The Manosphere is Political: Ideology, Misogyny, and on Against Gender Policies

This technical note examines the political dimension of the Brazilian manosphere on Telegram. Drawing on a dataset of 85 Brazilian communities, we combine mixed methods: a quantitative analysis of mentions of Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva through time-series analysis, and a Critical Discourse Analysis of content selected for its analytical relevance. The findings indicate that the manosphere is political, both through the recurring presence of content about political leaders and partisan cleavages, and through the circulation of moral, anti-gender, anti-institutional, and anti-left repertoires that structure its political ideology. These dynamics cut across all five subcategories of communities analyzed, showing that politics is not confined to groups explicitly devoted to political debate. We also find that support for or rejection of political leaders is often mediated by the manosphere’s own grammar, which mobilizes categories such as incel, honk pill, red pill, and alpha male to interpret public figures. In addition, we identify systematic attacks on gender policies, especially the Maria da Penha Law, sex education, and abortion, which are frequently framed as evidence of persecution against men, a threat to the family, and an expression of a social order captured by feminism. Misogyny appears intertwined with racism, classism, and LGBTphobia, and can escalate into extreme discourses of violence, extermination, and reproductive control. Taken together, these findings suggest that the manosphere functions as a space of ideological socialization, the production of moral and political enemies, and the delegitimization of public policies aimed at protection and gender equality.