On that last point, my colleague Sasha Rogelberg has a new story in Fortune reminding us that surrounding the manosphere is an entire economy. She’s covering a new report titled “The Grift Economy: How Young Men Are Being Sold Fake Belonging and Fake Wealth Online.”

Indeed, while influencers peddling an anti-feminist view of the world that wants men to hold power over women have gone mainstream, much of what they’re selling is not based in reality. “A pipeline built on attention, grievance, and trust is engineered to convert young men into revenue,” the report argues. What’s being exploited and misdirected is men’s search for belonging and for economic security.

There are endless online courses; promotion of intense exercise, supplements and “looksmaxxing;” and streaming. Content creators who promote this kind of lifestyle are earning insane sums—one streamer named Adin Ross is raking in $30,000 to $50,000 an hour, Sasha reports. (And he has an equity stake in the platform he streams on.) Online courses, sponsorship, speaker fees: they all add up to between $1 million and $10 million a year for many of these grifter-manfluencers.

If you want to better understand this world and its impact on the rest of us, I highly recommend taking the hour+ to revisit Heidi Blake’s June New Yorker investigation into Andrew Tate, the ur-manosphere influencer. While the investigation covers the many allegations of sexual abuse against Tate and his brother Tristan (he has denied them, but he was arrested on new U.K. charges in July), it also lays out the vast web of business endeavors that makes his lifestyle possible—and leads thousands of young men to aspire to the same. According to the new report, his main platform draws $99 a month from 155,000 “students,” for a total of $184 million a year.

Identifying the manosphere as a commercial operation, whose actors are motivated by profit, rather than a true political movement is key to countering it. The full report is here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

E. Jean Carroll wins again. The Supreme Court just declined for a second time to take up President Trump's appeal of the verdict that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. Her $5 million award is now final. (More to come on her $83.3 million judgment.) Carroll just responded in her Substack: "One old lady can not make a difference. But when that old lady has a team of the most brilliant attorneys in America, and when that old lady has the support of women around the world, that old lady can do the impossible." 

Rest in peace, Hayden. Hayden Panettiere died at 36 years old on Sunday. The actress known for Heroes and Nashville had recently published a memoir about her struggles with addiction and depression, especially postpartum depression; she said that Neutrogena dropped her from her longtime sponsorship deal after she opened up about her experience. Panettiere grew up as a child star in the entertainment industry, and in many ways her story is one of being failed by Hollywood. 

Meta is heading back to court over social media addiction. After Kaley Glenn-Mills won her case against Meta and Google, this case starting Tuesday comes from four attorneys general. California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are seeking up to $1.4 trillion in penalties and product changes under consumer protection laws. Meta says the states' claims are limited and unsubstantiated and that the financial demands are "vastly disproportionate."

Five years later in Afghanistan. Five years after the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan and barring of girls from school, education for boys has declined too. Afghan boys tell NPR that "the education being offered inside the classroom has changed so sharply that it no longer prepares them for the future." Afghan women tell the BBC that their lives are "unrecognizable." 

ON MY RADAR

The bullet-riddled rise of Russia's richest woman Air Mail

Karoline Leavitt resigned after Trump kept calling her on maternity leave Fast Company

AOC's eggs and the working woman's inconvenient truth New Yorker

PARTING WORDS

"I had a different view of what my life was going to be, but this is what it is now. You make all these plans and you have all these ideas of what it’s all going to be like and then it’s… not. You have to adjust. You adapt."

— Nicole Kidman, in a new British Vogue profile