Many of Julián’s generation believe that feminism has come at the cost of men’s rights, according to a recent global survey, external of 23,000 men and women by King’s College London. More than half of Gen Z men – some 57% – agreed with the statement: “We have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men.”
It’s a belief that manosphere influencers are tapping into. According to these influencers, “women are the problem,” says Awino Okech, at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
Their belief, says the professor of feminist and security studies, is “it’s this gender equality thing that is leading to boys underperforming… It’s gender equality that is leading to mental problems for men and boys.”
These misleading narratives can have a real-world impact, we found.
Fernanda, a doctor from Mexico City, says her ex-partner, also a doctor, used El Temach’s messaging to justify his controlling behaviour.
On what was to become the day they split up, she says he locked her in a room and forced her to watch videos made by El Temach for four hours.
“He kept saying: ‘See? I’m not doing anything wrong… You’re the one who’s wrong.'”
She told us the situation that day escalated to the point where he threatened to kill her.
“His eyes were empty, he was acting purely on impulse. In that moment, I was really very afraid of what might happen to me.”
Though she does not blame El Temach directly for her experience, Fernanda does believe this type of content has an effect on relationships in the real world.
“I think [my former partner] was already a sexist who was hiding it. But El Temach influenced him to no longer feel bad about it.”
Alex, El Temach’s sister, thinks her brother is in denial about the negative impact of his content.
“I think he knows what he’s doing on some level. I think that he sees and realises that if he ever owns up to what he did, it’ll destroy him.”
She feels he has drifted from the path he was destined to follow, “into this weird dystopic hell and he’s just this… violence robot”.
“It’s very sad.”
The BBC asked El Temach to respond to our allegations that he promotes misogynistic content. His team responded to say they “categorically rejected the allegations and that they were unfounded and taken out of context”.
Kibe, when challenged on his misogynistic content, denied this term applied to him and said: “No man hates a woman. We love you – we are like gods to you, worship us.”