An introduction to some of the darkest corners of the Internet
When we talk about online communities, issues of power dynamics come up a lot. Who wields power in social media discourse? Who feels safe online and who does not? Who feels represented and who does not? The manosphere is often mentioned when answering these questions as it is redefining online societies, creating a toxic network of digital misogyny.
An Introduction
According to F.D Signifier, “the manosphere is a loose network of mostly online communities and media entities with a wide variety of ideologies and styles and arguments, but all of them agree with one major core tenant, which is that modern men are in a state of crisis because of women.” Manifestations of this community can be seen in online Reddit forums, masculinity seminars and even “alpha male podcasts”.
The manosphere envelops four main groups/subreddits:
Men’s rights activists (MRAs) - a group of men who focus on issues that adversely impact men and boys and advocate political change to benefit men. It is considered by many as a backlash against feminism, often being considered misogynistic, hateful and outright violent towards women.
Men going their own way (MGTOWs) - a group of men who believe that men should separate themselves from women and from a society that they believe has been corrupted by feminism.
Pick-up artists (PUAs) - a movement of men whose goal is the seduction of women and sexual success through means considered misogynistic and sexist.
Involuntary celibates (incels) - an online community of men who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, often placing the blame on women. Incel forums are often characterized by hatred, misogyny, misanthropy, self-pity and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against women and sexually active people.
Other groups include:
The Red Pill - an online community hosted on Reddit made up of a group of anonymous men who delve into a range of topics, from dating strategies, workouts and diet regimes to misogyny, feminist disgust and theories on why women fantasize about rape.
The traditionalists/the traditional marriage camp - a group of men who want to bring back ‘traditional’ marriage, which includes forced child marriage and the inability of a woman to decide when or whom to marry.
The Manosphere Ideology: Sexual Economics & The Modern Woman
While the manosphere is divided into different groups with individual beliefs, the common ground is based on a shared sexist ideology that promotes misogyny, toxic masculinity, and feminist repulsion.
According to the manosphere, or the ”Alpha Male“ universe, a woman follows a predetermined pattern within the realms of dating and marriage as their ultimate aspiration is cisgender heterosexual marriage and procreated motherhood. However, unlike the “traditional“ woman, the ”modern“ woman will spend her youthful days (deemed by many of these men as a woman’s prime) studying the sexual economy by living a promiscuous life, having multiple male partners, identifying men’s vulnerabilities therein and exploiting them to her selfish advantage.
A “modern” woman will purposefully practise hypergamy, abandoning her male partner when being offered to be in a relationship with a ”higher-value” man (i.e. a man of higher socioeconomic standing), thus proving her disloyalty. She would typically repeat the process with multiple men, making her more likely to bear children out of wedlock or, if she is a Black woman, be branded a ”baby mama”.
The manosphere community agree that women gravitate towards ”alpha males”, often referred to as ”Chads” by incels, attractive men who provide them financial support in exchange for sex. Eventually, as a woman ages, she will settle down with a “beta male”, who will provide a secure financial environment. Nevertheless, because a ”beta male” does not meet the standards of a ”modern” woman, she will have multiple attractive sex partners outside of marriage to satisfy her own selfish needs. She will eventually divorce her husband, be favoured in court due to ”female privilege” and run away with an ”alpha male” with the financial contributions provided as a consequence of the divorce.
According to the sexual economy as analysed in Sexual Economics: Sex as a Female Resource for Social Exchange in Heterosexual Interactions, “a heterosexual community can be analysed as a marketplace in which men seek to acquire sex from women by offering other resources in exchange. Societies will therefore define gender roles as if women are sellers and men are buyers of sex... Economic principles suggest that the price of sex will depend on supply and demand, competition among sellers, variations in product, collusion among sellers, and other factors.”
In the case of the ”modern“ woman, the factors she would use to her advantage are: youth, beauty and her being desired by multiple men. She would couple that with men’s disadvantages of a high sex drive, fewer opportunities to have sex and women colluding with other women to withhold sex for men. The resources the modern woman would then gain from said exploitation are hoarded solely for herself.
The manosphere ideology sets in stone the archetypal identity of a woman with the following statements:
The value of a woman’s humanity is defined solely by her sexuality, positively if she uses it to please one man and/or produce children with him and negatively if she explores or employs her sexuality too much and/or for her sole benefit.
Sexuality is a woman’s only power, which is why the sexual economy exists in the first place as it harps on men’s one and only weakness, their libido.
Women are ultimately powerless; because female sexuality is only powerful if weaponised and sexuality is understood to be fleeting with age, their ordained position within humanity is to be in submission to men.
Why is there so much hatred channelled towards women? Why do these communities exist?
Much of the manosphere is built upon a fear response. Men fear that poor performance of masculinity can contribute to bullying and ostracism, low prospects for intimate partnership and professional success and an inability to function in a patriarchal society that ostracises those who do not conform to hegemonic masculinity. For a lot of men who do perform masculinity effectively, they will still be susceptible to the harms of late capitalism in the form of exploitative and dehumanising work, low wages, poor health practices, etc., unless they are at the top of the food chain. Nevertheless, even those at the top are still having to contend with the draining physical and emotional labour of trying to maintain such an act. Thus the worst parts of the manosphere stem from a very valid and very universal sense of anguish in men.
