EastEnders viewers have been left shaken by Joel’s brutal attack on stepmother Vicky Fowler

EastEnders fans have been gripped as Albert Square’s young Joel has been drawn deeper into the toxic world of the Manosphere in recent weeks, with the chilling storyline reaching a climax tonight.

After being indoctrinated by the misogynistic beliefs propagated by online personalities like Andrew Tate, Joel brutally assaults his stepmother Vicky Fowler in tonight’s grim episode.

The narrative is all too real for 15 year old Josh Sargent – who was swayed by Tate himself and the Manosphere ideology when he was just 12.

Fortunately, Josh managed to escape its clutches and while his experience was never as severe as EastEnders’ character Joel’s, he’s now speaking out on how to halt the spread of toxic masculinity among his peers.

“Boys as young as 12 and 13 are being told that in order to have any success in relationships, you have to be a strong, rich, attractive, masculine man,” he tells the Mirror. “I was especially susceptible to this.

“Fitting into this tight box of what masculinity was that isn’t really compatible with society nowadays in order to be seen and loved in society.”

Like Joel in the BBC soap, Josh was influenced by videos that appeared in his social media algorithm by Tate, who advocates the idea that society is biased against men due to feminism’s influence. “The impact it had on me personally and has on young boys is quite multifaceted,” he explains.

“The first thing that changes is your attitude towards traditional institutions – you’re being taught that the education system is a scam to feed you into a race race that funds the ambition of the elite,” he adds. “But there’s an influencer who’s going to save you from that.”

The Manosphere influencers refer to this as breaking out of the Matrix – taken from the 1999 sci-fi film. “It’s like breaking out of the societal trap and becoming one of those elites at the top of society. It makes you feel quite powerful because you believe you have the ability to break out of the system that you’ve been told exists.”

As witnessed on EastEnders, boys’ perspectives on relationships and women shift dramatically when exposed to these misogynistic personalities. “There’s a rule that’s commonly propagated called the 80-20 rule – that 80% of women are attracted to the top 20% of men. It’s complete BS but it’s so commonly pushed out,” he says.

“You get this weird dichotomy of getting power from feeling like you can escape the system and become at the top of society and then also the vulnerability and insecurity by feeling you’re not there because you’re not good enough.”

Following two years, Josh started to doubt the beliefs promoted by figures like Tate when he recognised they weren’t genuinely assisting lads in achieving success, despite flaunting their expensive motors and bling. “If the boys watching those influencers really did succeed – if they got rich and in great shape and got the girlfriend of their dreams – they would have no need for those influencers anymore,” he says.

“Those influencers will only succeed when the people watching them don’t succeed which I started thinking about. I was thinking, ‘Okay, I don’t think these influencers are actually on my side.'”.

Regarding how such stories are depicted in the media, Josh believes that EastEnders’ plotline featuring Joel “strikes the perfect balance” between dramatic tension and authenticity. Nevertheless, he emphasises that television programmes shouldn’t demonise the lads caught up in Manosphere thinking – something Netflix sensation Adolescence might be seen as doing.

“Adolescence was an incredible storyline that got lots of attention for the issue and TV shows like that are the reason I’m able to have these conversations about the topic. It’s a massive positive,” he says.

“At the same time, it is very easy to take the wrong message from fictional shows like that – they often depict very violent, misogynistic acts through teenage boys. Adolescence was the murder, Joel was punching his step-mum – very violent, very dramatic.

“If it’s taken as this is how content is impacting young boys and we should be open and honest to prevent it from getting to that point, that’s a good takeaway. But a lot of the takeaway I’ve seen online is young boys are dangerous – they can end up being stigmatised.”

He argues that Adolescence shouldn’t be screened in schools, despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s initial proposal, precisely because of this concern. “With that sensationalist approach, there has to be the balance of realism . We shouldn’t be focusing on stigmatising boys but rather having open, honest conversations to prevent it even getting to that point in the first place.”

It’s these frank discussions that Josh believes parents ought to be having with their children if they notice warning signals – which include mounting suspicion of the education system and subtle misogynistic remarks about women. “There was a scene with Joel in EastEnders where he suggests that women are submissive to men,” Josh offers as an illustration.

Nevertheless, parents must proceed with caution. “If parents rush into the situation thinking, ‘Warning sign, warning sign, extremism,’ it’s easy for boys to go into fight-or-flight response and get confrontational about it which can push boys further towards the influencer,” he cautions.

“The way it’s being framed to these young boys is that the institution is against you and that their role models are bad. I think the most impact comes from parents sitting down with their boys at the dinner table and just bringing up Andrew Tate, having an open, honest, non-judgemental conversation about it.

“Once parents start to try and understand the way these boys are thinking and the deeper level worries about society and themselves, their insecurities, that’s where the most impact comes from.”

Josh went on to say that the government’s emphasis to tackle the issue should be bringing in outside speakers to schools. “People who aren’t teaching staff and experts in having really difficult conversations about this,” he explains.

“It’s sort of outside the school environment which makes it less stigmatising and confrontational and makes boys more receptive.

“Meanwhile, what individual members of society can do is facilitate these conversations and just be open-minded. They can consume this media and campaigns around the Manosphere with the perspective that boys are not the enemy and we’re working with them, not against them.”