In 2014 in the United States, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger published an incel manifesto online expressing deep hatred towards women, then went on to kill six people and commit suicide. Elliot Rodger’s actions not only generated public attention and concern, but also drew attention to misogynistic online discussion spaces that celebrated the violence and eulogised Elliot as a hero (BBC News, 2018; Scotto di Carlo, 2023).
Over the past ten years, online spaces with content that reject feminism and gender equality, and promote male supremacy—sometimes termed the ‘manosphere’ (Marwick and Caplan, 2018; Kimeu, 2023) have become increasingly prevalent. Given direct links to both rising online and offline violence, particular concerns have been focused on:
- The incelosphere—a space within the manosphere that is dominated by men who self-identify as involuntarily celibate (Scotto di Carlo, 2023). The incelosphere is marked by negativity: towards women (who are accused of preventing incels achieving manhood by denying them access to sex), and towards themselves, as they cannot ‘become men’ due to their sexual status (Sharkey, 2022). Also of concern is the wider prevalence of extreme violence and sexism in anonymised discussion-based groups and forums.
- Misogynistic ‘influencers’ like the YouTuber Andrew Tate, who in addition to his strong misogynistic views has also been charged with rape and human trafficking. Social media influencers weave together personal content and marketing, carefully curating images of a desirable lifestyle (Diepeveen, 2022). Influencers like Tate present and promise a specific idea of a successful lifestyle, bound up with particular ideas of masculinity and misogynistic views.
- The potential impacts of online porn in normalising violent and inequitable treatment of women and girls.
However, inequitable gender norms may also be reinforced by more subtly sexist content, for example through memes and videos that draw on patriarchal gender stereotypes, or content that is male-dominated and from which women and girls are largely absent (Mance, 2023). It is important to recognise that misogynistic and sexist online content is not an ‘online only’ phenomenon. Instead it is part of a broader ‘ecosystem’ of spaces where misogynistic content is spread. These include ‘traditional’ (broadcast) media institutions such as newly formed right-wing media channels, which are both viewed directly and via clips circulating on social media. Also, while many studies of the manosphere focus on the United States and should not be taken as universal (Udupa and Pohjonen, 2019), these dynamics have manifestations globally (Kaur, 2022).