Did the manosphere really eat the internet?

Looking back at the "gentle guy internet," three years later.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Three years ago, we wrote about something I had deemed the “gentle guy internet.” The gentle guy internet is essentially just “what it is my boyfriend, and my friends’ boyfriends, look at on their laptops while wearing big headphones in bed.” 

Gentle guy internet is not just for people who identify as men. Other genders can and do enjoy them, but these sites emit a benign, sweet, and sometimes boring masculine energy that seems niche until you realize that they have hundreds of thousands of followers who are simply too quiet to compete with a single tweet from Dave Portnoy.

It was one of the first pieces to generate even the tiniest bit of discourse in our community, so much so that we ended up sending a follow-up email with all the additional creators and content gentle guys (and the partners of gentle guys) shared with us in response. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about this side of the internet this past week or so, as online male spaces are debated in the aftermath of the election. Gen Z men, specifically, have been blamed for pushing their generation right, which is not surprising when you take a look at the Gen Z creators making headlines: Logan and Jake Paul, the Nelk Boys, Nick Fuentes, Adin Ross, and other right and far-right podcasters and streamers. Where, I ask, are my gentle guys?