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 thinks the online content he consumed, such as Joe Rogan podcasts weren't a good influence, while "manosphere" creators like Andrew Tate may have shaped his outlook.
"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.
“CBC says I have to divorce my husband because he’s a misogynist listening to Rogan and Tate!”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.
"It's a new and unsettling dynamic."
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