Paris Paloma Has a Message for Followers of the Manosphere in New Single “Good Boy”
by Zarah Donnelly | September 24th, 2025
“Good Boy” by Paris Paloma, released on September 19th, does not shy away from immediately telling listeners what to expect in the song– it begins with a foreword read by Oscar winner Dame Emma Thompson, stating “I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down. I just didn’t expect them to be such losers.” Thompson is an outspoken climate activist and feminist, known not just for her outstanding film career, but also for her work with Greenpeace, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and the Helen Bamber Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and her voice delivering this opening message, written by Rebecca Shaw, adds impact to a track that is hard hitting from beginning to end.
Photo by Phoebe Fox | @shotbyphox
“Good Boy” incorporates the sounds of dogs barking to draw a clear comparison to men online willingly positioning themselves as loyal lapdogs to billionaires and misogynistic influencers instead of empathizing with and relating to women and other working class people, and this comparison is immediately displayed in the first verse of the song– “I have never seen submission embodied half so well / As in the feeble competition between men with souls to sell.” This line alone points out the irony in the viewpoints of followers of the manosphere, a collection of groups online that aim to push extreme anti-feminist and male supremacist ideologies. The manosphere promotes teachings that revolve around being a strong, dominant man who is never submissive, while simultaneously preaching that they submit to the upper crust misogynists that these men view as their role models.
The song is intended to critique the culture built around “working to live, and living to work” and climbing a social ladder that the average person will never reach the top of. Ultimately, it aims to reject the teachings of the manosphere, an ideology that encourages men to other themselves and view themselves as not just separate from women, but as victims of the existence of women. Manosphere preachings often bleed into incel ideology, alpha/beta male conversations, and hustle culture, all of which further deepen the divide between not just women and men, but members of the different class systems in societies worldwide.
Paloma’s message is clear in lyrics like “Good boy, you’re working exactly as intended / Has the penny dropped? You’re never gonna get it. / Unrewarded for all of your defending / from your loneliness epidemic.” These men defend and uplift an ideology that will not only never benefit them, but they will never even be so much as thanked for upholding these values. The manosphere encourages men to submit and kneel to oppressive systems that negatively impact not just women (and any other group the followers of this ideology may view as less-than), but other men as well– patriarchal values and extreme divisions in class systems are dangerous for everyone, including those that gleefully enforce or defend these structures. As the song nears its end, the echoes of men’s chanting voices repeating Paloma’s words feel like a representation of the manosphere’s echo chamber, where its followers regurgitate the same ideas back and forth, over and over, only for the song to close out with the barking of the dogs meant to represent those same men.
In a video posted to Instagram, Paloma addressed men who may listen to the song: “‘Good Boy’ is a message to men that you have more in common with me, more in common with everyday women, than you do with men in power-pushing capitalist patriarchy– so don’t be their good boy. Any knee-jerk reaction to women criticising and working against patriarchy by calling women ‘man haters’ bites off your own nose and upholds a system that isolates and betrays you, cutting you off from community and love. You won’t be rewarded by those in power for upholding a system that harms you and benefits them– you’ll get nothing, not even so much as a ‘good boy.’” ( https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOJj0nBjJdj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link )
Paloma first became a viral sensation with the 2024 release of “Labour”, a song about the systemic expectation forced upon women to accept the role of caregiver and homemaker, a notion that Paloma staunchly rejects. Her music deals heavily with themes of feminism, ranging from the aforementioned rejection of traditional gender-based expectations in “Labour”, to the weaponization of female sexuality in “The Fruits”, a track that references the Biblical story of Adam and Eve while criticizing the way men enjoy the fruits of women’s sexuality while they simultaneously chastise women for being sexual.
Watch the music video, starring Tom Blyth, here:
