Meet the female 'anti-feminists' who are accused of fuelling misogyny - as influencer Lauren Southern says she was 'destroyed' by the manosphere culture she helped promote

Parents with young boys have been warned to monitor their sons' social media habits due to the rise of the 'manosphere' - but perhaps they need to keep an eye on their daughters as well.

A number of online forums have been accused of promoting anti-feminist and misogynistic views, with the men behind the toxic groups being exposed by Louis Theroux's Netflix documentary Inside The Manosphere.

However, it's not just men who have been promoting this 'anti-female' rhetoric online, with a number of women also making a name for themselves as 'anti-feminists'.

Some have advocated for male dominance in society, suggesting women should play more traditional roles in the home and even calling for a ban on the right to vote for females.

Former anti-feminist influencer Lauren Southern this week labelled her life a 'punchline', explaining that she has now turned her back on the manosphere because it had 'destroyed' her. 

She found fame aged 19 in 2015 when she posted her first YouTube video entitled Why I'm Not A Feminist. 

In the video, Lauren stated: 'Men are objectified, men are raped, men are mistreated. Men are held to ridiculously high societal standards just like women. 

'Yet feminists continue to place this blanket judgment over all men. That they're all privileged. And all women, that they're all oppressed. 

'Yet, as a woman, I will almost always win custody of children in a divorce case. I will receive less than half the sentence man does for the exact same crime. And actually have my rape and assault accusations taken seriously. 

'And I won't be laughed at for not being manly enough.'

The clip quickly attracted a million views on YouTube, with a further 40million on Facebook.

Lauren continued to create anti-feminist content stating that women are 'not psychologically developed to hold leadership positions'. She also made comments criticising multiculturalism and has been accused of promoting white genocide conspiracy theories.

The YouTuber also protested against a march for sexual assault survivors by holding a sign which read: 'There Is No Rape Culture in the West.'

But she changed her mind after meeting Andrew Tate, who has been hailed as the figurehead of the manosphere. 

She alleged in her memoir, published last July, that she was sexually assaulted by him in 2018 after he flew her out to Bucharest, Romania, to discuss a business proposal.  

Lauren claimed that Andrew and his brother Tristan headed out to a club after their meeting, where she had one or two drinks and felt 'surprisingly intoxicated'. She added that she went home with Andrew who invited her into his bed.

The YouTuber said: 'I kissed him back briefly and then told him I wanted to sleep.

'I said no, very clearly, multiple times, and tried to pull his hands off me. He put his arm around my neck and began strangling me unconscious. I tried to fight back. 

'He repeatedly strangled me every time I regained enough consciousness to pull at his arms. I’d prefer not to share the rest. It’s pretty obvious.'

Her allegations were made public when she released the chapter of her memoir, This is Not Real Life, on Substack. 

In response, Andrew tweeted that she made the claims 'to get attention so she can sell her memoirs of promiscuity'. His lawyer then released a statement claiming that Lauren was 'lying through her teeth' and that any encounter was '100 per cent consensual'.

Speaking to The Times this week, Lauren said that she didn't go public with her allegations at the time because 'it wouldn’t be very helpful to "the cause" (or my career, for that matter) for me to become exactly what I criticised - a victim'.

She added: 'My life is a punchline - to go from the girl that’s holding up the sign that says there’s no rape culture in the West and helping create this manosphere, to Andrew Tate assaulting me.

'I mean, you couldn’t write a more cosmic irony story if you tried.

'It’s a system in which you’re guaranteed to fail as a woman because you cannot survive contact with reality.

'These men want to have sex with women, but then they also want them to stay virgins. 

'There was this app that came out called DignifAI that allowed men to clothe OnlyFans girls so they were more modest. Then when Grok came out, those same men were undressing them. It is only ever about controlling and dominating women.'

While Lauren still does not identify as a feminist she admitted that there were some feminist writers she 'really respects', adding: 'I am pro-woman without any animosity towards men.'

She told Compact: 'Slapping a label on someone almost guarantees I’ll misunderstand them from the start.'

Yet while Lauren may regret the part she had to play in the rise of manosphere, she is far from the only 'anti-feminist' influencer online. 

