Thread by @docrussjackson

Anyone filling their son's head with this infantile antiquated misleading sexist drivel needs a fucking shrink.

Women are unsafe partly because of dickheads like him spouting misogynistic bullshit.

So anyone critical of infantile antifeminist grifting red-pill weirdos who think The Handmaid's Tail is a utopia, rather than a dystopia, is "islamophobic" because it insults "ghayrah" (a complex Islamic concept, but which results in preventing free mingling between men & women).

This account & others like it on a range of platforms promote 'toxic masculinity', commonly referred to as the “manosphere” - think Andrew Tate & his infantile rants about 'male dominance' & 'female submission', which are regressive, dangerous, concerning, & everywhere.

Within the manosphere lie incels (involuntary celibates), men’s rights activists, pick-up artists & other antifeminists. Men flock there because they are unhappy in some way, & want a sense of belonging - it also overlaps with the return & rise of far-right ideology & activism.

A healthy masculinity includes concepts like kindness, respect for others, & an understanding of feminist principles in a patriarchal society. Misogyny teaches men that aggression, violence, & the domination of others is somehow embedded in their DNA. This is a lie. It is not.

Throughout history & across cultures there have been myriad ways to do masculinity - masculinity comes down to the way men are socialised, & the conditions into which they are born. Male violence against women remains a terrible problem in Britain, America, & other societies.

These dangerous grifters almost invariably monetise their antiquated & dangerous sexism, pushing the ideology that in a male-dominated patriarchal society, women & girls (inevitably) 'have less value', & that on some level they are 'the property of men', who are 'their masters'.

This 2017 article is a good introduction to the #manosphere, exploring how what it calls "a particularly toxic brand of #antifeminism has become evident across a range of online networks & platforms."

Since 2017, it has grown exponentially.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Despite multiple internal conflicts & contradictions, these diverse assemblages generally adhere to Red Pill “philosophy,” which purports to 'liberate' men from a life of 'feminist delusion' & has become the dominant arena for the communication of men’s rights in Western culture.

While there are some continuities with older variants of antifeminism, many of these new toxic forms appear to complicate the orthodox alignment of power & dominance within conventional masculinity by deploying tropes of victimhood, “beta masculinity,” & involuntary celibacy.

In Britain, one of the manosphere's best known morons is ex-Loaded Editor & Laurence Fox's Reclaim Party Deputy Leader Martin Daubney, who stood in the 2021 North Shropshire by-election, gaining 375 votes (0.98%), & losing his deposit.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1528762272746708992?s=20&t=WH6GpF5wjdxbFJ5x72XxXA

Dangerous misogynistic bullshit.

In a YouTube video, incel mass shooter Jake Davison described “a lot of women” as “very simple minded” & as being conditioned by social media to want to be treated like “princesses” by rich, good-looking men - typically dehumanising manosphere language:

theconversation.com/incel-culture-…

Incels believe failing to attract women makes them 'victims' of oppression. Like all groups in the #manosphere, they believe men are the true victims of gendered oppression, male power has been usurped, & feminism is a front to disguise men’s subjugation.

theconversation.com/inside-the-war…

The #manosphere is united by a shared red pill conspiracy theory. They see feminism ('the myth of female oppression') as having corrupted socio-political institutions & established a society structured to the advantage of women & the detriment of men.

theconversation.com/the-matrix-how…

Donna Zuckerberg 2019 book 'Not All Dead White Men' is a compelling yet chilling insight into how the machinery of contemporary misogyny functions within an online community self-titled as ‘The Red Pill’.

hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?is…

The virulent strain of online antifeminism treats women’s empowerment as a mortal threat to men & to the integrity of Western civilization. Its proponents cite ancient Greek & Latin texts to support their dangerous & often absurd claims.

Donna Zuckerberg dives deep into the virtual communities of the far right, where men lament their loss of power & privilege and strategize about how to reclaim them. She finds the words of, for example, the Stoics deployed to support an ideal vision of masculine life.

Pickup artists quote Ovid’s Ars Amatoria to justify ignoring women’s boundaries. By appropriating the Classics, these men lend a veneer of intellectual authority & ancient wisdom to their project of patriarchal white supremacy.

Manosphere discourse explicitly integrates neoliberal & scientific discourses, superficially resolving a contradiction between hegemonic masculinity’s prescriptive emotional walls & a desire for connection by constructing women as exchangeable commodities. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Analysis of 28.8m posts reveals milder & older red pill communities are giving way to more extreme ones like Incels & Men Going Their Own Way, with a substantial migration of active users toward more toxic & misogynistic communities than the older ones.
ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWS…