Manosphere

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The term Manosphere (German “Mannosphere”) is a combination of the two English terms man (German 'man') and sphere (German about 'sphere', 'area' or 'circle') linked by the letter “o” . It denotes a loose, predominantly anti-feminist network of the men's rights movement and includes those areas of the internet in which a worldview is propagated that is based on a fundamentally misogynistic attitude.

introduction

The “Manosphere” is not a closed online community , but consists of many blogs and internet forums . It is associated with right-wing extremism , alt-right and the incel subculture ; as well as with the groups Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), Pickup artist (PUA) and fathers rights groups .

In the anti-feminist cosmos “Manosphere”, men radicalize themselves towards women, so that their willingness to use violence against women increases as a result. Men who fall into this web of misogynist attitudes are not afraid of online harassment , i. H. Online harassment , and other acts of violence. So followers of the Manosphere are also associated with some mass murders in the real world.

history

The Manosphere emerged from social movements such as the men's liberation movement of the 1970s and 80s. Groups that belong to the Manosphere today, such as the men's rights movement, preceded the term Manosphere. It is believed that the term first appeared on Blogger.com in 2009 . and subsequently popularized by Ian Ironwood, a pornography marketer and writer. The term found its way into the popular lexicon when the news media began to use it in reports of men who had committed misogynistic violence and sexual assault.

The year 2010 was identified by researcher Emma A. Jane as a "clear turning point" when the Manosphere communities moved from their former position on the edge of the internet to the mainstream . She hypothesizes that this popularization was driven by the advent of Web 2.0 and the rise of social media combined with ongoing systemic misogyny and patriarchal society. In 2014 the Manosphere was so well established that its ideas entered the mainstream discourse. Since that time, men who do not necessarily belong to a manosphere group have also been using it.

ideology

The Manosphere is a heterogeneous anti-feminist online network, which includes the men's rights movement, Incel, Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), Pick-Up Artistry (PUA) and paternal rights groups. While individual ideological positions of the respective groups can conflict with one another, the prevailing ideology of the Manosphere groups focuses on the promotion of certain forms of masculinity, misogyny, as well as strong opposition to feminism and excessive misogyny.

Author Donna Zuckerberg observed that some of the groups even have a hostile relationship with one another; a phenomenon that has been observed increasingly since 2016, when some manospherical leaders adopted a more political tone.

A common belief among Manospherians is that feminists and political correctness obscure the truth . They live under the idea that society is dominated by feminist values ​​and that men are victims of a culture that is hostile to men and that they have to fight for to protect their existence. The severity of anti-feminism represented within these communities varies, with some advocating fairly mild sexism and others glorifying extreme hatred. Similarly, racism and xenophobia prevalent in groups of Manosphere and the perceived threat to "Western civilization" is the subject of their postings . The social class is also a frequent topic and men at the lower end of the socio-sexual hierarchies in Incel communities sometimes called Truecels or all Manosphere communities as " Omega referred -Men" with Omega as a synonym for the lowest caste of hierarchical Society applies. Omega men are therefore subordinate to all other men in the community and can also be used as community scapegoats or as an outlet for frustration.

Metaphor: the philosophy of the red and blue pill

Supporters of the men's rights movement often use their own jargon. They also use the metaphor of the red and blue pill from a scene in the film Matrix : “Taking the red pill” is equated with the willingness to recognize the unpleasant “truth” (that men are suppressed) and to accept the ideology of the Manosphere accept. By “taking the blue pill”, on the other hand, the person taking it remains blissfully ignorant and is henceforth called “blue pilled”, or someone who has “taken the blue pill”. In the Manosphere, only those who have swallowed a red pill count. He is henceforth a “redpiller”, someone who is moving away from earlier mainstream or feminist beliefs towards those that are widespread or “developed” in the manosphere. Critics, on the other hand, are disparagingly called "bluepillers". The terms "alpha male" and "beta male" are also used. The philosophy of the “red pill” is a central tenet of the Manosphere, which aims to awaken men to the supposed misandry of society and the supposed delusions of feminism., Quoted from (p. 99) The concept originated in anti-feminist sub-Reddit “/ r / TheRedPill” and was later picked up by men's rights activists and MGTOW sites. Donna Zuckerberg writes: "The 'red pill' represents a new phase of online misogyny. Those who support this idea not only mock women, they also believe that in our society men are oppressed by women."

Connections to other groups and overall goal

The Manosphere is associated with the far-right and the neo-reactionary, white nationalist alt-right movement. Zuckerberg writes that many Alt-Right members are either "pickup artists" or MGTOW, and that "monitoring white female sexuality is a major concern" of the Alt-Right. The Manosphere movement has been linked to online harassment as well as other acts of violence in the real world and is involved in the radicalization of men who engage in violence against women.

Web pages

The so-called Manosphere comprises various websites, blogs and online forums. They all have in common misogyny and, as a result, the desire to express oneself disparagingly about women, especially towards the supposedly "cruel" feminists. They comply with this request on numerous pages, including: a. on the pages "Return of Kings", " A Voice for Men ", "PUAHate" and "SlutHate".

Also Reddit , the self-proclaimed "bastion of freedom of expression", is a popular platform for Manosphere supporters. Discussions generally take place there in user-created areas of interest, so-called “subreddits”. The names of the subreddits for all possible subject areas start with "r /". According to the former General Manager of Reddit, Erik Martin, moderators or curators are given as much control as possible over the respective community, with the aim of being able to create and cultivate the kind of communities they want ". Reddit has become a popular meeting place for manosphere advocates to openly express misogynistic content.

In the late 2010s, however, it got too much for even Reddit and the company began to take steps against more extreme Manosphere subreddits. As a result, some subreddits were banned, such as B. “/ r / incels” (2017) and its successor “/ r / braincels” (2018); other subreddits like "/ r / MGTOW" and "/ r / TheRedPill" have been "quarantined" which means that users will see a warning about the subreddit's content and must log in before they can access the page. As a result, some of these communities are on sites that are more likely to welcome extreme content, such as: B. Gab (network) , moved.

PUAHate

PUAHate , an allusion to "pure hate", was a website for men who felt they had been tricked by the "Pickup Artists" (PUA). They paid pickup artists, who refer to themselves as dating coaches or seduction artists, to teach them how to get attractive women to have sex with them.

PUAHate accused them of " using scams, deception and misleading marketing techniques" to "deceive men and benefit from them". On the website, those who felt betrayed complained that the techniques used by the seduction gurus were not working.

A PUAHate user said on the website: “The moderation policy was very laissez-faire . There was racism and definitely a lot of misogyny. ”Journalist Patrick Kearns wrote that the website had threads on titles such as“ Are Ugly Women Completely Useless to Society? ”. The users would also have asked each other questions like "How many rapes have you had?"

Elliot Rodger, the perpetrator of the Isla Vista rampage , was an active member of the PUAHate and wrote: “One day the Incel will realize their true strength and numbers and overthrow this oppressive feminist system. Start imagining a world in which women fear you. "

In a manifesto published shortly before the attack, Rodger noted that PUAHate "confirmed many of the theories I had about how wicked and degenerate women really are." Some of PUAHate's users argued that women who turned Roger sexually denied being responsible for the shooting.

In 2014, shortly after the murders on Isla Vista, PUAHate was shut down. Later "SlutHate" was founded and many of the PUAHate users moved there.

Return of Kings

Return of Kings (RoK) is a blog run by American men's rights activist and former pick-up artist Daryush Valizadeh, known online as "Roosh V". Valizadeh campaigns for the traditional nuclear family as well as against socialism and same-sex marriages, and at the same time writes advice for male sex tourists . Matthew Lyons of Political Research Associates writes: "Valizadeh does not dwell on its own blatant inconsistency, but suggests that [...] the dismantling of patriarchal rules has forced men to use 'game' as a defense strategy." Website following is difficult to gauge, but it is estimated to have a dispersed readership in North America and Western Europe.

Return of Kings differs from men's rights forums like PUAHate in that seduction techniques, known as “games”, are advertised there, which are criticized by users of these sites. RoK authors also criticize the profeminism men's movement and “The Good Men Project”, arguing that these lead to feminized, passive, weak men who are content with staying at the lowest levels of the social hierarchy.

Return of Kings has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a male superiority hate group.

public perception

In the English-speaking world, the Manosphere receives a great deal of attention, including in media coverage. Mainly because of the danger it poses. Well-known attacks on civilians associated with the Menosphere include the 2014 Isla Vista murders, the Umpqua Community College rampage, and the 2018 Toronto van attack. The scene is also known for phenomena like the ongoing online abuse of female members of the video game community known as " GamerGate ".

Following the Isla Vista shooting, many mainstream news sources reported links between the killer and his posts on the manospheren forum PUAHate. Dewey writes that while the Manosphere was not responsible for the attack, "the misogynist rhetoric seems to be undeniably influenced by the Manosphere".

Many Manosphere commentators firmly denied any attempt to blame the Manosphere for the murders, with one commentator writing that the killer was "a perfect case of someone in need of the red pill ... because he could come to this place to let off steam and be angry without his pain being dismissed, mocked or ignored. "

Sociologist Michael Kimmel argued that "it would be superficial to discuss ... the Menosphere urged the killer to do so. I think these places are some kind of consolation ... they provide a kind of dressing room, a place where guys can grumble about all the bad things women do to them ”.

In the days immediately following the rampage, other places in the Menosphere, such as B. "A Voice For Men", to a huge increase in data traffic .

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said the forums were filled with "pure, unvarnished misogyny," comparing the Manosphere to White Supremacy websites . The SPLC later added a caveat, saying, “It should be mentioned that the SPLC did not identify the MRAs [Men's Rights Activists] as members of a hate movement; nor did our article claim that the complaints they make on their websites - false rape allegations, ruinous divorce agreements, and the like - are all unfounded. But we have given specific examples of misogyny and the open or implicit threat of violence "

The British anti-extremism group "Hope Not Hate" has included the Manosphere in its report on the "State of Hate" 2019.

Eva Wiseman wrote for The Guardian that commentators on Manosphere blogs often make statements that "women are only intended for sex and sandwich-making," suggesting that the tone of the sites creates a culture contributing to violence against women. Dewey said the Manosphere excludes gays, lesbians and transgender people.

The BBC -Fernsehpersönlichkeit Reggie Yates filmed in 2016 an episode of his show about extreme Communities, Reggie Yates: Extreme. about Brits participating in the Manosphere.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

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  9. ↑ Caitlin Dewey: Incels, 4chan and the Beta Uprising: making sense of one of the Internet's most-reviled subcultures . October 7, 2015. Accessed February 9, 2020.
  10. ↑ a b Misogyny: The Sites . Spring 2012. Accessed February 9, 2020.
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  14. ↑ Amia Srinivasan: Does anyone have the right to sex? ( en ) March 22, 2018. Accessed February 9, 2020.
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  17. ^ A b Shawn P. Van Valkenburgh: Digesting the Red Pill: Masculinity and Neoliberalism in the Manosphere . In: Men and Masculinities . December 4, 2018, p. 1097184X1881611. doi : 10.1177 / 1097184X18816118 .
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  20. ^ Michael A. Messner: The Limits of "The Male Sex Role": An Analysis of the Men's Liberation and Men's Rights Movements' Discourse . In: Gender and Society . 12, No. 3, 1998, pp. 255-276.
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  22. ^ Shawn P. Van Valkenburgh: "She Thinks of Him as a Machine": On the Entanglements of Neoliberal Ideology and Misogynist Cybercrime . In: Social Media + Society . 5, No. 3, 2019, ISSN  2056-3051 , p. 205630511987295. doi : 10.1177 / 2056305119872953 .
  23. ↑ a b c Christa Hodapp: Men's Rights, Gender, and Social Media . Lexington Books, Lanham, MD 2017, ISBN 978-1-4985-2617-3 .
  24. ^ A b Donna Zuckerberg: Not all Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2018, ISBN 978-0-674-97555-2 , pp. 15-17.
  25. ^ A b Karen Lumsden: Online Othering: Exploring Digital Violence and Discrimination on the Web . Ed .: Karen Lumsden and E. Harmer. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland 2019, ISBN 978-3-03012632-2 , '"I Want to Kill You in Front of Your Children" is Not a Threat. It's an Expression of a Desire ': Discourses of Online Abuse, Trolling, and Violence on r / MensRights, S. 99 (English, google.com [accessed on May 12, 2020]).
  26. ↑ a b c Helen Lewis: To Learn About the Far Right, Start With the 'Manosphere' ( en-US ) August 7, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
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  28. ^ A b Mary Lilly: 'The World is Not a Safe Place for Men': The Representational Politics of the Manosphere . In: University of Ottawa (Ed.): Theses, 2011 . . doi : 10.20381 / RUOR-5184 .
  29. ↑ Chris Doucette: Accused van killer praised as 'saint' by involuntarily celibate men . April 26, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  30. ^ A b c Roger Friedland: Politics of Meaning / Meaning of Politics: Cultural Sociology of the 2016 US Presidential Election . Ed .: Jason L. Mast and Jeffrey C. Alexander. Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke, UK 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-95944-3 , Donald's Dick: A Man Against the Institutions, pp. 126–7 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
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  32. ↑ Went
  33. ↑ Alex Hern: Who are the 'incels' and how do they relate to Toronto van attack? . In: The Guardian . April 25, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  34. ^ Arin Greenwood: Southern Poverty Law Center Lists 'Roosh V' On Misogyny Report . In: The Huffington Post . March 12, 2012. Accessed February 9, 2020.
  35. ↑ Russia blocks Reddit discussion platform. In: sueddeutsche.de. August 13, 2015, accessed April 28, 2020 .
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  38. ^ Rebecca Cohen: Welcome to the manosphere: A brief guide to the controversial men's rights movement . January 2015. Accessed February 9, 2020.
  39. ^ A b Amanda Hess: The Pick-Up Artist Community's Predictable, Horrible Response to a Mass Murder . May 24, 2014. Accessed February 9, 2020.
  40. ↑ a b Nicky Woolf: 'PUAhate' and 'ForeverAlone': inside Elliot Rodger's online life . In: The Guardian , May 30, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2020. 
  41. ↑ a b Mike Wendling: The extreme misogyny of 'pick-up artist' hate . In: BBC News , May 31, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2020. 
  42. ^ A b Ian Steadman: The Sexist Pseudoscience of Pick-Up Artists: The Dangers of "Alpha Male" Thinking . In: The New Republic , June 7, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2020. 
  43. ↑ Karla Mantilla: Gender Rolling: How Misogyny Went Viral . ABC-CLIO , Santa Barbara, California 2015, ISBN 978-1-4408-3318-2 , p. 61.
  44. ^ Lyons: Ctrl-Alt-Delete: The origins and ideology of the Alternative Right . Political Research Associates . January 20, 2017. Accessed February 9, 2020.
  45. ↑ Schmitz, Emily Kazyak: Masculinities in Cyberspace: An Analysis of Portrayals of Manhood in Men's Rights Activist sites . (PDF) In: Social Sciences . 5, No. 2, May 12, 2016.
  46. ^ The Year in Hate: Trump buoyed white supremacists in 2017, sparking backlash among black nationalist groups . In: Southern Poverty Law Center , February 21, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2020. 
  47. ↑ Libby Nelson: 'Aggrieved entitlement' in the Isla Vista shooting ( en ) May 29, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  48. ↑ Amanda Paulson: Santa Barbara killings: Did misogynist hate groups play a role? . In: Christian Science Monitor . May 28, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  49. ↑ Arthur Goldwag: Intelligence Report Article provokes Fury Among Men's Rights Activists . In: Southern Poverty Law Center . May 15, 2012. Accessed February 9, 2020.
  50. ↑ Helen Lewis: To Learn About the Far Right, Start With the 'Manosphere'. The sexist world has become a recruiting ground for potential mass shooters. The Atlantic , August 7, 2019, accessed April 29, 2020 .
  51. ↑ BBC: Reggie Yates' Extreme: Men at War. Episode 2 of 3rd BBC , accessed April 29, 2020 .