YouTuber Pearl - real name Hannah Pearl Davis - has more than two million subscribers to her channel, where she has argued that divorce should be illegal and women shouldn't have the right to vote.

Her popularity spiked following the arrest of Andrew Tate, with whom she shares a number of controversial opinions.

Pearl defended her beliefs during her recent sit-down interview with Ethan Klein on his H3 Podcast, saying: 'we should have policies that push family.'

'I think feminism overall was a bad thing. I think women are happier when we have a family and kids over a career in the long run,' she explained.

Pearl claimed that children of single mothers are more likely to drop out of school, go to prison and have mental health issues.

She argued that in order to keep families together, we have to 'get rid of incentives that incentivise women to leave' their marriages, such as child support and alimony.

'I think we should ban divorce too. Yeah, I think that should be banned,' she said.

Ethan tried to get her to acknowledge that it would be 'silly' to make divorce illegal, but she doubled down on her stance.

'I just think that if you want to leave, you just shouldn't get married,' she told the host. 'So, that's just my opinion.'

The influencer also caused a stir when she hit out at Sabrina Carpenter, branding the Grammy-winning artist a 'catfish'.

Pearl shared side-by-side photos of the singer, with the one on the left showing the singer dressed up, while the other snap was a throwback of the artist with very little makeup on.

The content creator began her shocking thread by claiming that she wanted to give out a 'catfish of the year' award, and listed a slew of stars who she felt deserved the title, including Sabrina.

She penned: 'Now that 2024 is coming to a close it’s time to vote for our most important award: Catfish of the year.

'I want to give special thanks to the filters, plastic surgeons, and FaceTime app that make this all possible.'

'Next up to bat we have Sabrina Carpenter. A phenomenal singer and pop sensation but under all the makeup she too is a mid.'

Pearl has insisted that she 'doesn't hate women' but wants to be an advocate for men. 

Brett Cooper is also a proud 'anti-feminist', claiming that feminism is not about equality or empowerment, but to 'make men angry and dominate them'.

Citing Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez's all-female trip to space onboard Blue Origin she credited the male engineers. 

She said in a YouTube clip: 'These women were completely dependent on men who built this spacecraft. 

'Frankly, we all are, because men built civilisation. They built the homes that we live in, they built the studio that I am recording in… the spaceships that all of these rich celebrities are flying around in.' 

Brett has also blamed women, not the patriarchy, for the gender pay gap. 

She said that men are 'willing to just be bold and go in and ask for a raise even if they don't think that they're ready for one, whereas women will not do it'. 

She added: 'They won't apply for a job that they don't think they're qualified for.' 

Brett hit back at the concept of modern feminism, telling Daily Wire: 'In general, women are looking around going "oh my gosh, what we’ve been told and fed for the last 20 to 30 years, none of this makes sense."

'We need to take a step back and reevaluate and think we’re seeing this in real time.'

Influencer Alex Clark has told women the way forward is 'less burnout, more babies! Less feminism, more femininity!' 

Last summer, she was one of the speakers at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas, an annual conference for young women who are involved in Turning Point USA, the Charlie Kirk–founded student conservative group.

Addressing hordes of young woman, Alex laid out her vision of 'more babies and beef tallow, less blue hair and birth control'. 

She also praised mothers who had 'ripped their kids out of day care', adding: 'Feminism told women to chase their corporate dreams for their validation while their kids were eating seed oils and their marriages were collapsing.

'Well, we’re done pretending that a cubicle is more empowering than a countertop.'

The Cut said that a common viewpoint shared among the speakers was that young women should opt out of higher education and focus on getting married and becoming a homemaker. 

When questioned about this ideology, Alex said: 'We’re not saying that women cannot have a career. We’re just thinking about that path differently than what we are typically, historically told.

'We were lying to women by saying, "Oh yeah, you can be a mum full-time and have an amazing marriage and be 100 per cent in your job." Something’s got to give.'

She added that she would give up her career if she were to marry but mused: 'Maybe God’s plan for me is to help other women have amazing, healthy families and marriages and I’m just the messenger. I just have to trust God.'