Andrew Tate to El Temach: How the Latin American Manosphere Is Reaching Millions of Young Men

In the 2010s, the fourth wave of feminism took the world by storm. From the global rise of #MeToo in 2017 to the first major Ni Una Menos demonstrations in Argentina in 2015, women organized against sexual violence, femicide and restrictions on abortion and reproductive rights. In recent years, as culture shifted in the United States, another movement was gaining strength and more visibility, the manosphere. 

In the Netflix documentary Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, Theroux enters a network of male influencers who sell courses, coaching programs and online memberships promising to help men become wealthier, more attractive and more successful with women. The documentary examines the false promises, hypermasculinity and troubling behavior behind parts of this lucrative industry.

 Although the modern manosphere developed through internet forums, blogs and social platforms, its ideology has roots in the anti-feminist backlash that accompanied women’s liberation movements during the 1970s. Dubbed the ‘Sexual Revolution’ - the victories over sexual and reproductive health rights, equal pay, and economic independence of women was seen as a grievance for many men, not as a win for both genders. 

In the United States, the rollback of reproductive protections, attacks on gender-equity initiatives and the political embrace of traditional gender roles have created a climate in which anti-feminist ideas can gain greater visibility. At the same time, “tradwife” content has romanticized a return to highly traditional marriages in which men are positioned as providers and women as homemakers. Although not every tradwife creator identifies with the manosphere, the two ecosystems can overlap in their rejection of feminism and promotion of rigid gender roles.

The manosphere is not one organization. It is a loosely connected online ecosystem that includes male-supremacist influencers, incel communities, pickup artists, “red pill” creators and some men’s-rights groups. Although these communities do not share every belief, many claim that feminism has harmed men and promote rigid ideas about dominance, wealth, appearance and control over women.

Enter Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer turned internet personality who became one of the world's most recognizable figures in the online "manosphere." By combining messages about wealth, discipline and male empowerment with openly misogynistic commentary, Tate built an enormous following particularly among boys and young men. Tate preached unhealthy ‘hypermasculinity’ ideals and spoke on women’s roles and often held a hostility toward women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Separate from his online rhetoric, Tate and his brother Tristan have faced criminal investigations and legal proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. Both men deny wrongdoing.

On July 18, 2026 Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in Miami, Florida. British prosecutors are seeking an extradition where the Tate brothers will face 59 combined criminal charges on rape, sexual assault, trafficking, assault, extreme pornography offenses and offenses involving indecent images of which the Tate brothers deny all charges. 

Tate’s global visibility demonstrates how manosphere content can travel across borders.

Machismo Meets the Manosphere

The manosphere did not create machismo in Latin America and vice versa, but it has given it a powerful new digital platform. For generations, traditional expectations around masculinity have often encouraged men to be emotionally stoic, dominant, financially successful and the primary authority within the household. While many women, families and communities have challenged these stereotypes over time, social media has allowed some influencers to repackage old ideas into modern content that appeals to a new generation. Messages about becoming an "alpha male," rejecting feminism or seeking a so-called "high-value woman" often echo long-standing cultural norms about male power and women's roles.

The difference today is hyper growth then scale. Algorithms on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram can amplify these messages to millions of young men in the Americas [as a mobile phone is the first and only device that many own to access the internet], transforming regional ideas about machismo into a global online movement.

Latin America ahas its own male influencers, Spanish vocabulary and cultural context. Among the most prominent of these manosphere influencers is Mexico’s El Temach.

Who Is El Temach and Why Is He Compared to Andrew Tate?

Before becoming El Temach, Luis Castilleja pursued a career as an actor. According to BBC reporting, he spent time in Los Angeles before returning to Mexico and creating content focused on men’s personal development and relationships. What started as a safe space for men with self-esteem issues quickly became an online rant on how women are to blame for all their problems.

Today, according to a 2026 BBC World Service investigation, El Temach is one of the most prominent Latin American manosphere influencers. BBC reporting estimated that El Temach reached more than 11 million followers across social platforms at the time of its investigation, he has built a large following among young men. For example, his “war mode” (modo guerra), in his content, the so-called “high-value woman” is typically presented as sexually restrained, deferential to men and committed to traditional gender roles. The label reduces women’s worth to their behavior, appearance and perceived suitability to male expectations.

In the BBC interview with El Temach’s sister, “He developed this Messiah complex, as if he were the one who had to fix [people’s problems].” 

The BBC Global Women team also reported the account of Fernanda, a doctor in Mexico City. Fernanda alleged that her former partner forced her to watch El Temach videos for approximately four hours and threatened to kill her if she did not change her behavior to suit his expectations.

“He was already a sexist person who hid it, but El Temach influenced him so he no longer felt ashamed of being that way. […] [El Temach] isn’t to blame for my ex-partner’s actions, but if this kind of content didn’t exist and people held back, there wouldn’t be so many men justifying their behavior,” Fernanda said during an interview with Jacqui Wakefield.

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How Do We Fight Against the Manosphere?

Challenging the manosphere requires men to speak to other men, but individual intervention is only one part of the solution. Families, educators, media organizations, technology platforms and policymakers also have a responsibility to address misogynistic content, improve media literacy and provide boys with healthier models of masculinity.

UN Women published a series of strategies to counteract the manosphere’s toxic influence, both online and face-to-face:

• Value empathy and communication, rather than stoicism or isolation.
• Build relationships based on trust, not domination or status.
• Normalize the expression of emotions, and make it clear that it is safe to show vulnerability.
• Be a role model for respect and healthy ways to express dissent.
• Highlight and encourage discussions about gender stereotypes in the media.  
• Search for online content on healthy masculinity (e.g., HeForShe, Equimundo, the MenEngage Alliance, and the Movember Foundation)
• Inject media literacy to combat online hate and misinformation (e.g., teach young men to question who’s the person behind that account and what credible sources he’s using)  
• Identify discourse red flags (e.g., one-sided generalizations about gender, emotionally charged language, and oversimplifications about biology)
• Speak up against misogyny

If the Internet is a channel from which the manosphere can reach a wide audience, it can also be a channel for other types of content, ones that promote gender equality and freedom for women. A Great Resource: The Men Behind the Curtain: How Organized Anti-Feminist Backlash Actors Exploit Boys and What to Do About It

Resumen en español

El artículo aborda el crecimiento de la “manosfera” en América Latina, un movimiento reaccionario en línea que promueve la hipermasculinidad y la misoginia como respuesta al avance del feminismo. Como referente latinoamericano del movimiento se destaca El Temach, un influencer mexicano con más de 11 millones de seguidores que aconseja a jóvenes sobre relaciones y poder, y que ha generado millones de dólares con su contenido. El artículo también incluye una serie de estrategias recomendadas por ONU Mujeres para combatir esta tendencia misógina.