Manosphere messiahs: Mexico

11:59Jacqui Wakefield:It's this misogyny that Alex has found so hard to accept.

12:07Jacqui Wakefield:Together, we listened to one of his videos on YouTube.

12:15El Temach:It barely started. He's already creating this scenario where all women are envious, jealous, and they want to exploit you and all your successes. I'm like, where is he getting this reality from?

12:32I don't think he even has clear what feminism entails,

12:42El Temach:and he just decided that was the perfect enemy for his content. And that's something really difficult to digest because I grew up with the perception of my brother being this great person that I want to follow his steps.

13:00Jacqui Wakefield:In that journey where he was becoming old to match, what do you think caused the switch? Was it his audience? Was it social media? What was it?

13:10El Temach:People started speaking out about suicide. There was this one girl in particular that spoke about her brother and his passing and how if my brother had existed before, maybe he would still be here. And I think that made him feel responsible for men's health and men's lives. So I think that's that's when it twisted. Like he got this this Messiah complex of like he's the one that has to fix it. I think that validation became his fuel. So he got super addicted to it. He still is.

13:56Jacqui Wakefield:We of course hoped that we'd be able to ask El to match himself how he sees what he does. But not only has he said he won't talk to us, he also told his followers not to talk to us either. They call themselves Los Compas de Hierro, the Iron Brothers.

14:13El Temach:Be careful bros, they want to make you look bad. To the Iron Bros, in every city and in every cell, I say, don't take part in this attempt to discredit our movement.

14:26Jacqui Wakefield:Within hours of El Tamach posting his video. So I just woke up to a message in one of the fan groups, take out the infiltrator, and they kicked me out of the chat. and every single fan we'd contacted pulled out of talking to us. But eventually, someone who follows Altamach's content does agree to talk to me. Julian is 19 and lives with his parents and sister a couple of hours outside of Mexico City. Julian has been following Altamach for the last three years, and now he's started his own podcast.

15:03El Temach:Okay, this is my stuff, my computer, my microphone.

15:06Jacqui Wakefield:I want to know, what was it about Altamatch's content that first attracted Julien? He switches to Spanish.

15:15El Temach:Well, at first it was about what to do if you like a girl, you know, tips and advice. But gradually I realised he was talking about deeper things, not just how to flirt, but men's problems. Depression, loneliness, bad habits. He started sharing people's experiences, and it was like he wanted to show them. They're not alone. There's a community out there for them.

15:41Jacqui Wakefield:Julian joined a WhatsApp group run by El Temach's followers, Compas de Hierro. The advice and support, he says, was really useful.

15:49El Temach:The main things I have learned from El Temach, or the thing that's really made a difference, is that it's made me feel more sure of myself. I'm talking to you now, but I would have found that really hard before. I was very withdrawn. I didn't have many friends. And I have really developed socially and personally. He's helped me to be brave, try things.

16:11Jacqui Wakefield:Julian began doing better at school, taking part in debates, making friends and talking to girls. Though he admits not all Altamacha's pick-up tips worked. But as we talk, I start to hear echoes of Altamacha's more controversial, sexist views. I just want to talk about some of the things that he would say online that maybe some people would find controversial or hard to understand. So what about with the idea of another piece of dating advice, I guess, that El Tamach gives his followers to maybe avoid single mothers? Is that something that you also agree with?

16:49El Temach:He just wants them to recognize their limits. If you are a 25-year-old single mother, you are not going to be as attractive. You are not going to have the same chances as a woman the same age who doesn't have children.

17:01Jacqui Wakefield:And what about his views on liberal women? It's a derogatory term in the manosphere. Women who pursue a career have different sexual partners who don't live by what they see as traditional gender rules.

17:14El Temach:You know, he also criticises men who behave like that. And it's a problem because it's living without consequences. It's doing what you want. But the problem is that later they realise there are consequences. They complain they can't find a good man, that they are not being taken seriously, they are alone.

17:35Jacqui Wakefield:But that's because of the decisions they have made. El Tamach puts it much more forcefully. But it's the same message. Marrying a so-called liberal wife is the worst mistake a man can make.

18:01El Temach:It is my room. Literally.

18:05Jacqui Wakefield:Julian has been so welcoming. As he shows us his model cars, he seems younger than 19.

18:16Jacqui Wakefield:Julian has agreed to share his Instagram history with us. It reveals his personal journey into the manosphere. In the first months of 2023, his focus is on cars, gym, self-development. That April, he likes his first Manosphere video, From Elle to Match.

18:38Jacqui Wakefield:Soon, his feed is filled with Manosphere content. Julian begins sharing some views in the comments. He says women's clothes are vulgar and that many women are unfaithful. And in the months before we meet, his views get more extreme. He calls some women whores and praises submissive women. What you've said on social media is not quite what you're saying here. Do you think feminism has made it so that men are now more oppressed than women are?

19:12El Temach:No, it's not that they are more oppressed. It's that their problems have been made invisible. It's just that all the focus is on the other side.

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21:10Jacqui Wakefield:To try and understand why young men in Mexico, like Julian, have turned the manosphere and influences like El Tamach, I've come to one of the country's leading universities, the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

21:23El Temach:This, of course, existed from many years ago, but I think it had its peak during the pandemic when people were turning to digital content a lot more than they were before.

21:36Jacqui Wakefield:Dr Ali Selez is a researcher specialising in masculinity and gender.

21:41El Temach:In Mexico, I think the big majority of it revolves around dating advice and the way in which one should handle themselves in relationships, right? You know, with all these discussions, for example, with the feminist movement and previous to that, the Me Too movement, you know, people were a bit like confused as to what's right and what's wrong.

22:01Jacqui Wakefield:Dr. Seles believes Altamatch's content came at the right time and he had the skills to deliver it.

22:07El Temach:He has a training in acting and, you know, communication. This shows in his content, well, he basically has understood the audience that he's speaking to. He started to dial up the tone, becoming a little bit more sexist, a little bit misogynistic. And I think he has managed very well to put together those different options and cater them to their audience, first in Mexico and then in the rest of Latin American countries. He has found a way of being provocative enough, edgy enough, so that people talk about him and look at him and at the same time remain mainstream.

22:44Jacqui Wakefield:Dr. Seles says Altamach also feeds into this manosphere narrative that equality for women is getting all the attention while men are being overlooked.

22:54El Temach:And this is interesting because in patriarchal societies like the one we live in in Mexico and in many parts of the world, well, men are the ones who run things.

23:03Jacqui Wakefield:But there is a section of men, he says, who feel left behind and Altamach taps into that.

23:09El Temach:This has to do, I think, with perhaps class, education, even race. But he has this message, you do matter. Believe in yourself as an important person. Fulfilling their original roles. Being a breadwinner, being autonomous, strong, protective of your things, your family, etc. And then he says women, he paints a portrait of women as trying to say they don't like all those things because that's what feminism has taught them, but they actually really do want that.

23:38Jacqui Wakefield:And the men who don't fit this alpha male stereotype, Altamatch calls them simps.

23:44El Temach:He uses the word simp a lot. He talks a lot about these men who are, well, you know, less leader-oriented, I guess, less dominant, as being, yeah, lacking in their manhood, in their masculinity, and the ones that women take advantage of, right?

24:04Jacqui Wakefield:accusing someone of being a simp is a key trope of the manosphere imagine god coming down on earth

24:10El Temach:is he simping i don't feel like he's a simp he shows us that he's a simp it's part of this whole

24:15Jacqui Wakefield:vocabulary words like chad beta feminist agenda red pill this is coded language understood across cultures and continents that spreads hate speech and toxic messages online but el to match's fans Los Compas de Jero, don't just chat online. There are nearly 100 Los Compas groups across the world, and they meet in person.

24:43Jacqui Wakefield:I've come to an outdoor gym in Mexico City, where I've heard Los Compas de Jero come to train. Hey, could I ask you a question? Do you speak English? We were hoping that we could speak to the Los Compas guys. Do you know them?

24:58El Temach:I think they don't come at this time. They come like early at night. Oh, OK. Around seven or eight.

25:03Jacqui Wakefield:Yeah. And what are they like?

25:06El Temach:They're super nice. They're all super nice here. They raise their masculinity, but as well as their femininity.

25:11Jacqui Wakefield:Yeah.

25:11El Temach:And everyone is super understanding, super helpful, super empathic.

25:15Jacqui Wakefield:But one of the women here at the gym has a very different take. I wouldn't say they're the nice people. The Los Compas de Hierro guys. What are they like, do you think? Their whole philosophy is surrounded on women are bad and they're the problem. They distract us from our best potential. So it's kind of like incel-ish. And as a woman exercising here, does it change how you feel when they're here? I wouldn't say I feel safe. Most of them are like 15, 16. And they even brand themselves with tattoos and stuff.

25:53El Temach:So that's why I would say it's very culty.

25:58Jacqui Wakefield:Talking to this woman at the gym reminds me of something Anna told me about when she first met her boyfriend.

26:04El Temach:I know several women who, if they know that a man is a fan of El Temach, they block him. And when we first started going out, several of my friends told me that. Stay away from him. He had one of those chains, you know, the dog tuck. He paid hundreds of pesos for it. But I wouldn't listen.

26:27Jacqui Wakefield:This chain and dog tag Anna talks about is a key part of El Tamacha's merch. We'll see it again.

26:37Jacqui Wakefield:But now, I'm going to a cafe in central Mexico City to meet another woman who, like Anna, ended up afraid of the man she was with.

26:53El Temach:It affected me very deeply. The fact that this type of content was part of our relationship changed everything.

27:01Jacqui Wakefield:Fernanda is a doctor. Stylish, composed. She's spoken out online about her experience. Fernanda met her ex when she was still a medical student.

27:11El Temach:At first, he presented himself as someone who was very understanding.

27:15Jacqui Wakefield:You know, he seemed to care about me. But things changed when he discovered the manosphere. He started to become obsessed.

27:21El Temach:He'd go from one video to the next. He spent hours watching them. And it wasn't just El Temach. It was other creators too with very similar ideas. He took it as the absolute truth. He'd repeat things El Temach said and he'd use it to not allow me, for example, to speak to single women. Because he said they might put ideas in my head about cheating. Eventually, he controlled everything I did. I could only be with him. He'd only let me wear clothes that he thought weren't too revealing. And then he'd get annoyed and kick me out of his house, sometimes at three in the morning. And you know, in Mexico City, it's not safe for a woman to be out alone in the street at that time of night.

28:02El Temach:I think that he was already a sexist when we met, but he hid it.

28:06Jacqui Wakefield:Until El Temach made him feel he didn't need to feel bad about it. The final straw was when her former boyfriend forced her to sit for four hours and watch El Temach videos. He wouldn't let me leave the house. He broke my phone.

28:19El Temach:he was physically aggressive, he kept saying, I'm not doing anything wrong. You're the one who's wrong. I was afraid for my life. He did actually threaten to kill me. The only way I could stay

28:30Jacqui Wakefield:safe was to sit there and watch. Eventually, he let her go. She walked out and it was over.

28:41El Temach:I don't blame El Temach for what my ex-partner did, but I do think that if this kind of content were limited, if creators thought more carefully about what they publish, then there wouldn't be so many men justifying their behavior by saying, oh, El Tamach says I'm right. Some people can't separate a video from real life.

29:11Jacqui Wakefield:We're in the US in Las Vegas, back watching El Tamach's show. I'm hoping I can catch him after to try and ask him some questions.

29:23Jacqui Wakefield:I'm struck by the number of fans doing more push-ups. It's a common sight at L2MAT shows. That clanking sound you can hear is their dog tags hitting the floor. Most of the fans I spoke to had one.

29:38El Temach:This chain means sacrifice, commitment, all the things that go with being a man. This is not something that is won overnight. This is earned.

29:48Jacqui Wakefield:Or you can buy the chain for$30 on L2Match's website. For$800, you can attend a workshop which includes a baptism or initiation where he puts the chain around your neck. Saving men is a lucrative business. Using social media analytical tools, we estimate L2Match makes up to$1.5 million a year from social media views alone. On top of that are live chats on YouTube, where fans pay to promote their comments asking for advice, which we calculate last year earned him between$200 ,000 and$300 ,000. Then there's the merch, the small group sessions, and events like this one, which cost between$50 and$100 a ticket.

30:38Jacqui Wakefield:Let's have a drink, El Tamach says. Then we'll have questions from the audience. Several men stand up. There are stories of depression, loneliness, heartbreak. Some seem quite lost. And then it's over.

30:58Jacqui Wakefield:Those who pay an extra$50 get the chance to meet him face to face. But before we get the chance to do that, he disappears. Instead, his manager comes out. He says to us, send us an email. Which is what we did. We said we'd been investigating his attitude to women and allegations he was promoting harmful ideas. And that data from his social media live stream and videos indicate he's potentially earning$1.5 million a year. El Tumach's team eventually responded.

31:33El Temach:We consider it highly irresponsible to publish the estimated income figure of$1.5 million. as Mr Castilla lives in Mexico City without private security or bodyguards, exposing him to serious risk of kidnapping or extortion. We categorically reject the allegations, which are unfounded and taken out of context.

31:57Jacqui Wakefield:When I spoke to Altamacha's sister, Alex, I remember asking her if she thinks her brother believes the stuff he's saying, particularly about women.

32:06El Temach:I think he knows what he's doing on some level. Like the last time we spoke, I could see that. I think that he sees and realizes that if he ever owns up to what he did, it'll destroy him. I feel very sorry for him in so many ways. I feel like he's broken that his life detoured into this weird dystopic hell where he's not doing what he meant to do all his life what he likes, what his passions are it's very sad

32:58Jacqui Wakefield:And in the next episode of our investigation into the global manosphere, we go to Kenya.

33:03El Temach:I'm like, they're Jesus. I'm like, they're Serbia. In black. Yeah.