“The woman must submit to her man. » Influencers advocating a return to traditional values are multiplying on social networks, and their ideas are making headway even in secondary school classes. Adolescents aspire to become this virile, rich and respected man who seduces women and dominates them. Overwhelmed by the popularity of this movement, journalist Simon Coutu tries to understand its appeal in his new documentary, Alphas.
“I am concerned about the rise of this retrograde, often misogynistic and sexist discourse. I have two daughters, and I don’t want them to live in an unequal world and be submissive,” Simon Coutu immediately explains in an interview with The Duty.
To understand the phenomenon, the journalist listened for months to the online content of Quebec influencers proclaiming themselves “alpha males”, before meeting some of them for his documentary. Among them: Joël McGuirk, co-host of the podcast The lucid podcast, and Julien Bournival from the podcast Fathers to sons.
The two men made themselves known on social networks by conveying a conservative discourse, which encourages young people to adopt an ultra-masculine lifestyle. “Real guys,” they say, must demonstrate courage, strength and discipline. They must achieve material and financial success, an essential condition to please the fairer sex.
By promoting this form of masculinity, these influencers also and above all call for a return to traditional gender roles. “Being a provider and a protector is what a man should be,” Joel McGuirk bluntly tells the camera.
The role of women is to be at home to take care of children, also believes Julien Bournival, who claims that biological characteristics at birth define the roles of men and women in society.
L’ombre d’Andrew Tate
Unsurprisingly, it was Andrew Tate, a leading figure in this masculinist movement, who inspired them. The former kickboxing champion is one of the first to improvise coach of male personal development on social networks.
After experiencing his peak of popularity in the summer of 2022, accumulating hundreds of millions of views on his videos, he was banned from almost all platforms because of his misogynistic and violent comments. The British-American influencer also faces accusations of rape, human trafficking and exploitation in Romania.
“He contributed to helping men’s mental health,” Joël McGuirk still claims. “He said some things that I find really stupid […]but he does it on purpose, he’s a character. »
Echo chamber
We quickly understand that masculinists arouse controversy and deliberately stir it up. Their desire is to “shock”, to “stir up trouble”, analyzes Simon Coutu. “As with the anti-sanitary measures groups, what unites them is the rejection of l’establishmentrejection of the elite and traditional media. It is therefore even more important to understand why the channel landed. »
To do this, he goes to meet experts who take a critical look at this movement. Among them: Francis-Dupuis Déri, professor of political science at UQAM, and Samuel Veissière, anthropologist of medicine and associate professor of psychology at UQAM. We also discover Véronique Poirier Jutras, a secondary school teacher who testifies to the influence of these masculinist discourses on her students. Together, they met a few young people who agreed to discuss the subject on camera.
“What is attractive is financial success and comfort. It really appeals to young people, young people perhaps in a precarious situation, coming from a less fortunate background, or young people who are afraid of instability,” says the teacher, who notes that an ideological gap is widening more and more between girls and boys.
“It involves a lot of education and a certain media literacy,” notes Simon Coutu. These young people no longer find themselves in the media’s discourse, which talks a lot about toxic masculinity, so they turn to other sources of information that are more or less credible, more or less reliable, and consume the information in their bedroom. echo. It’s a problem. »
To hold or not to hold the microphone?
By tackling such a controversial subject, the documentary attracted the wrath of viewers even before its broadcast. When Télé-Québec unveiled the trailer last week, several people questioned the point of giving voice to these influencers who propagate a “toxic” vision of masculinity and make “dangerous” comments.
“Why give them a voice? Because they exist, it’s as simple as that,” replies Simon Coutu, adding that they do not, in any case, need Télé-Québec to get their message across. “I wanted to immerse myself in that world and hand them the microphone to try to understand — without judging — a movement that is growing in society. It’s a phenomenon that is of public interest, that’s my guide,” underlines the journalist, who has used the same working method in the past to talk about drug sellers, arms traffickers and opponents of health measures.
He invites his detractors to listen to the entire documentary before criticizing it. “They will see that it is balanced. »
Alphas. Broadcast on Télé-Québec on November 11.
