Gillard’s grim warning as Adelaide teens targeted by ‘manosphere’
Fourteen years after her famed misogyny speech, former PM Julia Gillard joins an Adelaide fight against the manosphere. As boys face online abuse with labels like “alphas, betas, cucks and soy boys”.
Australia’s first and only female prime minister Julia Gillard was in Adelaide yesterday to support a renewed battle against the multi-billion-dollar “manosphere” targeting young South Australians.
Fourteen years after her landmark misogyny speech, Gillard moderated a panel with Teach Us Consent CEO Chanel Contos, Man Cave CEO Ben Vasiliou and Global Institute for Women’s Leadership Director Michelle Ryan, as they tackled misogyny impacting young men and women.
“In the face of the backlash we are seeing against diversity, equity, and inclusion, in the face of the misogyny that we see online and in the actual world, it would be easy to either retreat, thinking it’s all too hard,” Gillard said.
“We need to be making sure that when we talk about gender equality, we’re very clearly explaining that gender equality is not a zero-sum game. More for women is not less for men.”
Ryan said online trends and labels like “alphas, betas, cucks and soy boys” were all part of the burgeoning culture of putting men down online, which was happening “at a scale we have not seen before”.
Vasiliou said the network of online forums promoting aggressive masculinity known as “the manosphere” was “moving towards a trillion dollar industry” with aspirational content creators selling pick-up artist courses, protein powders and peptides promising to help boys “get ripped”.
You might like
Vasiliou’s mental health charity The Man Cave “recently tested and set up a social media account as a teenage boy, 13 years old, and we had unregulated, illegal peptides arrive on our doorstep within two days”, he said.
“Where we have insecurities in teenage boys, they’re now being told that they can get jacked, they can get ripped, they should be at the gym, they should try this peptide; the harm and the pace at which the harm arrives is really difficult for a teenage brain to understand,” Vasiliou said.
“Most boys are going online to get some fitness advice or figure out how to ask a girl out or whatever the coolest jeans are, but then within minutes, the algorithm is feeding him really toxic stuff, and it’s difficult for his frontal lobe to go ‘hey, this is actually crap, and I shouldn’t believe this’.
“But when you’ve got a guy who’s in an apartment in Miami with these million-dollar cars and these beautiful girls, that’s attractive to a boy, he’s like, I want to be like that.”
Vasiliou suggested “fighting fire with fire” and called for a portion of the existing federal government advertising budget to go towards “healthy digital masculinities”, alongside legislation that “holds tech companies to account”.
He also called for more powers for the E-Safety Commissioner and education, saying “as soon as a child can open their mouth or read a book, they should learn digital literacy”.
Stay informed, daily
“The number one regret of this generation will be that we let social media into the bedrooms of young people,” Vasilou said.
Gillard, who splits her time between Australia and London, also gave a grim warning over this week’s attack on federal MP Helen Haines.
“I have seen what it’s like when there is political violence and a political tragedy”, Gillard said, telling how three members of UK Parliament have been killed in the past 10 years.
UK Labour member Jo Cox was shot three times and stabbed 15 times outside her constituency by a far-right extremist in 2016.
In 2022, conservative MP David Amess was stabbed to death by a 26-year-old “inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group”, and in July 2026 former UK politician Ann Widdecombe was attacked by a 28-year-old man, sparking an investigation into political and terrorist motivations.
“We, I think, have lived with the sense in Australia that whilst we might read about political violence in other countries, it’s not something that’s been part of our national life, of our democratic life,” Gillard said.
Her comments came as news that Victorian MP Haines had lost her second leg loomed over the event at Adelaide University’s Allan Scott Auditorium.
“Having been in the UK and seen the aftermath of those acts of violence, what I have seen is some time when people reflect on the temper of politics, on what is happening, on how we can deal with each other with more civility and respect,” Gillard said.
“But I’ve also seen that conversation happens for a while, but it abates quite quickly.
“In the aftermath of the circumstances that Helen is now facing, we do have a genuine opportunity for a deeper form of national reflection about who we want to be and what political culture we want to have.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT.
For counselling, advice and support for men who have anger, relationship or parenting issues, call the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
