is substack the new man repeller?
we all miss the era of personal blogs. what made it special? and will we ever get it back?
Sometimes my algorithm really knows me.
Ok. So I’m scrolling in bed and this TikTok creator asks “where did all the man repeller readers go?” so I go from half-paying attention to ear fully perked. The creator expresses nostalgia for that “era” of personal blogging—not so much Man Repeller itself. My first thought was the readers probably went to Substack? which the comments echoed.
It got me thinking about the ways Substack both is and isn’t comparable to the Man Repeller prototype of fashion media, and why nothing can truly fulfill the void of personal blogging’s heyday.
Back to the comments from that TikTok video. What stood out to me was how many people mentioned missing the community of Man Repeller readers—not Man Repeller’s content per se, or the perspective of its founder. Readers miss the other readers.
That definitely resonates with my experience. I only remember two distinct articles, honestly: Haley’s review on Jesse Kamm Sailor Pants and Harling’s #stickofbutter theory. Everything else is kind of a mush. I was also conscious of the limitations of relatability, as there weren’t many nonwhite writers. Like Girls and Glossier, it was emblematic of white girl culture that wielded massive influence in its time.
Why did I visit Man Repeller dot com every day? Because…
Even if I was at work surrounded by career bureaucrats who wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about a new brand called Paloma Wool or whether the Everlane flats were actually a good approximation of the Martiniano glove shoes, a community of like-minded people was just a webpage away.
It was the virtual town square for fashion lovers who didn’t take clothes too seriously and wanted to have fun getting dressed. We wanted to find each other, and Man Repeller happened to be the "online third place” to set the tone that a critical mass of us flocked towards.
It’s been 3-ish years since the site shut down—can we determine whether a “new” Man Repeller has formed?
While the current consensus points to Substack as the closest thing we have, I have some ideas as to why it doesn’t fill the cultural void in the same way: