With every step we make towards gender equality we take two steps back. Globally an estimated 840 million women – almost one in three – have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their life. The most recent threat to women’s safety and equality has taken a new form: the manosphere. This term has burst into the zeitgeist following Louis Theroux’s new Netflix documentary, Inside the Manosphere. Polluting almost every social media outlet with misogyny, we can no longer deny that this ever growing movement is now a very real threat for women and girls.
In order to understand this threat, we must first correctly define it. Many of the terms involved in the world of online communities of misogyny have been co-opted, misused and misrepresented. The manosphere is widely considered a pathway into inceldom. However, in practice this is not always the case. Inceldom is more widely condemned due to the nature of its more overt language, the manosphere instead masquerades behind hyper masculine values to promote the same messaging. Equally as damaging, but tame enough to slip through social media regulations under the guise of ‘self help’ and ‘get rich quick’ content.
I spent a lot of time on ‘recovering’ incel subreddits. I also spoke with a self identified recovering incel on the platform. Chat forums like Reddit and 4Chan provide a haven for incels to spread their hatred freely, anonymously and without consequence. A recovering incel told me: “People like us don’t accept help from others because we don’t see ourselves as the problem.”
“Incels possess a nihilistic world view, believing there is no way to change their circumstances as appearance is genetically determined.”
Incels rank themselves at the bottom of their grading systems, as ‘subhumans’ unable to compete in the dating sphere due to their self perceived non-existent sexual market value. Within their online communities they share experiences of social isolation, rejection and often adverse childhood experiences.
I also spoke with Meadhbh Park, a researcher of extremist cultures, youth radicalisation and incels, and author of Blackpilled: Masculinity, Media and Incels. Park noted it is imperative that we correctly distinguish the two groups due to the different threats they pose as the men in both groups must be categorised according to risk. She emphasises that they are “two distinct personalities coming in and then two distinct risk factors coming out”.
Fundamental differences between the two lies in their world view. In a concept taken from The Matrix (1999) where the protagonist, Neo, when offered with a choice of the red pill or blue pill, takes the red pill to exit a false reality and see the truth. Both incels and people in the manosphere believe they have awakened to the ‘truth’ that society is rigged against men, since women will only ever date them if they are attractive and wealthy. Adopting a red pill ideology, the manosphere focuses on how to play the ‘game’, promoting the idea that through changes to your appearance and attitudes you can deceive women into being with you. However, the black pill, most subscribed to by incel ideology, hinges on the belief that society is ‘lookist’ and women choose their sexual partners based solely on physical attraction. Incels possess a nihilistic world view, believing there is no way to change their circumstances as appearance is genetically determined. Park highlighted that to conflate incels and the manosphere “…would mean that you’re losing resources on prevention and intervention with the ones that we know are more of a mass risk.”
Men who engage with manosphere content are likely to engage and boast about rape and sexual assault. This poses risks of individual sexual assault, such as cases of intimate partner violence. Whereas for incels, Park distinguished the risk factor is not sexual assault because they are not getting close enough to women nor do they want to, as they have crossed over to a ‘women are disgusting’ view. Instead, their risks include homicide, mass homicide, harassment and stalking. These are public facing crimes which require prevention aimed at safeguarding those susceptible to or experiencing radicalisation. In practice, failure to recognise these differences may result in the wrong treatment. Park added: “If you think that somebody is at risk of sexual assault and they are actually an incel, then you’re going to treat them for general based consent classes when they are nowhere near that.”
Most of the black pill ideology is spread in online forums such as 4Chan and Reddit, often behind closed groups which require applications to get in. Park noted anyone engaging with this kind of black pill content would be considered an incel, as they have had to go out of their way to engage with this. Manosphere content, however, is instead actively pushed out by algorithms targeting young men. It is much easier to find and interact with, and engaging with it does not automatically categorise you as a misogynist or incel. Under the guise of self help and wealth accumulation tips, manfluencers (influencers promoting sexist ideologies) promote the idea of a ‘lookist’ society while simultaneously providing ‘solutions’ only they know. These solutions often include ‘looksmaxing’, which is the practice of maximising your physical attractiveness through lifestyle changes, grooming and in extreme cases surgery. Ultimately, it is a severe form of body dysmorphia.
“While an incel may say outright ‘women wearing short skirts should be raped’, a manfluencer may condemn short skirts to the same effect, calling them repulsive or implying women are ‘asking for it’.”
Research suggests that boys and young men are actively being targeted by high profile manosphere influencers such as Andrew Tate and Adin Ross, under the false pretense of ‘self improvement’ content. Manfluencers are therefore able to form parasocial relationships with their viewers, making their misogyny all the more enticing. Social media companies do not disclose how their algorithms work, creating difficulties for researchers to gather evidence on this issue. Existing research focuses on YouTube and long form video content, however, with the recent surge towards TikTok and YouTube shorts, this has created a concerning research gap. It is hard to prove their existence and even harder to regulate these algorithms. Despite this, a recent study from Dublin City University found that on TikTok, 16-year-old and 18-year-old new accounts were recommended manosphere content after less than nine minutes and fifteen minutes, respectively.
A closer look at the content circulating the manosphere exposes the same misogynistic messaging as the incel community, but in a more palatable form. While equally as grotesque in principle, the delivery borders on somewhat socially acceptable. Park notes that the language used by each group differs – where incels are overt with their messaging, the manosphere are more covert. This distinction, arguably, makes manosphere content more harmful to a wider group of people as it is not as obvious to viewers exactly what they are engaging in. For example, while an incel may say outright ‘women wearing short skirts should be raped’, a manfluencer may condemn short skirts to the same effect, calling them repulsive or implying women are ‘asking for it’. In this case, they are not using the word rape directly but are still promoting rape culture. It is the same message being censored to allow for its transmission in the mainstream.
As these misogynistic views spread through the manosphere, often going unchallenged, they are having catastrophic effects on the way men view women.
Just 12% of Baby Boomer men agree with this statement. The difference in generations signifies a clear reversal in the progress of attitudes towards women in society – a change also reflected in attitudes around sexual norms, with 21% of Gen Z men believing a ‘real woman’ should never initiate sex, compared with only 7% of Baby Boomer men. These alarming statistics show just how widespread the manosphere’s reach is and its ability to overturn decades of gender equality activism. Ultimately, both of these movements aim to strip women from their freedom and choice and encourage men to view them as second class citizens at best and ‘holes’ at worst.
