Beyond the Global North: evidence on ‘manfluencers’, social media and gender norms among adolescent boys from a global literature review and mixed-methods research across six states in Mexico

Misogynist ‘manfluencers’ and other gendered social media content available to adolescent boys and young men have alarmed parents, educators, media, policy-makers and researchers. While some evidence from schools suggests links with a rise of sexist attitudes, research on the impacts of ‘manfluencers’ and social media use in the development of gender norms among adolescent boys is limited and often focused on relatively homogenous populations within the Global North. This paper addresses this gap by discussing insights from a multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary review of literature, and from empirical research conducted in Mexico, drawing on Participatory Diagnosis, Photovoice and semi-structured interviews with 269 adolescents and a survey of 283 adolescents across the country. While confirming the presence of misogynist influencers directly addressing masculinity, results highlight the much more pervasive influence of a wider set of influencers, often figures from broader cultural life, who reinforce misogynistic and harmful attitudes towards what it means to be a man without explicitly focusing on masculinity (‘indirect manfluencers’). Findings also demonstrate the importance of offline social contexts (such as pre-existing cultural norms and practices, and family and peer relations) in shaping both the nature and effects of boys’ and young men’s social media use and engagement with ‘misogyny influencers’.