10 June 2026
- RSIS
- Publication
- External Publications
- Biology as Alibi for the Manosphere
Biology as Alibi for the Manosphere
Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere has renewed mainstream attention to online subcultures often dismissed as fringe. This coincides with a broader discursive shift: the normalisation of a distinct ‘biological’ vocabulary in manosphere discourse. This rhetoric usually relies on a weak scientific basis, selectively interpreted or removed from its original context. One example is the viral trend of ‘bone smashing,’ which misappropriates orthopedic principles to justify extreme jawline modification. Across the manosphere, this biological or ‘black pill’ language has become a default mode through which social identity, hierarchy, and outcomes are justified. This manifests in face ratings, ‘before-and-after’ glow-up images, and categorising men into “tiers” (e.g., chad vs average), reducing men’s bodies to quantifiable metrics, inherently resulting in hierarchies.
The normalisation of biological-deterministic vocabulary is anchored in a misogynistic worldview that seeks to justify the dominance of men in the guise of evolutionary necessity. Inequality is thereby recast as inevitable and ‘natural,’ stripping away social and political context, echoing earlier traditions such as phrenology, eugenics, and scientific racism where biology was used to reinforce existing hierarchies. In this sense, the vocabulary itself performs vital ideological work within the manosphere and far-right communities. Ideas are constantly co-opted and resignified as they move across digital environments. Platforms such as X and TikTok amplify this framing through highly visual, comparative content, reducing the nuances into self-evident ‘proof’ of what works. For instance, content creators like Clavicular exemplify this dynamic, presenting extreme physical modification as ‘ascension.’ This term describes a perceived transition from ‘ugly’ or ‘incel’ status to a ‘Chad’ archetype, a transformation now treated within these subcultures as a moral and biological imperative, selectively reinterpreting and embedding within these emotionally charged narratives in the manosphere.
Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere has renewed mainstream attention to online subcultures often dismissed as fringe. This coincides with a broader discursive shift: the normalisation of a distinct ‘biological’ vocabulary in manosphere discourse. This rhetoric usually relies on a weak scientific basis, selectively interpreted or removed from its original context. One example is the viral trend of ‘bone smashing,’ which misappropriates orthopedic principles to justify extreme jawline modification. Across the manosphere, this biological or ‘black pill’ language has become a default mode through which social identity, hierarchy, and outcomes are justified. This manifests in face ratings, ‘before-and-after’ glow-up images, and categorising men into “tiers” (e.g., chad vs average), reducing men’s bodies to quantifiable metrics, inherently resulting in hierarchies.
The normalisation of biological-deterministic vocabulary is anchored in a misogynistic worldview that seeks to justify the dominance of men in the guise of evolutionary necessity. Inequality is thereby recast as inevitable and ‘natural,’ stripping away social and political context, echoing earlier traditions such as phrenology, eugenics, and scientific racism where biology was used to reinforce existing hierarchies. In this sense, the vocabulary itself performs vital ideological work within the manosphere and far-right communities. Ideas are constantly co-opted and resignified as they move across digital environments. Platforms such as X and TikTok amplify this framing through highly visual, comparative content, reducing the nuances into self-evident ‘proof’ of what works. For instance, content creators like Clavicular exemplify this dynamic, presenting extreme physical modification as ‘ascension.’ This term describes a perceived transition from ‘ugly’ or ‘incel’ status to a ‘Chad’ archetype, a transformation now treated within these subcultures as a moral and biological imperative, selectively reinterpreting and embedding within these emotionally charged narratives in the manosphere.
