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Paper short abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork at a men-only “Ancient Leadership Retreat” in Greece, I analyze how Manosphere influencers translate ancient Greek idioms of honor into a pedagogy of masculine excellence and embed them in anti-egalitarian, misogynistic worldviews and parallel institutional networks.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how the contemporary Manosphere interprets and circulates “Greek” idioms of manliness, virtue, and honour. Drawing on ethnographic research at a men-only “Ancient Leadership Retreat” in Greece, I analyze how a U.S. influencer with a Classics background trains an international cohort (Americans, Germans, Greeks, Brits, and Spaniards) in public speech, competitive debate, and “ancient virtue.” For participants, Greece functions as a charged pedagogical setting: Spartan and Athenian statesmen as well as Orthodox Church Fathers serve as moral exemplars that reimagine masculine performative excellence in the contemporary transnational Manosphere: confident public presence, vitality, and decisive action - coupled with misogynistic and anti-egalitarian views.

I first show how participants cast ancient Greece as a “masculinist utopia,” contrasted with allegedly feminized contemporary institutions that they describe as hostile to masculine excellence and responsible for men’s frustrations and precarity. Second, I trace how the ancient warrior-statesman is translated into the contemporary entrepreneur-investor who embodies the celebrated performative excellence: acting without permission, withstanding sanction (“cancellation”), and exiting mainstream institutions by building parallel ones. In this moral economy, the degraded opposite is the salaried employee - the “wagecuck” - imagined as dependent and unable to act freely. Finally, I argue that despite the rhetoric of individualism, these retreats cultivate community and infrastructure: networks, contacts, and mutual support make the ideals feel achievable.

The paper uses this rare ethnographic access to show how online ideology is converted into embodied practices: how misogyny and anti-egalitarianism become attached to “honor” and “virtue” through training and everyday interactions.