2025 — 'Your seed is your life force': masculinities of spirituality and entrepreneurialism

What the study found

This peer-reviewed study by Panos Kompatsiaris examines the NoFap movement — an online initiative that encourages men to abstain from pornography and masturbation — and how it is turned into profitable content by micro-celebrity influencers who operate as commercial enterprises. The author groups the material around four recurring themes: energy, transformation, resistance and productivity. Among its source material, the study analyses four YouTube videos by the influencer Hamza, spanning 2021 to 2024. ^[1]

Why it matters here

The study situates NoFap and "semen retention" not as clinical claims but as a genre of self-improvement content built around masculinity, spirituality and entrepreneurship. That framing is directly relevant to how such ideas circulate through the manosphere, where abstinence messaging is often bundled with discipline, status and money-making advice. It is cited here in the reference file for Hamza Ahmed, whose videos the author draws on as examples of how these themes are packaged and monetised.