‘This is my dishwasher over here,’ Harrison Sullivan says, gesturing towards a giggling, swimsuit-clad OnlyFans model lounging on an armchair in his rented Marbella villa.
Sullivan – a 24-year-old Essex-born influencer better known online as HSTikkyTokky – has built a lucrative empire coaching young men, in his words, ‘how to make money and not have a boss telling you what to do’.
He spends his days surrounded by like-minded male hangers-ons and doting OnlyFans girls – broadcasting to his thousands of followers via hours-long livestreams that see him offering gym advice, tips on how to pick up women and entrepreneurial ‘wisdom’.
Though his controversial content has seen him banned from most mainstream social media sites, his ‘best moments’ – which include nightclub brawls and public sex acts – are instantly clipped and distributed on TikTok and Instagram by his team, often adorned with links directing viewers to financial advice apps and OnlyFans agencies in which Sullivan has a stake. It’s a gig he claims is making him as much as $20 million per year.
Until recently, Sullivan has largely avoided journalists. After crashing his McLaren supercar in Surrey in March 2024, he fled Britain and spent 12 months hiding out in Marbella, Dubai and Thailand to avoid court before being hauled back to Britain by police and slapped with a 12-month suspended prison sentence in November last year after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and driving without insurance.
But after what producers describe as ‘protracted negotiations’, Sullivan agreed to let Louis Theroux inside his world.
Inside The Manosphere, Theroux’s new feature-length Netflix documentary, sees the filmmaker immerse himself in a network of online influencers, Sullivan among them, who claim to be the figureheads of a rebellion against feminism and modern society.
The 55-year-old father of three opens the film by explaining how, a few years ago, he noticed that ‘parts of the internet were being taken over’ by a collection of male influencers promising young men ‘cheat codes to win at life’.
Harrison Sullivan, who is a 24-year-old Essex-born influencer known online as HSTikkyTokky
Theroux’s curiosity was first piqued in 2022, he says, after overhearing his own sons discussing the movement’s most notorious figure: Andrew Tate, the British-American kickboxer and influencer accused of human trafficking and rape.
Tate himself declined to take part in the documentary. But as well as Sullivan, Theroux encounters a cast of American streamers and podcasters including Sneako (real name Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy), businessman Justin Waller and Myron Gaines (real name Amrou Fudl), the controversial host of the Fresh And Fit podcast and author of Why Women Deserve Less.
It’s a fascinating – and deeply troubling – glimpse into this warped world. But, as I shall explain, Theroux avoids some of its most sinister elements.
Gaines, a Sudanese-American blogger, is perhaps the most extreme of the lot. It is difficult to overstate just how toxic his messaging can be.
Last year, a clip of him discussing his relationships with women went viral. ‘I’m the dictator, you are the subordinate,’ he says. ‘I dictate when I want to put d*** in you, b****. And then you dictate when the sandwiches come.’
He has also said he does not believe women should be able to vote or serve in the military or law enforcement.
In one segment from his podcast – filmed in front of a panel of young women invited on to the show – he unleashes a torrent of abuse at a female guest: ‘You’re huge. You’re not attractive and for you to behave in the way you do is a f***ing embarrassment to society. You fat f***ing bitch, get the f*** out of my studio.’
Despite this, Gaines and his cohort smart when accused of ‘misogyny’ by Theroux. We ‘love women’, they tell him. ‘I actually understand them,’ Gaines says. ‘And since I understand them, I know what is best for them.’
‘Better than them?’ asks Theroux. ‘In many ways, yes,’ Gaines replies.
A promo for Louis Theroux’s documentary on the manosphere
As well as Sullivan, Theroux encounters a cast of American streamers and podcasters including Sneako, real name Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy
Sullivan is recorded as part of the documentary by the acclaimed filmmaker
He and his fellow influencers are all enthusiastic advocates of the so-called Red Pill theory – a term borrowed from The Matrix films – meaning they claim to have woken up to a hidden truth about the world: that feminism has corrupted society, that men are under attack and women must be returned to their ‘proper’ place.
Justin Waller, a Louisiana construction entrepreneur who markets himself as a ‘success coach’ to his nearly three million followers, and who brags about having dined with Barron Trump at Mar-a-Lago, tells Theroux: ‘I believe that the world really took a swing in the wrong direction when it comes to it being acceptable for a man to have a masculine energy about him, to be strong.’