“These men are correct to at least feel like something is wrong,” explains YouTuber creator and media critic F.D. Signifier in one of his recent YouTube videos. “Men of all races are in a state of crisis and, for white men, this crisis is made more complicated by the emergence of widely accepted critical theories such as post-modernism, intersectional feminism, critical race theory… that are reframing the way in which we understand race and gender, slowly eroding at the hegemonic space of power for them for the first time in modern history.
“For the first time, white men have to face the consequences of acting upon their racial and gender privilege, [such as being fired from their job after having been the recipient of several sexual assault claims from multiple workers]. This, at the end of the day, does not seem to be a “crisis”.” However, as F.D. Signifier claims, “when you’re used to privilege, equity can feel like oppression.” Therefore, some men lash out at women and the feminist movement, blaming them for eroding their rights and privileges.
It is true that over the last few decades, men have been dealing with numerous challenges that have eroded their mental, physical and economic health. White men represent the disparate amount of suicides in the US, with some studies having them responsible for up to 70% of them. In the UK, men’s suicides are over three times more likely than for women. Rates of suicide in the UK and the US have risen over the last 20 years mainly because of the suicide of white men.
Suicide is strongly associated with social issues, the economic environment and health, so white men — notwithstanding suicide rates for minorities — are higher than any other population, which provides perspective on the real structural issues in our society.
The data in research points to mental illnesses, substance addiction, as well as economic and social instability in an absence of effective coping mechanisms, often exacerbated by toxic stereotypes on masculinity, are the sources of such a disparity in white male suicide cases.
Living under late capitalism, men — especially white men — have become the gears in a patriarchal system that benefits them but also consumes them as fuel. Their crucial role in the maintenance of capitalism often leads to a traumatising degradation of their sense of self and their humanity. Many men are intensely committed to the hegemonic belief system that their performance of their role in society gives them rewards — i.e. their rightful patriarchal dividend, including money, success and fruitful relationships with women. However, they are guaranteed nothing, no matter what they do, unless they are able to reach the top of the social hierarchy, a status that is practically impossible to reach if they have to start from scratch.
The manosphere, in various ways, offers the false promise of fixing this “crisis”, of making them a man so great that they will definitely get the patriarchal dividend they always wanted. This messaging works because these boys and men feel this sense of existential dread and they want to address this. Simply by searching up ways to talk and flirt with women, the best way to gain fitness or advice on how to dress up for a date, boys and men are more likely than not to come across subreddits, forums and other online communities that dehumanise women as an attempt to prove their masculinity.
Why is the manosphere such a concerning issue?
Not only is the manosphere attributed to multiple acts of extreme violence and even terrorism, but it is also influencing the way in which young people view women and feminism. A 2020 HOPE not hate report found that 50% of young men aged 16-24 exposed to the internet believe feminism makes it more difficult for men to succeed. These ideologies often stem from manosphere communities. A university study carried out by computer scientists calculated that every year since 2015, around 8% of Men’s Rights Activists or MGTOW members appear to have become more radicalized and joined incel groups online.
Recently, Andrew Tate, former kickboxer and one of the most influential icons of the manosphere among young men and boys, has been cancelled from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. His misogynistic videos have been reaching up to billions of views on TikTok, thus becoming a growing concern not only within online communities but also in educational spaces. Teachers and parents are even aware of Tate's influences on young boys.*
Trigger warning: the following comments may be distressing/triggering for some. Reader discretion advised.
Manosphere subreddits are plagued with comments such as:
“My latest masterpiece “How to Use the Desperation of Ukrainian War Refugees to Your Sexual Advantage” was scrubbed off the internet because people failed to understand it as an invitation for us, the humble readers of the Red Pill, to do the right thing and house persons displaced by war.”
“The most hyper feminist women I’ve ever slept with are the ones that enjoy being degraded and humiliated the most.” — LucidCunning
“Women Use Love To Soften Men Up” — magnetradio
“How to actually be awesome, alpha, a demi-god […] You need drugs.” — 5_7pickup
“Women Must Have Their Behaviour And Decisions Controlled By Men” — Roosh
“Providing Anal Sex Is The Best Way To Protect Women From Committing Abortion”
“Make Women Great Again” — President Dream
“How to be Dominant […] Women have a deep, subconscious drive to want to be dominated by the alpha male, because being dominated allows the woman to enter the alpha male’s world and enjoy superior emotional experience. […] Establishing dominance, therefore, requires patience because you can and should only give a woman orders after she WANTS to take orders from you. This takes time — before you can give a woman a command, you must wait until she has emotionally invested in you enough to want to follow that command. As she slowly emotionally invest, you give her bigger and bigger orders.” — Woujo
From manipulative dating tactics to theories on women’s sexuality, men within these communities reveal the darkest corners of online societies.
What is being done to prevent further misinformation?
Several mitigation and prevention measures are being taken. Reddit has made several attempts to ban manosphere subreddits including r/Incel and r/Braincels, even though new subreddits took their place. Subreddits such as r/MGTOW and r/RedPill have been put in quarantine, meaning that their content is deemed “extremely offensive or upsetting to the average Redditor,” it can’t generate ad revenue, and visitors must click a pop-up before entering the subreddit.
However, many of these measures have been deemed ineffective as manosphere groups have sprung up in even more extreme sites.
On an individual level, the best way in which people can prevent more seeds from being planted in men's minds is to influence the people around them; from calling out those who throw out misogynistic and sexist comments to having discussions on what people believe feminism is, there is a way to debunk sexist ideologies.
Anna Alandete
17.08.2022
*This article has been updated to report on the case of the cancelling of Andrew Tate.
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