What makes a man? Is it physical strength? Success? Money? This VICE special tries to get to the bottom of that, from seminars that are meant to help men harness their true nature to infamous cases where masculinity goes too far.

One of them is Andrew Tate, former professional kickboxer and social media personality. The king of toxic masculinity has nearly 10 million followers on Twitter and is well-known for his misogynistic views. He’s made his money with webcam models and online courses. Things fell to pieces at the end of 2022, as Tate and his brother were arrested in Romania as part of an investigation that started with rape, human trafficking and sexually exploiting women and has expanded to charges of trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering and attempting to influence witnesses.

This is a strange trip into the manosphere, a place of alpha masculinity, misogyny and anti-feminism. From incels and Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) to pick-up artists (PUA) and fathers’ rights groups, these groups are all about pushing back against what they see as feminists and their hatred of men.

According to journalist Caitlin Dewey, you can reduce the complexities of the manosphere to these two simple truths: They believe that “the corruption of modern society by feminism, in violation of inherent sex differences between men and women and the ability of men to save society or achieve sexual prowess by adopting a hyper-masculine role and forcing women to submit to them.”

This is, at times, a rough watch. To me, there is no strength in this type of mindset. Watch it and make up your mind yourself.

You can watch this on Tubi.