IT is famous for its superyachts, designer boutiques and VIP beach clubs.
But beneath the sun-drenched glamour of the Costa del Sol, a toxic new export is taking root. The target market? The minds of impressionable young men.
In his latest Netflix documentary, Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, the veteran broadcaster turns his trademark awkward gaze on the dark world of hyper-masculine online influencers.
And their playground of choice? Andalucia’s most famous resort.
Enter 24-year-old Harrison Sullivan, better known to his army of teenage followers as ‘HS’ or @hstikkytokky.
Theroux tracks the British TikToker down to a sprawling €2,000-a-night Marbella villa, where Sullivan charmingly introduces his girlfriend, Kacey May, to the cameras as a ‘dishwasher’.
But Sullivan wasn’t just in Spain for the sunshine.
At the time of filming, the influencer was actively hiding out on the Costa del Sol after crashing a McLaren supercar in Surrey and fleeing the scene.
He evaded British justice for a year until police chartered a private jet last November to drag him back to the UK amid suspicions that he had been involved in a violent incident in Puerto Banus.
Once back in his native country, he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and having no insurance.
But that was all after he sat down with Theroux to film a documentary that was highly likely to paint him in a bad light.
And thus the unlikely duo hung out in Marbella, chatting about life, Sullivan’s beliefs and his position as a role model for young men.
When pressed by Theroux on what he actually does for a living, Sullivan claimed he coaches ‘boys how to be outside the system, how to be proper boys’.
It is a system heavily inspired by disgraced influencer Andrew Tate and the ‘red pill’ movement, built on the belief that society is rigged against men and women cannot be trusted.
Yet despite his rampant misogyny, Sullivan is making a fortune off women.
READ MORE: Family worried sick over missing American who vanished on night out to Barcelona nightclub
While he boasts he would ‘disown his daughter’ if she started an OnlyFans account – and disown his son if he were gay – he happily profits from the adult platform.
He runs a Marbella content mansion dubbed the ‘House of Heat’, where a rotating cast of 15 OnlyFans models cross-promote their explicit content to his 500,000 Telegram subscribers in exchange for a hefty cut of the profits.
But this ‘manosphere’ ideology quickly spills over into real-world violence on the streets of the Costa del Sol.
In the documentary’s most shocking sequence, Theroux films Sullivan and his associates orchestrating a so-called ‘predator sting’.
They lure an older man to a fake date in broad daylight in Marbella before subjecting him to a savage, livestreamed beating to ‘expose’ him as a paedophile.
As his ‘minions’ kick the man on the pavement, Sullivan nonchalantly tells a stunned Theroux: “He’s going to jail… but I didn’t touch him.”
The documentary also shadows Ed Matthews, a disciple of the controversial ‘pick-up artist’ community.
Theroux follows Matthews as he prowls the streets of central Marbella, using scripted psychological tactics and ‘game’ to hit on local women for content.
Disturbingly, as they walk through the town, Matthews is repeatedly mobbed by adoring young male fans of various nationalities who treat the influencers like rockstars.
READ MORE: ‘Cristiano loves going to Marbella’: Is the footballing legend eyeing an investment in Malaga?
And it is a trend that is bleeding into the real world.
A recent University of York study found that 75% of British teachers are now terrified by the rise of online misogyny in the classroom, with schoolboys increasingly parroting rhetoric that women ‘belong in the kitchen’ and that violence against them is acceptable.
For decades, Marbella has been a magnet for gangsters, celebrities and billionaires.
Now, it has become the spiritual home for a new breed of digital hustler – where the currency is misogyny, and the cameras are always rolling.
Click here to read more Costa Del Sol News from The Olive Press.
