AN OPEN LETTER TO "LOVE RESEARCHER" DR. ADAM BODE
7:54 AM 9/29/2026 Tue
Hello Dr. Bode,
I got wind of your brand new Instagram reel, "Average number of sexual partners for women", dated Mon, Sep 28, 2026, where you made the bold claim that, and I quote, "The Manosphere is lying to you". Clearly, your clip has gotten the interest of the Instagram crowd - in just 21 hours, it has garnered over 300K views, over 3,200 likes/hearts, and over 500 comments - and from reading roughly through a third of said comments quite a few people (mostly women as it turns out) seem to be in agreement with you - that the Manosphere is supposedly lying to men.
But is the claim true? Is the Manosphere in fact, "lying to men", as you boldly claim? As a man of science, I am sure you are familiar with the famous maxim by the late great Dr. Carl Sagan, that "extraordinary claims, require extraordinary evidence". Before we delve into that and several other Instagram reels in which you address the Manosphere by name, please allow me to introduce myself.
WHO AM I?
My name is Mumia Obsidian Ali, and I am a podcaster, author and one of the founding fathers of the Black Manosphere Online, and the Black Manosphere Conclave, the latter being an annual gathering of Black men from around the world united in the singular purpose of pursuing excellence in all things. I have written four books to date: "The Book of Obsidian: A Manual for the 21st Century Black American Gentleman"; "The Book of Obsidian: The Ladies Edition"; Toxic Femininity: The Blackman's Guide to Modern Black Feminism"; and "The Gospel of Saint Kevin Samuels". Two of my books - the first and third ones - have reached number one bestseller status in their respective categories on Amazon, and in 2023 I appeared on the Playboard top 100 most SuperChatted YouTuber's list in the United States eight times. Widely recognized as the Black Manosphere's foremost public intellectual, I am known for my penchant for rigorous writing and fact based, data driven and evolutionary psychology-informed takes on dating and mating in contemporary Black America.
Here I am, in conversation with one of the foundational figures of evolutionary psychology in America, Prof. David M. Buss, back in 2016:
Chopping It Up With Prof. David Buss
https://rumble.com/v50fq8f-chopping-it-up-with-prof.-david-buss.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a
And I have cited Prof. Buss extensively throughout my books, including other evolutionary psychological researchers such as his protege' William Costello.In fact, speaking of Costello, a little over a year ago I wrote an open letter addressing him alongside his "Intellectual Manosphere" fellow travelers Dean Conroy Beam, Macken Murphy, Chris Williamson, Alex Datepsych, and Rob K. Henderson, originally posted on X where they all are known to frequent, and which has since been posted to my Patreon:
OPEN LETTER TO DANIEL CONROY BEAM & WILLIAM COSTELLO: SHORT KINGS, HEIGHTISM & THE MYTH OF "HUMOR, KINDNESS, SENSITIVITY"
https://www.patreon.com/MumiaObsidianAli/posts/open-letter-to-132180952
And here I am discussing what the Black Manosphere Conclave is all about:
Mumia Obsidian Ali Full Interview At The Black Manosphere Conclave 4.0 Houston 2024!
https://rumble.com/v5fxouc-mumia-obsidian-ali-full-interview-at-the-black-manosphere-conclave-4.0-hous.html?e9s=src_v1_s%2Csrc_v1_s_o%2Csrc_v1_rso&sci=ccd12859-16ae-4bbe-a824-06a4c3ef38d9
I felt that extensive introduction was necessary again in light of your bold claims you've made of late concerning the Manosphere - which brings us back to your first Instagram clip in question, so let's get right to it.
THE MANOSPHERE HAS BEEN LYING TO MEN? SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE
The principle bone that I have to pick with you doctor, is that you do not specify exactly WHO within the Manosphere has been "lying" to men writ large; as I am sure you know by now (because you make it clear in another Instagram reel that I will be addressing more in detail below), the Manosphere is a very large and very diverse online space. It is multiethnic, multiracial, and quite homogenous in its overall make up. As you've noted yourself, the Manosphere is decentralized - we do not get our daily talking points from some kind of politburo - and truth be told, it is not at all unusual for brothers within the Manosphere space to engage in vigorous debates with each other on a whole range of issues, from the personal to the political and everywhere in between.
