By Maliha Khan
Social media is reshaping how young people understand masculinity, femininity and gender roles.
A young man using a smartphone. Towfiqu Barbhuiya. Pexels.
In the fall of 2024, I moved to Delhi for work. Around that time, the algorithm on my Instagram account seemed to suddenly shift. My feed became much more local, showing me content that felt more connected to Delhi and India and exposing me to videos I would not usually encounter. What came with this change, however, was a wave of what is often called “alpha male” or “red pill” content. The more I engaged with it, the more of it started filling my feed. At first, much of it was about becoming a strong man, building confidence, gaining power and becoming successful. But as I kept scrolling, the message began to shift, increasingly giving way to content that demeaned women, reinforced hostility toward them and, in some cases, appeared to encourage violence. A few reels mocking how “wives are annoying” quickly transitioned into how to fix wives, girlfriends and women in general with “the belt treatment,” referring to the act of hitting women with a belt to discipline them. What struck me most was not simply the content being produced, but who else was being shown this kind of content. If this is what my feed looks like by accident, what does the same algorithm look like for a 13-year-old boy searching for answers about what it means to be a man?
Most of the content served by these algorithms is not explicitly misogynistic. A lot of it packaged misogyny as comedy: mocking women’s movements, portraying women as “untrustworthy” or “gold diggers,” or framing feminism as a threat to traditional family structures. The content essentially wasn’t saying, “you should hate women”; instead, it was telling you how to be a man. This is where gender ideology becomes more subtle. These videos tapped into the feelings of frustration, insecurity and emasculation among young men, offering them an explanation for why they might feel left behind. This more often than not meant promoting traditional gender roles and upholding patriarchal values.
A survey of 23,000 people across the world found that 31% of Gen Z men agreed that “a wife should always obey her husband,” compared with 13% of Baby Boomer men. Research from the University of Melbourne similarly found that one in three teenage boys, ages 13-17, surveyed felt that efforts to give women equal opportunities had gone too far.
The idea of feminism going “too far” was something I encountered repeatedly during my brief interaction with this content and, interestingly, from both genders. It would therefore be reductive to suggest that misogynistic ideas online come only from men. Alongside the “alpha male” videos are podcasts and accounts devoted to tradwives and “traditional femininity,” where women argue that feminism has gone too far and that society should return to traditional gender roles. The message is often framed as an escape from the pressures of modern life, encouraging young women to reject the demands of careers and embrace the role of a homemaker instead. The same survey also showed how this inclination to traditional roles was also seen among Gen Z women, as 18% agreed that “a wife should always obey her husband,” compared with 6% of Baby Boomer women.
While this showcases the more conservative and extremist side of the internet, it isn’t simply a space that teaches young people misogyny. At its core, it gives us access to opinions and ideas from across the world. For a lot of men, the internet has given them access to feminist ideas, conversations about gender inequality and perspectives they may not have encountered otherwise. I conducted a short survey on Instagram in which, of the eight respondents, six said gender-related content had made them more aware of gender inequality, while five said that seeing different perspectives online had made them question previous assumptions about gender. At the same time, four said that it had made them more skeptical of the opposite gender. The same online environment can increase awareness while also increasing suspicion and division.
This is why blaming the internet alone is not the answer. Dr. Sara Meger, one of the authors of the University of Melbourne study, argues that the internet is an amplifier rather than the source of these attitudes. These ideas already exist within society; social media can package them into entertaining, inflammatory content and repeatedly place them in front of an audience. This is where algorithms and the internet compound the problem. On these fast-paced platforms, inflammatory and polarizing statements and ideas attract attention and visibility.
The problem, then, is not only what algorithms show young people but also the lack of context and critical engagement surrounding what they see. When the same messages appear often enough, at what point do they stop looking like opinions and start looking like common sense?
Maliha Khan
Maliha is a graduate of Georgetown University Qatar, where she studied Culture and Politics with a minor in English. She is passionate about storytelling and is particularly interested in gender, migration, and climate. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies and filming videos.