Duke Gomez wants to bring back bullying (Image: Kennedy)
An influencer branded the biggest bully on the internet says we should ‘bring back bullying’ and claims Louis Theroux’s recent investigation into the manosphere was ‘unfair’. Duke Gomez, 25, says he’s been cancelled multiple times and receives ‘novels’ from people about how much they hate him.
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere was released as the British documentary maker’s debut feature on Netflix in March and explored the online network promoting ultra-masculine viewpoints.
Duke, who says he was teased at school, believes bullying ‘builds character’ in victims and teaches people not to be ‘soft’. Duke, from Florida, US, said: “I’ve been branded one of the biggest bullies on the internet. I can see how people see me in their eyes because of how I portray myself on the internet.
“Do I think I’m the most perfect person? Absolutely not. There are some times when I cross a bit of a boundary but I get the point across. It’s amazing how much people spend so much of their day and time writing novels to me about how much they don’t like me when they could spend that time in a job.
“I have a phrase that I always say, which is ‘make men men again’. I just think there’s not really any masculine men left nowadays.”
Duke Gomez when he was a child (Image: Kennedy)
Branded ‘disgusting to humanity’ by an online adversary, Duke said: “Society is too woke now. From my experiences of being bullied, I think it builds character and it creates tough skin. I think if bullying was back then society would be back to normal.”
The motocross fan sells clothing emblazoned with offensive slogans, including ‘bring back reasonable bullying’. Duke said: ” I put ‘reasonable’ because you don’t want to bully someone with special needs. You don’t want to bully someone that can’t fix what they can’t fix.”
Duke said the Theroux documentary thrust ‘extreme’ characters into the spotlight, which was ‘unfair’. Duke said: “I haven’t watched the full manosphere documentary start to finish, but I’ve seen enough clips and breakdowns to understand the angle it took.
“From what I can tell, it leaned pretty heavily into the more extreme personalities, but the problem with that is it can make the whole space look one-dimensional when it’s not. I don’t think it was a completely fair representation of everyone in that space.
Duke Gomez is an influencer (Image: Kennedy)
“There’s definitely people in the manosphere who say wild stuff for clicks, but there’s also guys just talking about discipline, self improvement, fitness, making money, and not being soft. That side doesn’t get highlighted as much because it’s not as controversial.
“Louis Theroux is good at what he does, he knows how to get people talking and make things interesting. But like most documentaries, there’s always a narrative being pushed, whether people realise it or not.”
A group of Labour MPs have called for more protection from the “manosphere” for men and boys in a letter to Ofcom. More than 60 MPs wrote to the broadcasting regulator’s chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, saying they are “gravely concerned” about the increasing risks men and boys face when using online platforms.
In November, Ofcom gave tech platforms guidance on how to tackle harmful content and activity that disproportionately affects women and girls online. But the group of MPs have argued men and boys also face specific risks online, such as “far-right political radicalisation”, financial scams and violent pornography, brought to them by “misogynist influencers”.
In the letter, the MPs said: “Men and boys encounter harmful content, including mis- and disinformation, pornography and misogynist content at a roughly similar rate to women and girls. However, the content targeted at a male audience is likely to be different, and platforms might need to take different steps to understand and tackle the problem.”
The MPs said: “We are confident that addressing the harms faced by men and boys online will have a significant impact on women’s safety too. The consumption of misogynistic and violent pornographic content online has serious implications for violence against women and, particularly where men are the higher earner within heterosexual partnerships, financial harms carry significant risk for their female family members.”
Alistair Strathern, MP for Hitchin and co-chairman of the Labour Group for Men and Boys, who convened the letter, said: “Men and boys across Britain deserve better than the exploitative and harmful extremes peddled to them by the worst parts of the internet.
“Ofcom must go further and faster and use every power parliament has given them to keep children safe online. While creators innovate to bend the rules, our regulator must do more than the bare minimum under its statutory duties. Misogyny and far-right radicalisation online have real-world impacts, not just for men and boys but the women and girls in their lives too.
Duke says he has been cancelled (Image: Kennedy)
“We won’t succeed in halving violence against women and girls without stemming the spread of these hateful views online.”
Mark Brooks, policy director at the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys, said: “Over the last year, we have made the case for Ofcom to issue guidance to help address online harms affecting young men and boys. We are pleased this is being addressed. More is now known about the broad range of online content that is impacting their lives, from looksmaxxing to crypto, gambling to violence, and suicide to sextortion, never forgetting misogyny and pornography.
“We know there is growing concern from parents and wider society about this content and its reach into many young men and boys’ lives. Yet, there has been a lack of policy response specifically aimed at them and making online platforms accountable for the content targeted at them. There is now an urgent need for this to change.”
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “E xposure to harmful online content can negatively affect boys, which is why our codes require services to protect them from being exposed to pornographic, hateful and abusive content. And our guidance encourages tech companies to use educational and preventative approaches that help reduce online abuse.”