So when you claim, as you do in the reel video in question, that the Manosphere has been "lying" to men about the truth about the rank and file American woman's "body count" and you fail to specify exactly who in said Manosphere you are referring chapter and verse, I am inclined to raise an eyebrow - especially again in light of the massive virality your clip has generated. The Manosphere is among the hottest and clearly most controversial buzzwords going on social media, so anyone who can skillfully use the term to get internet clout, as you have done, has to know that it is a short way to doing so.
However and ironically enough as it turns out, I happened to be presenting on exactly this topic of a woman's body count at the sixth annual Black Manosphere Conclave in Las Vegas earlier this month. In fact my talk was titled, "Sexual Intelligence: Upping Your Bedroom Game" and was chock full of the latest data, statistics, facts and research bearing on human sexuality and how it pertains to Black America in particular. Below is one of the slides from that presentation, and I'll discuss it thereafter:
In the above slide, again from my presentation at the conclave earlier this month, I delve directly into one of the most controversial topics on social media: Body count, which is to say, total number of real or estimated sexual partners, particularly on the part of women. It is true that the Manosphere writ large has made body count a thing - but as you can see above, clearly not all of us are just winging it, either. Now, I am very familiar with the General Social Services Survey, as well as the NHANES and Centers for Disease Control data here in the USA. But I have found that getting more granular and specific data for the Black community is a tougher nut to crack.
I have therefore decided to lean into the numbers on the above slide. It is from a 2012 independently funded and sponsored survey by Trojan, the condom manufacturer, and which took a sample size of 3K Black male and female respondents. The findings were then reported on The Grio website, the article being called, "Survey: Black men have nearly 4 times as many sexual partners as black women" by Dr. Tyesse L. Gaines and published on Jul 17, 2012. Most of the brothers in attendance at my presentation weren't aware of the article and eagerly pulled it up on their smartphones to read it in full for themselves (as a personal aside, I am most happy to report that one hundred percent of brothers in attendance have been fully screened and tested for STDs in the past calendar year and know their status - we run a tight ship at the Black Manosphere Conclave!).
I made it very clear that my decision to lean into the Trojan/The Grio survey was independent and differed substantially from the more national datasets from NHANES and the CDC, and encouraged my conclave brothers to see it as a rough guide and not a straitjacket. With that being said, let's look at what Trojan and The Grio had to say.
As you can see, per Trojan's survey numbers, the average lifetime sex partners that Black women had was about 10 - and by "lifetime", let's say she's in her mid-50s. That's a time when many women wind down their active sex having lives, although obviously there are women Black and other races, who are enjoying a very active and vivid sex life. An average lifetime body count of merely ten sex partners is something that you do NOT regularly come across on social media - and if you allow yourself to be fooled by other podcasters and talking heads flying under the Manosphere banner, it's very easy to get sucked into that way of thinking. But at the Black Manosphere Conclave, we know better.
Based on the above evidence, it's kind of difficult to make the claim that we have been "lying" to Black men, doctor.
A WORD ABOUT ANDREW TATE & MORE ON EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY
In another Instagram reel, dated Sun, Aug 30, 2026, you posted something called, "My View of the Manosphere" wherein you cited Andrew Tate by name and called him and I quote, "a rapist". This I found to be deeply problematic, and because you're an Aussie and not an American, I'm going to be forgiving in your ignorance of racial history here and how it informs my objection to your reference to Tate.
The reason why I objected to your calling Tate a rapist isn't because of any great outpouring of love on my part for him - but rather, because of the long and dark history of Black men (Andrew Tate is both biracial and multinational, with his father being a Black man for Chicago and his mother being White from the United Kingdom) being accused, often falsely, of rape and other crimes of sexual assault. Many such Black men were lynched by mobs ad hoc, or were "legally" executed by the state, while still others have languished in prison for decades of their lives, only to be found innocent when the actual evidence was discovered. Whatever anyone of us may think of Tate, he deserves his day in court, and as of this writing - some four years on from his de facto house arrest in Romania - he has yet to get one. In my view and respectfully doctor, it is irresponsible to refer to Tate in such a manner until he has been adjudicated in a court of law and found guilty by a jury of his peers in accordance with a preponderance of the evidence and what the facts bear out.
