Masculinist ideas are circulating widely on social media in France, prompting warnings about their impact on young people’s sexual health and the culture of consent.
The French charity Sidaction, which works on HIV prevention and support, said the rise in what it calls harmful messages of male domination, sexism and sexual violence carries dangerous consequences for prevention and sexual health.
In a statement this week, Sidaction said the issue is not only the content itself but also the way platforms amplify it through algorithms that favour sensationalist formats and boost posts built on provocation and shock.
To push back, the NGO has taken a creative tack. It has seeded TikTok with a series of viral-style videos that imitate the swaggering codes of so-called "alpha" influencers, aiming to reintroduce messages of prevention, respect and reliable information directly into young men’s feeds.
The campaign – entitled "Alpha Safe: when toxic masculinity goes viral, setting the record straight becomes vital" – was launched alongside a new OpinionWay poll that underscores just how widely masculinist ideas are circulating.
Stamping out misinformation in France's fight against HIV-Aids
Dangers of 'stealthing'
According to the survey, more than one in three young men aged 16 to 34 – 37 percent – consume masculinist content on social media.
Among those aged 25 to 34 who are familiar with the influencers pushing these ideas, one in two believe their content "finally tells the truth".
More than half of respondents feel that men are too often accused of exaggerated or false sexual violence, while just over 50 percent say it remains important to be "manly".
Florence Thune, Sidaction’s director, has warned that such beliefs "increase risk taking" and "deeply destabilise the culture of consent, which is central to the fight against HIV".
One of the clearest signs of that shift comes from attitudes towards "stealthing" – the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex.
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Nearly one in five men aged 25 to 34 say they “understand” the practice – a figure which rises to one in three among those who subscribe to masculinist theories.
Stealthing became a political flashpoint in France during a vote at the end of October on a law incorporating non-consent into the criminal definition of rape. A proposed amendment seeking to create a specific offence for stealthing was rejected by the National Assembly.
Sidaction argues that tackling toxic online content is part of a broader, urgent need to strengthen education on emotional, relational and sexual life – known in France as EVARS – particularly in light of a 10-year surge in HIV diagnoses among 15 to 24-year-olds.
Together with Planning Familial and SOS Homophobie, the organisation has taken the Paris Administrative Court to task for failing to enforce the 2001 law requiring three annual sex education sessions from primary through secondary school. A ruling is expected on Tuesday.
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Funding in decline
This comes as France’s National Council on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (CNS) calls for an "urgent remobilisation of public authorities", warning that declining public funding at home and abroad is putting four decades of progress at risk.
With major donors – including the United States and France – scaling back contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the CNS says HIV programmes worldwide are under threat.
The lack of a French pledge at the recent Global Fund summit in November, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s absence from the Johannesburg event, has drawn criticism from organisations including Sidaction and Aides.
The CNS notes that this comes at a time when medical innovations such as long-acting injectable PrEP could help accelerate prevention and support the goal of ending the pandemic by 2030.
(with newswires)