He adds: ‘I got called toxic. And you mix that with feminism and we’ve asked women to become men.’
Whether you agree or not with his incoherently explained thinking, it’s undoubtedly a worldview that appears to be catching on.
Last week, a 29-country survey which included Britain, the USA, Brazil, Australia and India, revealed that almost a third of Gen Z men – aged between 14 and 29 – believe a wife should ‘obey’ her husband and that major decisions should ultimately rest with the man.
More than half said men were now expected to do too much to support gender equality, while nearly a quarter believe women should not appear too independent or self-sufficient.
In that context, it is perhaps unsurprising that influencers promising young men a solution to all their problems are flourishing online.
But, while we are often given the impression that the manosphere represents a coherent ideology, Theroux’s documentary goes some way in exposing the cynical truth about the movement – which is that its motley prophets are making a lot of money by cultivating a perverse inferiority complex among their credulous male followers.
Andrew Tate (left) and his brother Tristan are key figures within the manosphere
Sullivan tells his fans that they shouldn’t be watching porn – it’s for ‘losers’ – while simultaneously directing them to pages of OnlyFans models
Harrison Sullivan is shamelessly open about the hypocrisy in his messaging. He tells his fans that they shouldn’t be watching porn – it’s for ‘losers’ – while simultaneously directing them to pages of OnlyFans models – from which he makes a cut. After interviewing porn star Bonnie Blue for his own social media feeds, he tells Theroux: ‘I think she’s disgusting, bro. I think she’s absolutely repulsive as a person.’
He also promotes dodgy crypto apps and online trading platforms, which promise to make investors rich with huge returns – but which the Financial Conduct Authority emphasise are unauthorised.
‘I’ve always been a salesman,’ Sullivan says to Theroux. ‘I openly say I don’t give a f*** and I’m doing it for money.’
Waller, too, is cashing in. In his social media content, he directs his followers to Andrew Tate’s ‘online business school’ for $49 per month – and gets a commission when they sign up. He tells Theroux he’s worth more than $30 million.
In other words, it’s a very lucrative business to keep their followers angry and dispossessed. And the manosphere is very good at doing so.
At its heart sits the idea of ‘sexual market value’ (SMV) – the simplistic belief that dating is a marketplace where men accumulate value through money and status and women trade primarily on youth and beauty.
Many, like Gaines, promote an online SMV calculator where men can input their details – height, income, fitness and even penis length – to work out their ‘value’ in this marketplace.
The way to become a ‘high value man’, they are told, is to focus on themselves: to make as much money as possible (using influencer apps, of course), to bulk up in the gym (using their workout programmes) and to improve their facial structure.
This focus on superficial attractiveness has spawned another troubling and increasingly well-known offshoot of the manosphere movement, left unexplored by Theroux: looksmaxxing.
Its most famous exponent is Braden Peters, better known as Clavicular: a 20-year-old influencer who, since the age of 14, has been intent on optimising his physical attractiveness in ever more extreme and idiotic ways – namely, ‘bonesmashing’ his jawline with a hammer to make it more chiselled, abusing anabolic steroids (which has left him infertile) and taking the class A drug methamphetamine to suppress his appetite.
For a fee, he now offers coaching to his 800,000 TikTok followers hoping to ‘ascend’ – to become more attractive themselves.
Increasingly, Clavicular and his elaborate vernacular are entering the mainstream. He tells his groupies that their aim should be to become a ‘Chad’ (an attractive male), to ‘framemogg’ others (have a better body than theirs) and to ‘slay’ (sleep with) ‘foids’ (‘female humanoids’).
Online forums like looksmax.org see thousands of men rating one another and sharing tips on how to improve their looks.
Myron Gaines, a Sudanese-American blogger whose real name is Amrou Fudl, is the controversial author of Why Women Deserve Less
Except in this bizarre world, the goal of the looksmaxxer is not to impress females – rather, it is to achieve status within the male pecking order. In fact, many of them feel women are superfluous to their requirements.
Which means they need others to blame for their inferiority complex. A significant section of the manosphere promotes overt antisemitism and racism – such as the so-called Groypers, another subculture that Theroux doesn’t get into.
The Groypers (named after a cartoon frog) are led by political activist Nick Fuentes, 27, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, virgin and host of the ultra-conservative America First livestream (which each attract around a million views) and who has summarised his politics as: ‘Jews are running society, women need to shut the f*** up, blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part, and we would live in paradise.’
He has also repeatedly described Hitler as ‘cool’.
It’s easy to dismiss Fuentes as an attention-seeking click merchant who dwells only on fringe online platforms.
That’s changing. Earlier this year (after Theroux’s documentary was filmed), the manosphere exploded out of the confines of the internet when footage of several of the movement’s most prominent figures (Fuentes, Sneako, Gaines, Waller, Clavicular and the Tate brothers) appeared together in a livestream filmed in Miami, driving around in a rented limo and singing along to Kanye West’s banned track Heil Hitler.
Later that night they raised Nazi salutes in a nightclub.
The ensuing furore – which went viral around the world – raised their profiles exponentially.
So was this really all just for ‘content’ and views? Or do these young men really believe the bile they spout to their impressionable followers?
It’s telling that in recent years Tate, Sneako and Gaines have all converted to Islam – which, in its most extreme forms, sanctions their uber-oppressive and conservative views. And in 2024, Sneako – who is of Haitian and Filipino descent – declared on a livestream: ‘Down with the Jews! Free Palestine’. And: ‘Every conspiracy theory from the last century is just Israel.’
He tells Theroux in the documentary that he believes the world is run by a ‘Satanist cabal’ seeking ‘to establish a one-world government. I think the Rothschilds started it.’ Meanwhile, HS TikkyTokky has shared footage of him chanting ‘F*** the Jews’.
But when asked why by Theroux, he tellingly responds: ‘Does that mean I’m antisemitic? No, I’m clip-farming (making content that will go viral).’
It’s all so depressingly hollow. Yet perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of Theroux’s film is the women who feature in it.
Take Justin Waller’s wife, Kristen. Waller boasts openly about their ‘one-sided monogamous’ marriage – an arrangement in which he sleeps with other women while she remains faithful.
Even Sullivan’s own mother, Elaine, admits she finds some of his remarks ‘extraordinary’
When he travels, he tells his followers, his wife even packs condoms for him.
When we meet Kristen, a former X-ray technician, she describes their marriage as operating in strict ‘lanes’.
‘My lane is changing diapers, cooking and cleaning and his lane is working and providing,’ she explains. ‘We don’t cross into each other’s lane.’
Far from resenting the arrangement, she insists it makes her feel more feminine. ‘I think most women like to know their man is wanted by other women,’ she says. ‘I feel so good in my femininity because of how masculine Justin is.’
Except the arrangement looks rather less idyllic when you consider that Waller has deliberately avoided an official marriage – meaning that if they split, Kristen would be entitled to none of his money.
Gaines’s own girlfriend of two years, Angie, likewise insists she is happy with their ‘one-sided’ relationship, though she looks distinctly uneasy when he discusses wanting multiple wives in the future. (By the time the documentary aired, the couple had split.)
And then there is Ellie Nutts, a British OnlyFans model who first found internet fame as a ‘sexy plasterer’ and now forms part of Sullivan’s rotating entourage of content creators.
She shrugs off the overt misogyny of his videos: ‘He’s a genuine guy. He’s funny… it’s a male audience – what can you expect?’
Even Sullivan’s own mother, Elaine, admits she finds some of his remarks about women ‘extraordinary’. But she still rushes to defend him.
‘I don’t think of him as ‘HS’. He’s Harrison,’ she says. ‘If anyone went through life saying they agreed with everything their child said, they’d be telling an untruth.’
It may be that these women are merely pragmatists who consider the money more persuasive than the shame of selling a worldview that diminishes their own sex.
But even so, it’s ironic that the manosphere still seems to rely on a steady supply of women willing to get involved – whether as girlfriends, wives, podcast guests or OnlyFans models.
Still, Theroux leaves us with an uncomfortable feeling that the real targets of this online machine are not women at all but the young men watching.
The message that they’re poor, lonely and unsuccessful due to a feminist conspiracy to keep them down may certainly be intoxicating. But the men pushing it – and making plenty of cash doing so – patently have little interest in solving the crisis they claim to have diagnosed.
