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Man Up! A Criminological Reflection on Toxic Masculinity and Normalisation of Abuse in Digital Age

Updated: Jan 5

Introduction
“I'm not saying they're property. I am saying they are given to the man and belong to the man." These are not the words of a medieval patriarch dusted out of history books, but those of Andrew Tate (Emory Andrew Tate III) a 38-year-old ex-kickboxer who reinvented himself as the poster child of the manosphere. Among his most famous claims? That women should “bear responsibility” for sexual assault. Before Meta and TikTok deplatformed him, Tate’s audience had already swelled into the millions. Deplatforming barely mattered, with 10.7 million followers on X, he continues to sell misogyny to the algorithm. Thousands of fan pages keep his words alive, packaging violent ideologies as humour, as “alpha wisdom,” as culture. And when we try to hold them accountable, the response is painfully predictable: “relax, it’s just a joke.”

Except jokes don’t usually end with crossbows and corpses. Yet in 2024, 26-year-old Kyle Clifford brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend, her sister, and her mother, just hours after watching Tate’s videos  That is, the real-world punchline. As Jacob Johanssen notes, we are witnessing nothing less than the systematic “normalisation of misogyny, rape culture, and violence against women and girls.” The manosphere is not some fringe Reddit thread, it is a global ecosystem, woven into the algorithms of social media, the competitiveness of gaming, and the rhetoric of right-wing populism. Its toxicity is not hidden, it is viral, monetised, and trending and criminology must recognise this for what it is: the mass production of deviance disguised as entertainment.

This paper argues that social media is not a neutral playground. It is an active weapon, one that rewards hatred with reach, packages misogyny as humour, and normalises abuse as ordinary culture. And once abuse is normalised as culture, violence stops being an aberration and becomes an expectation, but let me be clear: the blame does not lie in the abstract idea of social media itself. It lies with those who control it, profit from it, and choose to look away. Tech giants that allow misogyny to trend in the name of “engagement,” and legislatures that remain lethargic in addressing online harm, are complicit in sustaining this ecosystem.

Case Studies and Statistics 
Consider this case for example, an 18-year-old girl, Mehak Jain, was relentlessly harassed by her partner, Arshkrit Singh. He pressured her not to talk to other men, followed her to classes, and even created a fake social media account to spy on her interactions. This obsessive behaviour tragically escalated, culminating in Singh murdering her. Looking deeper into these patterns, Singh’s actions are textbook examples of coercive control and stalking, behaviours often trivialised until they turn deadly. Digital tools, meant to connect people, become instruments of obsession, amplifying possessiveness and misogyny. From a criminological perspective, this case shows how private aggression can escalate, normalising abuse and setting the stage for lethal violence.

Supporting this, a study by Dehingia et al. (2023) examined online misogyny on Twitter in India and found that around 2% of tweets between 2018 and 2021 contained misogynistic content, primarily in the form of sexual objectification and sexist abuse. Using a combination of qualitative analysis and machine learning on over 30 million tweets, the study revealed a significant increase in such content during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting growing hostility toward women online. These findings illustrate how aggressive and hateful digital behaviour reinforces traditional gender norms, frames women as sexual objects, and normalises abuse, showing that online misogyny is not just a violation of women’s digital rights, but also a mechanism that can escalate real-world violence and gendered aggression.

Beyond social media, gaming culture also plays a significant role in normalizing misogyny and toxic masculinity. While research on gaming communities, particularly streaming platforms, is still emerging, studies have shown that harassment and gendered profanity are disproportionately directed at women, often tied to entrenched stereotypes such as “women belong in the kitchen”. These profanities and verbal abuses extend beyond mere insult; they permeate multiple forms of harmful behaviour, including hate speech, discrimination, cyberbullying, and harassment. Interestingly, men are not immune to sexist remarks, as patriarchal expectations shape behaviour for all genders, though women disproportionately bear the brunt of abuse. Within gaming communities, players form identities that align with the norms of their chosen groups, which often have unique hierarchies, conventions, and belief systems. These group dynamics foster a culture in which aggression, dominance, and misogyny are normalized and even praised, reinforcing toxic masculinity both online and offline.

Visual representation in games further entrenches gender biases. Female characters are often hypersexualized, cast in submissive roles, or depicted as “damsels in distress,” while male characters, in contrast, are typically portrayed with aggression, dominance, and heroism, reinforcing societal hierarchies. Female players are often forced to conceal their gender to avoid harassment, creating a chilling effect on participation and inclusion. 

The United Nations has recognized technology-facilitated violence against women and girls as a global crisis. Reports indicate prevalence rates ranging from 16% to 58%, with younger women, particularly Generation Z and Millennials, disproportionately affected. Technology-facilitated violence encompasses a wide spectrum, including cyberharassment, stalking, doxing, image- and video-based sexual abuse, gendered hate speech, threats of physical or sexual violence, and misinformation campaigns. Such abuse often transcends the digital space, escalating into offline violence, coercive control, or even murder. Women in public roles, journalists, activists, politicians and marginalized groups face amplified risk, and witnessing online abuse discourages participation, further entrenching gender inequities. Alarmingly, the rise of AI and other digital tools is intensifying these harms by automating and amplifying misogynistic content, entrenching harmful social norms, and creating new channels for abuse. 

This convergence of gaming culture, social media, and digital technologies highlights a rising concern, especially for criminologists: the normalization of misogyny, harassment, and gender-based violence online not only shapes virtual interactions but also escalates real-world aggression, creating a continuum of harm that begins in digital spaces and culminates in physical violence.

Conclusion
To curb the rising tide of online misogyny and toxic masculinity, proactive measures are urgently needed across education, technology, and legislation. Gender studies and basic criminology should be introduced in schools to teach consent, boundaries, and respect from an early age, while digital literacy programs can help users identify and respond to harassment, misogyny, and toxic behaviour online. Inclusive gaming communities must enforce clear codes of conduct and moderation, and social media and gaming platforms should be held accountable for amplifying harmful content. Legislative frameworks need to address technology-facilitated violence against women, while public awareness campaigns can normalize conversations around online abuse and challenge toxic social norms.

1YouTube, ‘Andrew Tate: Toxic Masculinity and Online Influence’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6vhLqqJMvU

2 BBC News, ‘Andrew Tate: UK Police Investigate Former Kickboxer’ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64125045

3 NDTV, ‘Rise of Toxic Masculinity: How Online Influencers Are Shaping Young Men’ https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/rise-of-toxic-masculinity-how-online-influencers-are-shaping-young-men-7967598

4Ibid.

5Ibid.

7 N Dehingia, J McAuley, L McDougal, E Reed, JG Silverman, L Urada, et al, ‘Violence against women on Twitter in India: Testing a taxonomy for online misogyny and measuring its prevalence during COVID-19’ (2023) 18(10) PLoS ONE e0292121 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292121

8 Angeliki Lemani, Behind the Keyboard: Playing the Misogynistic Game – A Mixed-Methods Analysis in Implicit and Explicit Comments on Twitch

9 UN General Assembly, Seventy-ninth session Agenda item 27: Advancement of women – Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: Technology-facilitated violence against women and girls. Report of the Secretary-General

 
 
 

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