HSTikkyTokky’s messages and actions have recently been brought into the mainstream thanks to Louis Theroux’s latest documentary.
The streamer is one of the subjects of Inside the Manosphere on Netflix, sparking a number of conversations around social media, young boys, sexism and more.
And some responses have focused on the childhood of these men, as Theroux highlighted a theme of absent fathers.
Real name Harrison Sullivan, HSTikkyTokky has an estranged relationship with his dad, former England rugby player Victor Ubogu. We saw him gearing up to reunite with him during the doc, admitting he was a ‘little bit anxious’.
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But the 24-year-old does not take too kindly to those claiming he has ‘daddy issues’.
The influencer addressed one parenting expert’s take during a live stream as he read through responses to the manosphere documentary.
HS read out the headline of an opinion piece on The Independent, titled at the time: “I’m a parenting expert and this is what I think of HSTikkyTokky and the manosphere’s daddy issues.”
He doesn’t exactly seem happy with this as he ranted: “Oh god… wait, why, why is it just so easy to… Like, what is this f**king bulls**t bro?
“Daddy issues, like, what?”
The influencer then asked viewers on the stream: “Do I give off daddy issue vibes boys? I really don’t think I do. Like, all jokes aside. Am I, am I giving that out?”
In the piece, therapist and parenting author Tanith Carey claims he ‘drops his trademark swagger’ in the doc when he was preparing to reunite with Ubogu.
“It’s one of the most telling moments in Theroux’s investigation into the online influencers getting rich by selling toxic masculinity,” she writes.
While she says she can’t give an ‘accurate psychological diagnosis’ from afar: “I agree with Theroux’s broadside that what we contemptuously call ‘Daddy Issues’ helps explain a lot of it [the manosphere].”
Carey refers to many of them as ‘damaged boys’ who move towards ‘hypermasculinity’ in order to ‘feel stronger and less vulnerable’.
During the Netflix doc, Theroux notes how many of the influencer have a childhood ‘trauma’ and were raised in broken homes.
“I had the sense that these influencers are still carrying the wounds of their childhood and had to learn brutal strategies of self-reliance,” he says.
HS claims he didn’t see his dad for around a decade when he was growing up.
“HS, the anti-feminist, told me how his mum, Elaine, worked six-day weeks late into the evening to put him into private school,” Theroux said in the doc.
“It was clear from photos online how devoted Elaine had always been. His dad, an international rugby player, was not in the picture.”
The influencer insisted that while he doesn’t agree with 'what he did', there are 'no hard feelings'.
“If there is any trauma there… it is subconscious. It’s not something that I’m aware of,” HS said.
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere is currently streaming on Netflix.
Topics: HSTikkyTokky, Louis Theroux, Netflix, Social Media, Celebrity
Jess Battison