Family lawyer says he's seeing a new trend of the 'manosphere' leading to divorce

In retrospect, Kenzie Sproat thinks there were warning signs that all was not right in her year-long relationship. She says her partner seemed to shift from a gentleman to someone who controlled and ridiculed her.

"I'm kind of ashamed," the 23-year-old university student said. "I totally just listened to him, and then at the end, I was like, 'What am I doing? I don't know what I'm doing.'" 

She first got involved in the long-distance relationship with an American military man a few years ago. She said the red flags began popping up six months in, when he began shaming her over her appearance, blowing up her phone if she didn't respond to his texts and expressing jealousy over her friendships with other men.

She realizes now she didn't see how his behaviour started affecting her.

"I got used to it. I got used to the condescension," she said. 

She thinks the online content he consumed, such as "manosphere" creators like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan, was part of what shaped his behaviour.

"He would make jokes about how many good points Andrew Tate has," she said, referring to the kickboxer turned controversial social media influencer, who describes himself as a misogynist.

When they broke up more than a year later, she felt only fleeting sadness. 

"The next day I felt physically lighter and I was over it."

While Sproat got out of her relationship without headaches or paperwork, not everyone is so lucky. 

Family lawyer Scott Byers, who's based in Swift Current, Sask., said he and his colleagues have started seeing some of the factors Sproat described becoming a reason for divorce.

It started with the pandemic and couples having diverging views on things like vaccinations, but that's shifted more recently, Byers said.

"As the years have passed since the pandemic, I'm certainly seeing more clients come in telling me, 'My spouse isn't the person that I knew when [we] met. He puts his ear buds in and he's listening to these podcasts and a lot of thinkers associated with the so-called manosphere.'" 

Byers said he believes online misogyny feeds a culture of coercion and abuse.