The Impact of 'Manosphere' on Teen Misogyny in Australian Schools

When Holly Cooper entered teaching after a successful career as a political advisor, she was prepared for typical adolescent behaviour.

\"I felt I had a pretty hard shell, so I was kind of used to … teenage boys being gross or, you know, the odd comment,\" she tells ABC TV's Compass.

But in the first class she ever took, Holly was met with something else: a male student filming her with his phone.

\"I had no idea what to do about it,\" she recalls.

\"If you ask a student — usually a boy — to give you their phone, they'll generally say, 'No, I'm not doing it'.

\" They will absolutely assert their dominance. Once the kids smell fear, then you're kind of done for. \"

Former teacher Holly Cooper says there needs to be societal recognition of how widespread the issue is. (Compass)

Holly is one of many current and former teachers who've experienced misogyny in Australian classrooms.

Compass has heard accounts of physical intimidation, overt sexualisation, derogatory language and deeply worrying behaviour from children as young as kindergarten.

Meg, for instance, who's been teaching for more than a decade, says she's been called a c***, a f***ing bitch and a slut by primary school-aged students.

Other teachers, who've spoken on the condition of anonymity, told us:

\"I had a year 9 boy do a creative writing exercise that basically described an act of gang rape towards me.\" \"When I was very heavily pregnant, male students would get scissors and pretend to faux stab me. There were no consequences because all they have to say is, 'I was joking. She can't take a joke.'\" \"I was taking another teacher's class. A boy went to the bathroom, then a female student saw he posted on Snapchat. She was like, 'Miss, he's in the toilet wanking over you'.\"

A return to 'traditional masculinity'

These behaviours don't exist in a vacuum. They correlate with a rise in misogynistic material on social media.

Studies worldwide show that teenage boys are being recommended 'manosphere' content whether they search for it or not.

It's a trend that NSW Women's Safety Commissioner Hannah Tonkin has been closely observing.

\"It doesn't take long for a teenage boy who's online, who might be doing innocuous searches about sport or fitness … to be bombarded with messaging about how a return to traditional masculinity and traditional gender norms is the answer to their problems,\" she says.

Dr Hannah Tonkin says digital platforms can't turn a blind eye to the real-world harms of misogynistic content. (Compass)

Indeed, these influencers are perpetuating limited, archaic beliefs.

\"They argue that men need to be tough, dominant and aggressive, that they can't show any emotion or vulnerability, and that this is the way to succeed in life,\" says Tonkin.

Such messaging is often combined with misogynistic jokes or sexist stereotypes about women.

\"There's often a narrative about men being under attack or feminism being to blame,\" Dr Tonkin says.

\" This narrative of victimhood or grievance can be quite appealing if you're a young man who's feeling disenfranchised or alienated. \"

Inside the 'manosphere' rabbit hole

Twenty-six-year-old Jefferson knows what it's like to fall down this rabbit hole.

Back when he was a teenager, he scoured the internet for advice on how to gain confidence, particularly in the dating realm.

\"I was very self-conscious about body image, the way people thought about me, the way I represented myself,\" Jefferson recalls.

\"I think when you're not happy with that, you look for answers.\"

Jefferson came across male influencers who acted as though they wanted to help.

\"It initially starts off very simple, very innocent, very objectively helpful: clean your room, go to the gym, work out, eat healthy,\" he says.

\"Then you keep watching or you get recommended something else … like, how to tell if a girl is into you.\"

Jefferson says the content he was served online changed the way he viewed women. (Compass)

Soon, the algorithms led him into darker terrain, one where his dating difficulties suddenly became \"women's fault\".

This content affected how Jefferson viewed and interacted with the opposite sex.

\"I would both be more confident with women, but at the same time still feel really shit about myself,\" he says.

\"There were times where someone was just a friend and I would think that they were fully in love with me, and it caused a lot of relationships to break down.\"

But he also began judging himself far more harshly.

\"If you get rejected, then you're, like, worthless,\" he says.

\" If women don't want you, you're told, 'You are a beta. You are not manly enough. You're too much of a nice guy.' \"

Throughout this period, Jefferson maintained a strong relationship with his sister. He credits her with helping him climb out of the rabbit hole.

\"I used to go to her for dating advice, and I'd say things like, 'Maybe I should just be a little more mean?'\" he recalls.

\"She's just like, 'What are you talking about? Why would anyone want to be with someone like that?'