Moreover, I take exception to your sole citation of Manosphere names being Tate's - no one else's. This smacks of laziness and clout chasing to be brutally frank - not at all what anyone ought to expect from one who touts themselves as a careful researcher. John Stuart Mill himself would not take very kindly to taking the most caricatured, extreme names out there in the Manosphere and tossing it out there like red meat to stand in for more thoughtful and rigorous voices among us - like myself for example - who have published works, the better part of live, in person events under their belt, and years before that of internet bylines and podcast engagement.
Additionally, your claim that "the Manosphere" - again, no specific names other than Tate mentioned - somehow gets the evolutionary psychology science wrong. It is damned near impossible to respond here, since you do not list or cite the specific individuals within the Manosphere and the erroneous claims they have supposedly made; therefore, I can only put forth my own work as a verified Black Manospherian of nearly a dozen years of experience, works written and spoken, books, articles, podcasts, live streams and live in person appearances dating back to 2021 where I have exhaustively cited major names inside the discipline of evolutionary psychology - as recently as earlier this year, where once again, the Black Manosphere was scapegoated for being responsible for the spate of "Black Femicide":
THE MANOSPHERE MADE HIM DO IT
https://blackmanosphere.com/blogs/news/the-manosphere-made-him-do-it
As you can clearly see, the phrase "evolutionary psychology" has been mentioned in my article FOURTEEN TIMES; David Buss eight times; and William Costello, once.
Additionally, I cite the following from said article:
"Since we're talking about the role that Evolutionary Psychology plays in the Black Manosphere, devotees have long known about how it predicts who are more likely to snap out and who isn't, thanks to the hard work of David Buss and other researchers in the field. Buss has written popular books on evolutionary psychological applications along these lines in books like "The Murderer Next Door" and even his best known work, "The Evolution of Desire". Indeed, "Desire" has the word "murder" specifically mentioned NINE TIMES..."
And:
"Elsewhere, Buss and other researchers, like his protege' William Costello, himself a world renowned researcher and expert on Incels, notes that younger men (Elkins was only 31), men lower in mate value (poorer, lacking in high social status, lower education and achievements that women prize and desire), and men who present as higher in emotional volatility, moodiness and the like, are far and away more likely to commit violence against their mates and even their own children, as we've seen here sadly. I have personally known this from my deep study of Buss and his Buss Lab's work for well over a decade now; Dr. Tommy Curry, a notable Black sociologist focused on the study of Black Male issues, documents in his excellent work "The Man-Not", similar warning signs of Black men more likely to commit acts of domestic violence. Put another way and contrary to the moral panics going about online at the moment: Not all or even most, Black men are out here harming and killing their mates and kids! There is a very specific profile and suite of traits, actions and history that come together to strongly predict such actions under very specific sets of conditions."
I invite you to read my article above in full doctor, and by all means, please explain how and why I've gotten my understanding of the science wrong here?
IN CLOSING
I have always said that the (Black) Manosphere NEEDS honest critics - because they not only keep us on the straight and narrow, they also help us to grow in a "iron sharpening iron" fashion. There ARE more extremist voices out there, and not only am I not proud of that, I have committed my life to doing what I can to combat it internally and clean house. MY problem has been lo these many years, that solid, good and honest critics have been very hard to come by. What I have encountered in droves appears to be grandstanders, panderers, moralists ginning up a panic, and de facto grifters out to make a quick buck using the Manosphere as grist for their mill. Good people can disagree - in no way do I even want to imply or suggest that I am saying otherwise - but if you're going to criticize us, at least do so showing that you have actually done your homework first.
That's only fair, I think.
Don't you?
Sincerely,
Mumia Obsidian Ali
Black Manosphere Conclave
www.blackmanosphere.com