Manosphere

The manosphere is a loose group of blogs and forums reportedly promoting misogyny, masculinity and antifeminism.^[1]

Overview

Groups related to the manosphere include 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.^[1] Those being considered part of the manosphere are often accused of "violent sexism" on the basis of having a "sense of entitlement to sex".^[1]

However, some research found that their purported "violent sexism" was exaggerated by women over different reasons.^[2] Some women also made false accusations of rape over interpersonal conflict to take revenge on others,^[3] though the rate of occurrence is low.^[3]

Causes

Steve McCullough of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights claimed that these social factors correlated with the rise of the manosphere:^[4]

• 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".^[4] McCullough also cited historian Michael Kimmel's theories to claim that manosphere's participants are motivated by "aggrieved entitlement",^[4][5] where "people with power and privilege see improvements in equality and inclusiveness as a loss of status and thus a personal attack on themselves",^[4][5] referring to men "still enjoying unequal power and privilege around the world".^[4][5] However, he did not elaborate his claim in detail.^[4]

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.^[1][6] However, many believe that those criticizing the incel or MGTOW movement ignore the cause and effect of their existence.^[6] Some critics see those criticism as "alarmist, inaccurate, and misrepresenting" the problem.^[6] Mass media have also been criticized for their coverage of these groups,^[6] some of which directly compare the problem to Islamic terrorism regardless of context.^[6]

Media

In January 2023, The Times claimed that half of the persons referred to the Prevent,^[6][7] a British counter-extremism programme, were incels in the year ending March 2021.^[6][7] However, critics pointed out that there was no evidence to support such a claim.^[6]

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.^[6][8] Among the small percentage of the referred, a small number of them were seen as potential terrorists,^[6] with some referrals dropped by specialists as they did not know the definition of incel.^[6]

Academia

Some scholars emphasized that most incels were lonely, depressed young men,^[6][9] many of whom were neurodivergent,^[6][9] of diverse ages, religions, ethnicities and sexual orientations.^[6][9] The social stigma is said to be refutable but repeatedly promoted by self-declared experts against the "lonely, depressed young men".^[6] The self-declared experts were also criticized for misusing dubious statistics (e.g. cherry-picking) to support their bias.^[6][10]