For the last few months I have been racking my brain and spending countless hours searching for new sources of insights, entertainment, stimulus, discussion. I just felt like the world and the Internet had shrunk. I felt like there was nothing else out there to discover.
Low and behold, I came back to an old discovery this week, which provided me with a deep well of new insights and discussion.
The man-o-sphere.
For those of you who don’t know what the man-o-sphere is, type it into Google and you’ll discover an online community of men, discussing all topics on the subject of men, women, society, culture, relationships, world issues and politics. Now, I must point out, that personally I think the man-o-sphere has some flaws. I think that it’s tainted by a couple of bad apples. The main problem with it is that, it is infected by a large subset of men that live by an ideology called “The red pill.” But I’m getting off topic.So as I say, the man-o-sphere has its flaws but it is responsible for a LOT of good things. The main aims and purposes of the man-o-sphere are these:
- Enlighten men about what it means to be a man.
- Teach men about important subjects such as lifestyle, relationships, health and fitness, travel
- Inform men and encourage them to become invested and involved in world and national issues.
These are the aims and purposes I think the man-o sphere strives to provide.
Here for the purpose of the article, I think it’s important to point out that the man-o-sphere was only been put in place perhaps around 15 years ago. But after 15 years, as you can imagine, it is now well established. And so with that thought, I continued the thought process and thought; OK since I know that this man-o-sphere exists, surely there must be a fem-o-sphere. I just haven’t heard of it. So I typed into Google: “what’s the equivalent to the man-o sphere?” And answers.com came up. The top answer said: “main stream media,” with a link to an elite daily article with the title, “Why women don’t need men.”
And then it all made sense to me. It’s right in your face. More specifically though, it isn’t mainstream media in the form of elite daily articles or some New York Times article. It’s magazines like “Elle, cosmopolitan, buzzfeed, vanity fair, vogue, cleo.” All these magazines that supposedly tell a woman how to be a woman. And what is important to a woman. Beauty fashion, boys, relationships, sex, status, celebrities. I don’t know what else goes on in those magazines. But that was my first discovery.
So we’ve now discovered the man-o-sphere and the fem-o-sphere and defined what each one is and what they promote.
But the idea of the contrast between them fascinates me.
The first distinction I’ve made is: The man-o-sphere is organically produced and experiences organic growth and evolution. It was created on the Internet by men who use it and is controlled by everyone who chooses to interact with it. The man-o-sphere is a collection of hundreds of thousands of creators if not millions. It is regulated by its consumers. Everything about it is open and honest.
On the other hand the fem-o-sphere is created by corporate media businesses. It’s perhaps a multi-billion dollar industry? It has the power to push any agenda it wants on women. It can promote this celebrity and not that one, promote this product and not that, and the consumer doesn’t get a say. The fem-o-sphere is clearly not as transparent and not as honest and perhaps more dangerous than the man-o sphere. However I will point out briefly, that the man-o sphere and those celebrities large enough to be on TV or the leaders inside the man-o-sphere that are given the opportunity eg. Mark Latham and Mark Rudov and many like these men will be scrutinised and labelled bigots, racists and sexists by mainstream media. Never have I seen an article from a woman’s magazine been scrutinised in the news.
On to the next contrast point!
I want to make it clear that I’m NOT trying to tear these two spheres apart. In not trying to promote one over the other or say that one is better than the other. I’m just comparing and contrasting them. Hence my next comparison.
What do each of the spheres stand for/promote?
The man-o-sphere as I already mentioned, stands for encouraging men to employ and strive to incorporate traditional masculine values. The second thing is, teaching them to get experience, become independent; travel, get healthy and fit, talk to girls, build a business, accomplish something, live with purpose and passion for life. And the third thing is get involved in national/world politics and issues. Typically from what I’ve seen the majority of man-o-sphere contributors are largely supportive of traditional values and are skeptical and wary of a lot of the news being pushed out. But important discussions about obesity crises, mental health crises and population, birthrate declines and other topic are widely discussed.
Summarising the fem -o-sphere: Beauty, celeb gossip, how to play games and manipulate boys, promote the next hot social trend or minority issue whatever that might be. Get away from traditional values, slut it up, get a career, stay single, single is hot, single is status, be popular.
I’m actually shocked that that’s what I just wrote down, but from what I’ve seen on the titles of these magazines and things I’ve seen from the little clips in the cosmopolitan snapchat story I’m sorry to say but I think that’s accurate. Let me know if I’m wrong.
In analysing this, I want to start with a positive. I think that everything that man sphere promotes is all there on purpose. I don’t think it was by any accident that taking an active investment and interest in national/global issues or any other topic on there ended up there by accident. I think it goes to show that without any agenda pushed on the male population, we know instinctively, our role in society is to have a vision, a purpose, live freely and be leaders in the world.
I also think the same is true for women. I think instinctively they know the right path to take. Sadly I think that has been hijacked and the one place where women are supposed to get a good education of their identity and role in the world, the fem-o-sphere has been poisoned and stolen to promote a backwards agenda. And it’s having a strong effect.
The third observation I want to make is: While this hijacked poisoned, fem-o-sphere is promoted on the shelves of stores and glamorised on the Internet and in the media and by pop culture, the fruitful and noble man sphere is hidden, it is underground, it is ridiculed, and considered the greater evil. It’s by no coincidence. It’s by no coincidence and as a society, people need to make these observations and make a change. We need to grow the man-o-sphere, clean it up the bad apples, and we need to reinvent and recreate a digital organic fem-o-sphere where women can openly and honestly discuss their true feelings and true desires and their true role in society.
Otherwise I think we’re just going to a progression and continuation of the identity crisis and problems associated with that, that are so prevalent in society today.
Seth's World 