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 Location : Ether-Sphere
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 |  Subject: Manosphere Via Anarcho-Capitalists' Forum  Tue Jul 29, 2014 2:31 am | |
| The manosphere (portmanteau of man and blogosphere) is a name given to an informal network of blogs, websites, and internet commentators that focus on issues relating to men and masculinity, in opposition to feminism. The content of these online forums varies from self-improvement,[citation needed] bodybuilding,[citation needed] men's fashion,[citation needed] and antifeminism to the seduction community's advice for pick-up artists [1] and various men's rights forums.[2] Some of these forums have been described in the media and by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as promoting a misogynistic worldview.[3][4]
Content
The Manosphere has been described as "a vast, diverse network of blogs and forums";[1] According to The Guardian columnist Eva Wiseman, the Manosphere is "a mix of men – pick-up artists, male victims of abuse, father's rights proponents – who come together online."[5] Notable examples of manosphere sites reportedly include the Red Pill Room, A Voice for Men and Roosh V's website Return Of Kings as well as his personal blog and forum.[1][6]
Reddit contains the Red Pill subreddit, which has nearly 53,000 subscribers.[5]
Vocabulary
The manosphere has its own distinct jargon. Manosphere websites commonly use red pill and blue pill imagery as an analogy; accepting the manosphere's ideology is equated with "taking the red pill", and "blue pill" refers to those who disagree with their philosophy. The terms "alpha male" and "beta male" are also commonly used.[1]
Ideology
According to one author, the Manosphere's "core philosophy basically boils down to this: (1) feminism has overrun/corrupted modern culture, in violation of nature/biology/inherent gender differences, and (2) men can best seduce women (slash, save society in general) by embracing a super-dominant, uber-masculine gender role, forcing ladies to fall into step behind them."[1] Another states that "Advocates of the men's rights movement are united by their belief that feminism is the enemy."[5] One writer claims that the manosphere is eclectic: "there is a tendency ... to mistake the manosphere for a collection of readers and writers who are in general intellectual agreement. There is a kernel of truth to that belief, but it misses the truly profound differences in worldviews held by the main schools of thought in the manosphere", but nevertheless "nearly everyone in the manosphere agrees on ... the extensive tearing of the social contract by decades of feminist tinkering."[7]
Commentary and criticism
Rod Dreher of The American Conservative has said that the Manosphere "dehumanizes both men and women".[8] Caitlin Dewey of The Washington Post accuses them of excluding gay, lesbian, and transgender people.[1]
Mark Potok, a spokesman of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), claimed that the forums are filled with "pure unvarnished women hatred" and compares the manosphere to white supremacist websites.[9] The SPLC later expanded on this, saying, "It should be mentioned that the SPLC did not label MRAs as members of a hate movement; nor did our article claim that the grievances they air on their websites – false rape accusations, ruinous divorce settlements and the like – are all without merit. But we did call out specific examples of misogyny and the threat, overt or implicit, of violence."[10]
Michael Brendan Dougherty of Business Insider criticized the SPLC for including Manosphere sites on its list of "hate-groups" and for providing pejorative personal details on the sites' authors.[11]
Eva Wiseman of The Observer has written that commenters on manosphere blogs often make statements to the effect that "women are designed solely for sex and sandwich-making" and has suggested that the tone of these websites creates a culture that contributes to violence against women.[5]
Following the 2014 Isla Vista killings, many mainstream news sources reported links between the killer Elliot Rodger and an anti-PUA forum.[12][13] Many Manosphere commenters strongly rejected any attempts to blame the manosphere for the killings, with one commenter writing that "His [Rodger] is a perfect case of someone who needed the red pill...Because it's somewhere he could come to vent, and be angry, and not have his pain be dismissed, ridiculed or ignored." [5] Professor Michael Kimmel similarly opined "it would be facile to argue the manosphere ... urged [Rodger] to do this. I think those places are kind of a solace ... They provide a kind of locker room, a place where guys can gripe about all the bad things that are being done to them by women".[14]
Nicholas James Pell of Taki's Magazine said that the Manosphere "asks difficult questions and poses uncomfortable truths." Pell criticized a report by ABC News on the Manosphere for not giving the topic "a fair shake" and concluded that "the men’s-rights wing of the manosphere is distinguished by a class and refinement totally missing from the shrieking hysteria of modern feminist blogging".[15]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manosphere
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