Where have all the good men gone? An exploration of misogyny and anti-feminist discourse in the ‘Mansophere’

Abstract

The Manosphere is a newly theorized online anti-feminist space that has been implicated in the execution of several violent attacks (Van Valkenburgh, 2018). This qualitative thematic analysis adds to conceptualizations of the space through the exploration of prevalent narratives of women and society. The research examined how the unique characteristics of online spaces facilitate anti-feminist sentiment. Eight primary themes were produced through the condensation and inductive coding of 80 Reddit threads from 8 communities, representing the ideologies of the Manosphere. Publicly embedded community documents such as rules, guidelines and recommended reading were included in the analysis. The thematic analysis generated eight primary themes describing overarching environmental conditions, narratives of society and narratives of women. The asserted themes comprised governance, intellectual texts as ideological fortification, specialized language, gynocentrism, gendered hierarchies, depictions of women as pathological, depictions of women as the object of violence and depictions of women as sexual objects. In the context of asserted themes, the Manosphere is discussed as a space for radicalization, the renegotiation of masculinity and the discursive repositioning of both women and society. Considering the tangible impact of anti-feminism and the realization of subsequent violent attacks, the research calls for policy intervention, specifically the securitization of the Manosphere.