Former PM says online culture is ‘evil’ and targets young men
Former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly concerned about the rise of the manosphere and warns that its influence on young men is increasing.
Sitting on a bright red sofa shaped like a giant pair of lips at Mecca’s Bourke Street store in Melbourne’s CBD, Trudeau was discussing leadership, power and gender equality with journalist Leigh Sales and his former chief of staff Katie Telford on Friday night, but the topic he was really fired up by was the issue of men.
“These poor people who push the manosphere mentality are just stupid, very bad and very insecure,” he said. “This is something that makes me very angry because they say there is some kind of rule that men have to be the top men.”
In his 10 years as prime minister, Trudeau formed Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet and introduced $10-a-day child care, but his feminist and progressive policies have also made him a target at the cutting edge of online masculinity culture.
Defenders of the manosphere, a loose collection of male podcasters and social media stars who espouse misogynistic and ultraconservative views, have derided Trudeau’s feminism as performative and accused his government of cultivating a “feminist hellscape” that alienates young men.
But at Friday’s event, Trudeau warned that the ideas put forward by the manosphere are toxic and more people need to challenge them.
Trudeau spoke in response to a question from Ben Vasiliou, chief executive of The Man Cave, a Melbourne-based mental health charity for men and boys, about what male leaders can do about the emergence of a “strongman archetype” that is driving men and boys to the right.
“We all know how much patriarchy has harmed women in past generations,” Trudeau said. “It is now shockingly clear how damaging patriarchy is to young men.”
Trudeau said youth and young men are not driving the patriarchy, but are instead victims of the system.
It’s a system exemplified by men like Andrew Tate, HStikkyTokky and Sneako, all profiled in Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary. Inside the Manosphere.
“This is very scary,” Trudeau said. “I have two sons, and I watch them being exposed to these things, and I try to run as fast as I can. We have such great conversations. But it’s so easy to fall into such brittle innuendos.”
Trudeau, who taught school before entering politics, is concerned that the workforce is increasingly trying to turn young men’s cellphones into a brainwashing tool, using increasingly extreme views to extort money.
“There is a money-making, polarizing, attention-grabbing machine that leverages algorithms designed to divide, polarize and enrage,” he said. “This is something that good people are increasingly effective at pushing back.”
The solution, Trudeau said, is for men to be “kind, thoughtful, emotionally available, helpful, full and complete human beings” while also recognizing that women are full and complete human beings, too.
Trudeau is used to criticism. When she introduced Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet, she said there was “a lot of pearl-clutching” by right-wing media saying the cabinet should be based on meritocracy.
“No, damn it,” Trudeau said. “The real loser was the average guy, the big guys would be just fine [and remain in cabinet] But the middle person, who would have been in the group if there was no gender balance, left, and that was fine with me.”
To talk Age After the event, Trudeau said the main purpose of his visit to Melbourne was Women Deliver He was due to peak this week but was also planning to attend the blockbuster Collingwood-Essendon Anzac Day clash at the MCG.
Trudeau said pop star girlfriend Katy Perry had given him “a bit of an idea” of what to expect in her Australian rules debut after her performance in the AFL grand final in 2024.
From attending the World Economic Forum to the Coachella music festival, Trudeau said he’s still unclear about what post-politics means to him.
“I still have a lot of work to do,” he said.
At this stage, there is no political moment on the horizon; Instead, Trudeau is focused on appearing at events like the one on his schedule in Melbourne.
“People read, but they don’t read political books,” he said. “They use them as backdrops on the shelves. Every politician is supposed to write a book as a legacy – okay, whatever – but no one will read it. There are more powerful ways to shape conversations and influence people.”
Start your day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
