Masculinist comments in a viral documentary: “How can someone listen to this and then find it credible?”

A new documentary proposed by Netflix, which presents an incursion into masculinism, arouses strong reactions within social networks and worries many Internet users about a possible decline in women’s rights.

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“It’s so absurd,” said Lambert Drainville. “How can anyone listen to this and then find it credible?”

In this 90-minute film, we follow journalist Louis Theroux who meets several influencers preaching traditional and misogynistic discourses, ranging from remarks like “people believe that women want to be equal to men, that’s not true” to “if you’re a woman and fat, you’re useless.”

And although the documentary was filmed in the United Kingdom and the United States, such a trend is evident in Quebec: the proportion of girls who have suffered violence has climbed to 38% in 2022-2023, compared to 32% in 2016-2017, according to data from the Quebec Survey on the Health of Secondary School Youth (EQSJS).

“It’s particularly worrying because it has grown so much,” said Lambert Drainville, in an interview on the show The Balance SheetFriday. “You have a generation of young men who are much more misogynistic than their parents [ou] their grandparents.”

This producer of political content contributes to the feminist cause in Quebec, notably through the On S’Écoute campaign, an initiative of the Center for Studies on Learning and Performance at Concordia University.

A speech that seduces boys

Adolescents’ support for certain theses of these creators stems from the rhetoric of “motivation” used by influencers, according to the content producer.

“You read the comments, then it’s like: “I found myself listening to you, my girlfriend [laissé]then I found the light through your videos…” he explained.

Practice a sporting activity, gain autonomy, stop complaining and get a job: if this message seems at first glance constructive, these comments frequently conceal a traditional dimension contesting women’s rights.

“These are things that determine a life, but after that, when you take the trouble to spit in women’s faces along the way, that’s when it becomes hyper-stupid, then hyper-misogynistic,” emphasized Lambert Drainville.

Watch the full interview in the video above.