\"If I spewed back the talking points that I was given, she wouldn't give ground, essentially.\"

While Jefferson considers his younger self a misogynist, he's now deeply opposed to this ideology and to the current figurehead Andrew Tate.

\"I think a lot of men … go to Andrew Tate because they're lost,\" he says.

\"I don't like him. I don't like what he represents. I think it's scary that … he's been charged with so many horrible things, he says horrible things … and then there are a brigade of young men who will defend those actions.

\"This movement is just there for hatred.\"

Rape jokes and frightening realities

As a youth advocate and educator, Daniel Principe is acutely aware of what Australian boys are seeing —and, in some instances, saying — behind closed doors.

\"In every school and every postcode, rape jokes and rape threats are completely and utterly normalised,\" he says.

Travelling to schools around the country, he often starts his presentations asking students about the content they're served online.

Sexist memes? Gambling ads? Links to adult services? In all of these instances, teenage hands fly up.

\"What's so tragic is they're hearing these voices that are whipping up suspicion at best and disdain at worse for the other sex,\" says Daniel.

\"Children have these billion-dollar and trillion-dollar industries weaponising their limbic systems against them.

\" I don't think we should be surprised if these attitudes then leak out in … what some boys do because that is the diet that they've been served up. \"

Daniel Principe says 'manosphere' content has become mainstream online. (Compass: Floss Adams)

These beliefs aren't just being absorbed by boys.

Many teachers say girls are becoming quieter in class to avoid the attention of certain boys.

Former teacher Holly Cooper remembers doing a class exercise, known as Traffic Lights, which she used to unpack healthy relationships and harmful behaviours.

The students were given three cards to hold up: Green indicating, \"I'd be comfortable with that\"; amber for \"I'm not sure\"; and red as a direct \"That's not acceptable\".

In one domestic violence-related scenario, students were given the prompt: \"He hits the wall next to my head\".

Holly says, to her disbelief, many of the female students held up green and amber cards.

\"I questioned one of them and I said, 'Why wasn't it a red?' And she said, 'Because he didn't hit me.'

\" I knew these students' parents, they had a good home life … I thought they would absolutely choose healthy relationships. \"

Dr Hannah Tonkin says that sexist comments, misogynistic jokes and gender stereotypes can lay a foundation for greater harm.

\"These are all contributing to an environment where violence against women is more likely to be tolerated and more likely to occur,\" she says.

For Daniel Principe, it's crucial for more boys and men to care about this issue.

\"Too many women and girls that I know that I love, that I've shared life with and been friends with, have been impacted by male violence and especially male sexual violence,\" he says.

And at schools, that means calling out rape jokes or sexist comments, not passing them off as \"banter\".

Daniel Principe speaks to teenagers and parents across the country. (Compass: Floss Adams)

Stopping big tech from hijacking adolescence

Despite these complex challenges, Daniel sees a great deal of hope and potential in the next generation of teenagers.

\"The task is hard, but it's possible,\" he says.

\"My suspicion is, if we do this well, boys are actually very open to having these conversations and looking at things that aren't healthy and wanting to challenge and reject that.\"

While Daniel's work addressing the issue at a grassroots level — giving students and parents the tools to navigate harmful material online — he wants to see greater action at an international level.

\"We need to hold big tech to account,\" he says.

\" They're making so much money from weaponising the most horrific extreme views online just for clicks. \"

Indeed, governments around the world are fighting to regulate social-media platforms.

Here in Australia, e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant is overseeing the implementation of laws that aim to prevent under-16s accessing social media.

Like Daniel, Dr Tonkin believes increased accountability is critical.

\"We need the digital platforms to be assessing risks and building safety protections into their systems,\" she says.

\"They can't continue to turn a blind eye to the real-world harms that this is causing.\"

But to truly combat the misogynistic content teens are being bombarded with, experts say it is going to take a community-wide approach.

\"It's going to take all of us — from individual parents, families, sporting clubs, schools, religious groups, and all the way up to government — to do something,\" says Daniel.

\"To make sure it is easier for a young person to navigate their adolescence in a way that isn't demoralising to them, that isn't dehumanising to them and to others.

\"We have to exercise our moral imaginations as to what that's going to look like, because no other generation has had to navigate this before.\"

Watch Hijacking Adolescence on Compass tonight at 6:30pm on ABC TV, or stream now on iview.