Dr. Simon James Copland is a researcher at the Australian National University and an expert in online misogyny, extremism and male violence. We had a fascinating conversation about his debut book, The Male Complaint: The Manosphere and Misogyny Online. Find out more about The Male Complaint at Polity Books, and at Simon’s website. You can also subscribe to Simon’s newsletter on Substack.
Below, you’ll find some links to Simon’s previous writing for various outlets, and some of the texts we discussed during the episode. There are also a few additional recommendations from me, including the likes of Matt Shea’s book on Andrew Tate, and two excellent novels I encountered thanks to Substack.
Exiting the manosphere
None of the manosphere influencers we discuss need more links to their channels, articles or posts, so we’ll skip those — we of course discuss the usual suspects, especially Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Roosh V, Stefan Molyneux, Trump, and Nigel Farage.
We also discuss the Reddit forums r/theredpill, r/mgtow and r/braincels and a few other channels there, some of which are now banned. Simon’s book stands as one of the best analyses of these channels, and the content shared there.
We discuss the breakout Netflix show Adolescence — UK viewers will find it here. Simon wrote about Adolescence, and some of the ways it fails to address central concerns around the manosphere, over on his Substack. Read it here.
Towards the end of the show, Simon mentions Australian writer Jeff Sparrow’s term ‘smug politics’, which he uses to describe the disconnect between radicalised men and progressive political movements. Read more about Sparrow’s theory here, in The Guardian (the article is from 2018). A more recent essay by Sparrow for Overland can be found here. As Simon says, this goes wider than the manosphere, and takes in political and activist efforts connected to climate justice, the rise of far right groups, and more.
Selected journalism by Simon (a longer list of his articles is available on his site):
The Vicious Cycle of Rage Bait, and How to Avoid It (for ABC News)
What Actually Happens in the Manosphere? (for The Independent)
a piece on the criticisms of the ‘Incel’ subculture, for Huffington Post
Academic articles by Simon:
Memetic Moments: The Speed of Twitter Memes (with Naomi Smith)
Dark, clear or brackish? Using Reddit to break down the binary of the dark and clear web
Anti-Politics in Australia: Hypotheses, Evidence and Trends (with Elizabeth Humphrys and Luke Mansillo)
I’ve also been reading a ton of books about masculinity, incels and ‘men’s rights activists’ this year, here are a few I would strongly recommend:
Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere by James Bloodworth
Every Man: Why Violence Against Women is a Men’s Issue, and How You Can Make a Difference by Jackson Katz
What Do Men Want? Masculinity and its Discontents by Nina Power
A couple of previous solo episodes of Strange Exiles also have some relevance to this discussion — check out Episode 29, on Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto, and Episode 8, which touches on the work of Jordan Peterson. Both of these episodes are early drafts of texts that form part of an upcoming project (more on that soon). I also wrote about Matt Shea and Jamie Tahsin’s exploration of the cult around Andrew Tate, Clown World, a few months ago for Glasgow Review of Books.
In addition, I recently read two excellent novels by Substack writers, both of which have things to say about masculinity, whether directly or indirectly. I’ll be writing more about these books soon, so look out for updates:
Find out more about these authors via their newsletters — ARX-Han lives here, and Daniel Falatko lives here.
Up next…
Coming soon, we have interviews with Robert Shepherd, who writes about artificial intelligence on Substack, and artist/activist duo Adam and Tish Turl, founders of the Born Again Labor Museum. Adam is the author of the Revol Press book Gothic Capitalism: Art Evicted From Heaven and Earth, and an editor for Locust Review. Keep an eye out for some news about both of these interviews very soon.
In case you missed it, check out my recent interview with Iraqi novelist Hassan Blasim, over at Glasgow Review of Books. We discuss exile, belonging and storytelling in his incredible new triptych of novellas, Sololand, from Comma Press. Thanks for listening and reading.
-Bram, Glasgow, July 2025
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