A while ago there was online controversy in leftist spaces regarding their use of "ironic misogyny" and whether it's an issue or not, and it made me realize that this isn't an issue I see in mra spaces. Whenever there are "woman bad" jokes in mra spaces, it's usually met with clarification from other people that they shouldn't be generalizing to all women and to focus on feminists, since it's an ideology someone subscribes to, not a characteristic someone is born into. It's obvious why they would feel that way, since it happens to men all the time, so they know the feeling of alienation and want to avoid being as bad as they are. I personally hate making these jokes and they honestly make me feel scummy inside, especially when I'm talking to a woman who is genuinely empathetic to men's issues. Why would I feel the need to do that? There's no point.

It made me wonder why it is that ironic misogyny is specifically a problem in leftist spaces, and I think it's because people largely notice the misandry from feminism which they are not allowed to criticize and even if they did, they simply don't have the proper understanding to do it effectively since they are met with the typical roadblocks of "toxic masculinity" that obstruct any real change in addressing the status quo, so I think they just came up with ironic misogyny as a workaround. On one hand you have people joking about their frustrations with "woman bad" jokes, and on the other you have feminists expressing their very real misandrist language in a completely serious and socially accepted way, so in their minds they are thinking, "Since I'm not allowed to criticize feminism without being ostracized, I'll just do something that is socially acceptable among the left by making 'woman bad' jokes".

Which turns to women in this scenario by seeing how much the left does this, so they end up thinking to themselves "they hate us because we are women" without understanding that they don't actually hate women, they hate the language that is itself hateful and is so casual on the left to the point of being unthinking. Women are encouraged to buy into using that feminist language, and then are met with hesitancy because in reality even on the left, people don't really accept it, they just grit their teeth at it and cede to feminism being "good overall", but "too many radicals have taken over". You cannot expect men to accept "toxic masculinity" when most men find the term offensive, and 99% of the time it just is used offensively, it's not just "a few bad apples", it's woven in to the point where even well meaning people end up playing into it even if they don't know it.