Register to Attend Webinar "Going Mainstream: What Higher Education Needs to Know About Male Supremacy and the Manosphere"

Have you come across the term “looksmaxxing” on campus? It might come up as a joke, but it didn’t start as one — the term originated on fringe male supremacist platforms, where it’s been used to push men into increasingly extreme, sometimes self-harming competition over their appearance. It’s also a concept that draws young men into online spaces that are highly derogatory towards women and LGBTQ+ people.

The looksmaxxing phenomenon is a small example of a much larger trend with far-reaching implications: online male supremacist ideas and culture are migrating into everyday conversations and spaces — and college campuses are no exception.

College-aged men are a key audience for male supremacist online influencers, who offer guidance on relationships, finance, and identity while promoting harmful gender norms and scapegoating feminism, LGBTQ+ communities, women, Jews, and others. Such harmful online narratives filter into campus culture, affecting students, impeding academic success, and undermining campus cohesion.

To learn more about the impacts of male supremacist online culture on higher education, you are invited to join the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University for the launch of our newest resource:  Going Mainstream: Male Supremacy, the Manosphere, and Implications for Higher Education. 

Webinar: Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Register for Webinar Information Here

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Join researchers at PERIL for a presentation and moderated discussion on the growing research base that connects harmful gender norms, misogyny, and violence, and learn ways that professionals can prevent and address gender-based harms on campus. The webinar will feature:

- Chief Vision Officer Cynthia Miller-Idriss
- Director of Interventions Pasha Dashtgard
- Deputy Director, Gendered Violence Division, Amee Wurzburg
- Curriculum and Training Manager Kristen Wall, and
- Program Manager Anne Joy Cahill-Swenson

This resource, produced with generous support from the Lumina Foundation, is intended to raise awareness among administrators, faculty, and staff in higher education about the prevalence of harmful online gendered narratives and their impact on student belonging and success. The webinar will prepare higher education professionals to address harmful rhetoric when it manifests and provide strategies to create a healthy campus culture that affirms every student’s right to a safe educational environment.

In this session you’ll learn:

the growing number of ways that young men are exposed to harmful gender narratives online,
what research finds on the role of male supremacist beliefs in increasing the risk of perpetration for multiple forms of violence, from bullying to sexual violence and mass violence,
how male supremacist ideas about gender are gateways to other forms of hate, from antisemitism to racism and beyond, and ultimately provide pathways to violent extremism,
the impact of online harassment and forms of violence on affected students,
steps for faculty and staff to identify and respond effectively to harmful gender-based narratives and behaviors, and
strategies that higher education institutions can take to strengthen safe, inclusive, and resilient learning environments where all students can thrive.

This resource supplements the Building Resilient & Inclusive Communities of Knowledge (BRICK) toolkit developed by PERIL with the Lumina Foundation, which helps campus leadership, faculty, staff, and students build resilience to violent supremacist ideologies, conspiracy theories, mis/dis/mal-information, propaganda, and hate speech.

To learn how your institution can take meaningful action today, download the resource here. Interested in a customized training session at your institution or organization? Reach out to [email protected].

Register to Attend Webinar “Going Mainstream: What Higher Education Needs to Know About Male Supremacy and the Manosphere”

Register for Webinar Information Here

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