hands of people who would then use that to proselytize for their own sort of point
1:50.9	of view. You know what I'm trying to think about. I'm trying to think about an equivalent,
1:55.6	sort of toxic, negative term that's been used for the female side of the fence that's being captured by the
2:02.3	mainstream if you were to look at some of the terms coming out of the manosphere stuff like
2:05.9	three or fours um uh uh like um alpha widows um so and then just every other sort of slur.
2:18.6	Like, not very inventive slurs.
	...

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