manosphere
noun
| MAN-uh-sfeer
Misogynistic male Internet groups; online media seen as promoting toxic masculinity
What does manosphere mean?
The manosphere refers to male-centered websites, Internet communities, and other digital media regarded collectively as espousing anti-feminist views, typically involving misogyny and associated with far-right ideologies. Increasingly, the term refers more generally to a broader media environment, especially popular with young men online, criticized as promoting ultraconservative models of masculinity.
Examples of manosphere
Romantic pessimism pervades the manosphere, which puts forth that dating is doomed and modern women are not to be trusted.
—Sarah Bernstein, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2024
Men who value and respect the women in their lives...we need to create a unified alternative to the toxic manosphere.
—Spend a little time on the internet, and it’s easy to find comments from the manosphere that justify rape and manipulation of women.
—For many young men, their introduction to the manosphere begins not with hatred of women, but with a desire to dispel uncertainty about how the world around them works (and crucially, how relationships work).
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Where does manosphere come from?
Manosphere combines man, the connecting element -o-, and -sphere, referring to a particular area of interest and the people associated with it. It is apparently modeled after the similar formation, blogosphere (blogs and bloggers collectively). While the term is found online by 2009, the broader ideology of the manosphere has decades-older roots in movements advocating for men’s rights, specifically as a backlash to feminism.
In the 2010s, the manosphere was associated with four main subcultures active online: men’s rights activists, who seek to redress forms of perceived male discrimination; Men Going Their Own Way, a group calling for male separatism; pick-up artists, who purvey sexist tips for seducing women; and incels, men who blame their involuntary celibacy on being rejected by women.
Common to these subcultures, and thus to the greater manosphere, is a belief that women (and their social gains through feminism) cause the problems faced by men—and by extension, society more generally. (Men who come into this belief are often described as red-pilled, or recognizing a ‘reality’ previously concealed from them.) The subcultures have expressed this belief in various forms and degrees of misogyny, and have been affiliated with acts of extreme misogynistic violence.
By the 2020s, the activity of the manosphere spread to mainstream social media, gaming platforms, and other digital media, including videos and podcasts by notorious influencers such as Andrew Tate. Much of the content associated with this spread has involved providing advice (and a sense of belonging) for men to help them attract women, boost their confidence, and attain greater success and status—but which content observers have connected to insidious misogyny and other extreme behaviors over time.
How is manosphere used?
Manosphere is used in a formal manner in critical discussions of misogyny, especially in the context of concerns about its rise among young men online. Prominent social organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League, have specifically defined and used the term in reference to extremism and hate groups. More informally, especially on social media, the term is used for activity, media, or prominent figures seen as promoting toxic masculinity, especially when associated with right-wing ideologies.
Manosphere is often preceded by the definite article, the, as in ‘the rhetoric of the manosphere.’ The term is sometimes used attributively, as in ‘manosphere influencers’ or ‘manosphere podcasts.’
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