Manosphere, Models, and Me

TW: Mentions of the usual manosphere stuff, and light use of the vocab you’d expect in this discourse. 

The whole point of our reliance on algorithms is to offload the mental energy to find content that we’ll engage with. Advertising algorithms are even worse - they’re designed to expose us to content that, through data collection, the algorithm thinks we’re likely to buy. This is an article about what happens when the algorithm breaks, and you end up getting fed the wrong sort of content, nasty manosphere propaganda that the algorithm thinks you will like because you decided to watch a couple of videos on YouTube about model making. 

First thing’s first - it seems like Google is American-centric. Here’s a quick example about googling shoes. I’m British, so when I want to waterproof my sports shoes I search “How to waterproof trainers”, and am met with advice on how to waterproof…leather shoes. Why? I can’t be sure but my hunch is that Google just translates ‘trainers’ to generic ‘shoes’, not acknowledging the nuance of a foreign dialect. It's not like this is hidden knowledge, or they don’t have access to it… if you search “what are trainers”, you get a concise and informative popup window. C’mon Google. British ‘people’ are people too. Make the effort.

So, why bring this up? How does this relate to the spread of manosphere propaganda on Google’s services? It starts with a relatively normal English (not sure about the rest of the UK) hobby of model-making. It’s not what you likely expect to be a part of English culture, but if you want a couple of examples, Boris Johnson used the hobby to disconnect himself from the Brexit Bus (https://youtu.be/dXyO_MC9g3k?t=109), and in the North, models and materials are available in general stores like Boyes (imagine if Kruidvat and Action had a baby). In this case, they were from the Warhammer brand, with models designed to be display pieces or used in a tabletop wargame, with dice and tape measures.

This is a hobby I used to engage with pretty heavily, I was even briefly a part of after-school clubs for wargaming/model making at both my primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools. Winning a model painting competition while at Lowes Wong Primary School was my first realisation of any artistic talent I might have, and while it was a slightly odd hobby for my age, I was never ostracised, separated or bullied for it. Apparently, across the pond, hobbyists are less lucky. 

This is jumping ahead in the story, but for the sake of argument I’ll talk about some American hobbyist content, specifically on Youtube shorts. While it isn’t said in so many words, the demographic of model-makers in the states is clearly…different. Creators will speak candidly about experiences of bullying over footage of a space marine receiving a fresh coat of paint between gloved fingers. One moment is seared into my memory, in a short describing the restoration of an old model, the American creator remarked something along the lines of ‘old models like these bring us right back to playing with our friends in basements or in the back rooms of tiny hobby stores’. I didn’t relate at all to that sentiment. This was never a hidden hobby for me or my peers, we took our models to school, we played on the massive tables at Warhammer World (technically a local store lol).

While it's anecdotal, the difference in experience between American and British hobbyists is important. Especially when Google clearly takes an amerocentric perspective in displaying content. You can probably see where this is going.

This is how Google ruined my nostalgia trip. I was tempted back into the hobby, nostalgic for the attention to detail and avenues for creativity that these models allowed. When that temptation was fresh, I did what anyone would do when wanting to re-enter a complicated hobby, I did some exploring of model-making youtube content. This didn’t last long, the temptation is gone, corrupted by shitty politics and scam adverts.

The first few videos I watched, guides on ‘kitbashing’ (combining components from multiple models to make a completely unique and original creation), got me excited. I was back in it - there’s nothing quite like a sweet nostalgia hit. I browsed Games Workshop’s new models (much improved in the decade I’ve been away), I even went to the local store with my partner to get an in-person view. Nothing was amiss yet, the algorithm hadn’t adapted, I was still getting ads for Hamilton on the West End. Business as usual.

After a few more videos, the algorithm started suggesting further afield warhammer content, such as guides on specific painting techniques, discussions on the use of 3d printing, scratch-built dioramas and other such things. Usual internet stuff - algorithm gives you more of what you’re looking for. This is when the ad algorithm took notice. Suddenly I would see ads from Tinder, Hinge, diet plans, testosterone supplements. At the time, I found it funny that such a sudden change would take place from a day or two of new background noise, but the algorithm wasn’t close to done.

I started to get content recommendations from the States: I engaged. They had some excellent advice on sourcing alternatives to materials that would otherwise require access to a specialist hobby shop; and their stories about the hobby on the other side of the Atalntic were fascinating. I had no idea what Google’s algorithms decided my interest in this content meant. Apparently, Google’s algorithm has seen a marketable connection between the Warhammer community and the manosphere, and I’d unwittingly walked right into the pipeline. Luckily, YouTube wasn’t in this state when I was a hobbyist in earnest, I daren’t imagine how a thirteen year old boy might take this shit onboard.

I was on the shorts page when Google showed their hand. It started with Andrew Tate. I was thrown into the deep end with this bald cretin growling bullshit about how immigrants r*pe ‘sl*ts’, who in turn deserve it for dressing ‘like whores’. I didn’t engage with this video, I didn’t dislike it, I didn’t comment… but I did watch it, all like… ten seconds of it. Looking back, I think those ten seconds probably sealed my fate. 

I got more Tate clips, swiping past each one when it came up, with increasing frequency. The algorithm must’ve decided that Tate was the problem, not the hateful rhetoric, so I got clips from the ever cringe Fresh and Fit Podcast. Unlike the Tate clips where he spoke about ‘women’ as an abstract concept, these brainlets were simply berating instagram models to their faces. They just kind of…took it. This prompted me to close the app for a while, to relieve the building, seething anger at unabashed, unafraid and proudly unconsidered bigotry.

A day later, I needed some background noise. I opened a ‘battle report’ (a recounting of a game between two hobbyists). The ads were the, by then common, bullshit dietary supplements, which I was able to passively ignore by this point. By the third battle report… I got the ad.

I call it the ad because it shook me to my very core. It was because of this advert that I uninstalled the YouTube app. I’ve had that app on every smartphone I’ve ever had, since my Xperia Mini Pro back in the early 2010s. Over a decade of that little piece of software being in my pocket, a continuity broken by Google’s amerocentric sub-cultural assumptions.

The ad was a comprehensive list of every tactic of the manosphere scam. Fundamentally there are two ways one can feel better about oneself, raise yourself higher than your peers, or bring them below you. This is the real product being sold, this feeling of superiority, specifically an entitlement to that superiority. But how do you sell something that doesn’t exist? Bullshit merchants have this down to a science. The vehicle of this transaction can be anything, poorly reviewed soy-based supplements, a shitcoin, or a referral based content farm. But what if you can’t afford, or be bothered to create some kind of product, build an audience, or do anything productive. You can always sell advice. Advice costs nothing and its value is determined post-sale, caveat emptor. And in this market, the market dictated by youtube’s algorithm, ‘dating’ advice is apparently the preferred genre.

I could list all of the elements that made this ad such a scam. In fact, I will. Let's start with something simple. What’s the name of the product? Is it the “F with women” method, as the ad’s actor claims? Perhaps it’s the “wing girl” method, as google ad suggests? Then again, it could be “the flirt” method judging by the URL of the popup. Speaking of the popup, this one’s full of scam mask-off. From the top we have absurd claims, that “99.7% of women” fall under this magical spell, that “157,000 men” have “already” found success, specifically to “find a loyal, loving girlfriend who’s desperate for a committed relationship”. The unwritten part of that last quote reads “(just like you)”. 

But now we get to the unfun part: the political part. Because the logical inconsistency of “99.7%” of women find this method irresistible, then…what’s to stop one of the other 157,000 men from using it on my new “loyal, loving girlfriend who’s desperate for a committed relationship”? Nothing. That’s not the point, the point is selling the idea that women are so easily manipulated that you, the big strong man that you are, the misunderstood alpha can bend them to your will. Because they are weak: you are strong. You can “force” a woman to do whatever you want her to. She isn’t a person, she doesn’t have real thoughts, if that were the case, she would be able to ‘control’ her attraction to you… and this is true of 99.7% of women?! 

While I wouldn’t go so far that this ad advocates for rape, but between the claims around the effectiveness, the advertised simplicity of the ___ method and wording of ‘force’ brought me to an uncomfortable place. I know several survivors of rape and sexual assault, I sporadically check on some of the statistics, but having the words in front of me, spelled out so clearly… The way in which these ideas are sold, that women can be ‘forced’ and the idea of (obviously fake number) 157,000 men ‘forcing’ their will on women… That honestly scared me. It scared me off the platform.

At the end of the day, it's not the worst thing that’s ever happened on the internet. But it is really frustrating. Frustrating that there’s people out there putting this dangerous garbage out into the world. Frustrating that these algorithms have been designed to push this garbage at me. I fell into the wrong pipeline - but the pipeline shouldn’t exist.