Manosphere

The manosphere is a loose group of blogs and forums reportedly promoting antifeminism, male autonomy, and masculinity.[1][2]

Overview

Groups related to the manosphere include passport bro's, NoFap communities, men's rights activists (MRA), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), and pick-up artists (PUA). Support for these ideas is referred to as "taking the red pill", a metaphor derived from the 1999 film The Matrix.[2] Those being considered part of the manosphere are often accused of "violent sexism" on the basis of having a "sense of entitlement to sex".[2][3]

However, some research found that their purported "violent sexism" was exaggerated by women over different reasons.[4] Some women also made false accusations of rape over interpersonal conflict to take revenge on others,[5] though the rate of occurrence is low.[5]

Causes

Steve McCullough of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights claimed that these social factors correlated with the rise of the manosphere:[6]

  • High rates of loneliness, depression and suicide among men
  • Drop in traditionally "manly" jobs from changes in global economy
  • Gains in gender equality that came with changes in traditional gender roles

In McCullough's view, the manosphere "blames them all on women".[6] McCullough also cited historian Michael Kimmel's theories to claim that manosphere's participants are motivated by "aggrieved entitlement",[6][7] where "people with power and privilege see improvements in equality and inclusiveness as a loss of status and thus a personal attack on themselves",[6][7] referring to men "still enjoying unequal power and privilege around the world".[6][7] However, he did not elaborate his claim in detail.[6]

Reception

Groups associated with the incel or MGTOW movement are often criticized by the leftists due to their disagreement with these groups' opposition to certain progressive values.[2][8] However, many believe that those criticizing the incel or MGTOW movement ignore the cause and effect of their existence.[8] Some critics see those criticism as "alarmist, inaccurate, and misrepresenting" the problem.[8] Mass media have also been criticized for their coverage of these groups,[8] some of which directly compare the problem to Islamic terrorism regardless of context.[8]

Media

In January 2023, The Times claimed that half of the persons referred to the Prevent,[8][9] a British counter-extremism programme, were incels in the year ending March 2021.[8][9] However, critics pointed out that there was no evidence to support such a claim.[8]

Government

United Kingdom

The public data from the UK Home Office showed that only 22~25% of those referred to the Prevent were classified as having "mixed, unstable or unclear ideology" (MUU) – a category for anything other than right-wing or Islamist extremism.[8][10] Among the small percentage of the referred, a small number of them were seen as potential terrorists,[8] with some referrals dropped by specialists as they did not know the definition of incel.[8]

Academia

Some scholars emphasized that most incels were lonely, depressed young men,[8][11] many of whom were neurodivergent,[8][11] of diverse ages, religions, ethnicities and sexual orientations.[8][11] The social stigma is said to be refutable but repeatedly promoted by self-declared experts against the "lonely, depressed young men".[8] The self-declared experts were also criticized for misusing dubious statistics (e.g. cherry-picking) to support their bias.[8][12]

References

  1. ↑ Barnes, Mariel J., and Sabrina M. Karim. "The manosphere and politics." Comparative Political Studies 59.1 (2026): 3-43.
  2. 1 2 3 4
    • Rauch, Allison (January 13, 2025). "red pill and blue pill". Britannica. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
    • Friedland, Roger (2018). "Donald's Dick: A Man Against the Institutions". In Mast, Jason L.; Alexander, Jeffrey C. (eds.). Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics: Cultural Sociology of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 115–133. doi:10.1111/soin.12328. ISBN 978-3-319-95944-3. S2CID 210440082.
    • Ging, Debbie (2019). "Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere". Men and Masculinities. 22 (4): 638–657. doi:10.1177/1097184x17706401. ISSN 1097-184X. S2CID 149239953.
    • Goldwag, Arthur (March 1, 2012a). "Leader's Suicide Brings Attention to Men's Rights Movement". Intelligence Report (Spring 2012). Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
    • Goldwag, Arthur (May 15, 2012b). "Intelligence Report Article Provokes Fury Among Men's Rights Activists". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved February 9, 2020.
    • Hodapp, Christa (2017). Men's Rights, Gender, and Social Media. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-49-852617-3.
  3. ↑ Scott, Kate. "The manosphere as an anti-feminist network." Australian Journal of Political Science (2025): 1-19.
  4. ↑ Waddell, Nina; Overall, Nickola C. (August 11, 2022). "Bias, accuracy and assumed similarity in judging intimate partners' sexist attitudes". Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 40 (2). doi:10.1177/02654075221118546. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
  5. 1 2
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Online misogyny: the "manosphere"". Canadian Museum for Human Rights. September 12, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 Michael Kimmel. Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era. New York: Nation Books, 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Kates, Naama (January 23, 2023). "The moral panic over incels". Spiked. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
  9. 1 2 "Prevent anti-extremist scheme must tackle incels, MP warns". The Times. January 20, 2023. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, England and Wales, April 2020 to March 2021". UK Home Office. November 18, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 Costello, William; Arevalo, Vania Rolon; Thomas, Andrew G; Schmitt, David (2022). "Levels of well-being among men who are incels (involuntary celibates)". ResearchGate. doi:10.31219/osf.io/tnf7b. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
  12. ↑ Signal, Jesse (September 26, 2022). "That New Report On Incels Is A Cherry-picked, Misleading Mess". Signal-Minded. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
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