Manosphere

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The manosphere (Also referred to as Incels) is a collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting (to varying degrees) masculinity, misogyny and anti-feminism.

History

Origins

The ideology of the movement existed already during 1970s-1980s through the use of various social movement such like Men's liberation movement, but the actual term originated in 2009 on Blogspot, an American online content management system.

Popularization

File:Manosphere.png

Cover of the book "The Manosphere!:How The Red Pill, Game And The Internet Are Revalorizing Masculinity For The 21st Century!".

Then, it was popularized by pornography marketer Ian Ironwood, who collected a variety of blogs and forums in a book called: "The Manosphere!:How The Red Pill, Game And The Internet Are Revalorizing Masculinity For The 21st Century!". After the pubblication of the book, the actual entrance in the popular lexicon wasvwhen news media began to use it in stories about men who had committed acts of misogynist violence, sexual assault, and online harassment. As Emma A. Jane identified, the late 2000s and the first 2010s were defined as the "tipping point" when manosphere communities moved from the fringes of the Internet towards the mainstream, especially with the Web 2.0 and the rise of social media.

Ideology

Theoretical bases

Manosphere groups centers on the promotion of masculinity, strong opposition to feminism, and misogyny. The people that are a part of the Manosphere believes that the central belief of feminism dominate society and promote a "misandrist" ideology that must be ousted. In fact, they believe that feminism "corrupted" society by violating the inherent differences between the two sex and that the only way to "save" society is only if men adopt a hyper-masculine role and force women to be submitted.

Views on misandry

Manosphere groups invoke a lot misandry as an equivalent to misogyny and as a way to deny the existence of institutionalized sexism.

Traditionalist views

Manosphere groups adore the roots of Western culture, especially the Greeks and Romans, and they see as a good example those who want to restore the "glories" of the ancient era, especially if they are far-right dictators. In fact, they see modernity as an era of "weakness" as they see democracy, gay rights and women's rights as symbols of submission and regression. Meanwhile, they see the return to the past as the only way to "improve", because for them the eras of "strength" are the Middle Ages, because of its rigid Christian Catholic/Orthodox culture, or the Ancient/Roman Era.

Other related ideologies

Manosphere groups have associations with white supremacists groups and with other alt-right movements, especially with neo-reactionary movements and white nationalists groups. Their justification for believing in neo-reactionarism and white supremacy is their belief that Western civilization is threatened.

Terminology

Groups of the manosphere uses various terms to make various metaphors and some of them are taken from the movie "The Matrix". Here's some examples:

• Alpha/Sigma males: the strong, masculine, authoritarian, sexually dominant and attractive men. They associate this type of male to roman emperors and generals (example: Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius) or far-right dictators (example: Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini). Or they see religious symbols, especially the Christian ones, as a sign of strength.

• Ascend (also known as “Deincelification” or “Deincelization”): A verb used to describe an incel having sex or forming a romantic connection. This term has an existential connotation, as it refers to incels rising above their former community and overcoming the traits that held them back from sex and/or love. (One important caveat to “ascension” is that the sex cannot be with an escort; this is referred to as “escortcel”).

• Beta males: the "weak", feminime, agreeable and unattractive men. They associate this type of male to overweights, transsexuals and gays.

• Chad: A term referring to the archetypal “anti-incel:” a white, straight male with "Aryan" features and other “desirable” physical traits. Chads are simultaneously despised and revered by incels, who believe that all women inherently desire these men.

• ER (also known as “going ER”): A reference to Elliot Rodger, an incel who committed mass murder in Santa Barbara, California in 2014. Prior to the shooting, Rodger wrote an angry manifesto blaming women for rejecting him. “Going ER” refers to the act of committing mass murder, as inspired by Rodger.

• Femcel: A woman who identifies with inceldom. However, most male incels reject the idea that women can be incels, and these women are generally rejected by the larger incel community.

• Foid: An abbreviation of “femoid” which combines the words “female” and “humanoid” or “female” and “android.” This term is derogatory and is used to reduce women to a sub-human group. Incels attribute their virgin status to these women, and therefore refer to them pejoratively.

• Hypergamy: A term based on the biological principle that women are sexually selective for self-preservation. In the incel realm it describes the belief that women seek out men who are of higher status; either physically or financially; than they are and reject all other men who they view as consequently undesirable. Further, incels believe in the “80/20 Rule” which claims that the top 80% of women only go for the top 20% of men, leaving the bottom 20% of women for the bottom 80% of men.

• Mogged: Generally used as a suffix (ex. heightmogged), this term refers to someone with more of a desirable quality; height, attractiveness, success with women; than the speaker, who is typically an incel.

• Looksmaxxing: Any attempts made by incels to improve upon their physical appearance. These strategies can range from haircuts and new clothes to taking steroids and going to the gym, and all the way up to cosmetic surgery. The suffix –maxxing is also applied to other activities, such as gymmaxxing or drugsmaxxing.

• The Matrix: the "corrupting" feminist/leftist society that "oppresses" men.

• Normie: A person who is neurotypical with average attractiveness or intelligence. “Normies” are viewed by incels as superior. In the incel hierarchy, “Normies” fall between “Chads” and “incels.”

• Pills: In incel terminology, pills are used to express different levels of awareness

• • Blackpill: A nihilistic worldview adopted by the incel community. A “Blackpilled” male believes that no matter what he does to improve himself, he will never find a romantic and/or sexual partner and is doomed to a life of unhappiness and rejection.

• • Blue-pilled: the ones that don't want to get the "awakening" and still want to live in the feminist society.

• • Red-pilled: the ones that receive the "awakening" that feminism has corrupted society through politically correctness and that it is biased against men.

• Ragefuel: Information that contributes to an incel’s increasingly angry state of mind. This information often surrounds elements of fundamental incel ideology, such as women and physically attractive men.

• Ropefuel (also known as “Suicidefuel”): Topics that feed depressive or suicidal ideations among members of the incel spectrum. The use of the word “rope” refers to the suicidal method of hanging oneself. The opposite of “ropefuel" is “lifefuel.”

• Stacy: Stacys are the (similarly archetypal) counterparts to Chads. They are described as beautiful, promiscuous women who can entice any man they choose, but are only interested in Chads. This term is used to stereotype and dehumanize women.

• Truecel: A moniker used for “true incels,” or men who have never had any sexual or romantic contact with a woman. These men believe they will always be an incel regardless of any changes they implement to improve themselves. This term functions as the opposite of “fakecels” (fake incels) and “volcels” (voluntary celibates), who are looked down upon in the incel community.

• Volcel (also known as “Fakecel”): A term describing a person who is voluntarily celibate, and therefore does not fulfill the criteria of inceldom. Incels believe that these people could have sex if they wanted to, whereas “truecels” have no hope for finding sexual partners. “Volcels” are viewed as frauds and are not accepted by the incel community.

Consequences

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One example out of many of manosphere propaganda: an "edgy" video edit on Youtube made to idolize Fascism.

The manosphere has been associated with various cases regarding online harassment, radicaliziation of men into misogynist beliefs, glorification of violence against women and misogyny-based mass shooting. This radicalization has come about through an excessive exposure to social media content with messages of far-right rhetoric through the use of the Alt-right pipeline. These subliminal messages can be found in seemingly harmless edits on platforms like Youtube.

Trivia

• Beta and Alpha males were terms used in ethology (study of animal behavior) at one point, before they were ruled out as outdated by scientists.