The Manosphere (in a single graphic)

Updated 2018.05.18 Image

Now that a month has passed I feel I have a better sense of all the different sub-cultures and groups that exist in the manosphere manogrid. Talking with a friend who writes for a living I mentioned MGTOW and he immediately said, "You mean those incel guys like that unstable fanatic who attacked the people in Toronto?"

I took a deep breath and said, "No, incels are people who are involuntarily celibate. Some are more radicalized than others. MGTOW means exactly what it stands for -- men going their own way."

Chatting for about an hour he gave me the perspective from a university course he took on gender studies (yes yes I know it's mockable but he is a bit of a lady's man and was mainly using it to pick up chicks when we were both still in college). All in all we had a rather illuminating conversation and he was able to give me the scholarly perspective of the different waves of feminism and how they changed with time.

Once he filled me in on the broad sketches of his background he shared what he knew about the manosphere, or meninists as he called the entire movement, and how he saw it mainly as a focus on men's rights and the political implications of male rights. His tone was surprisingly sympathetic since his father lost custody of his half-sisters when he was just a child. By his description his father's first wife had no job, or even the prospects of a job, and failed to meet the court's imposed test to prove she was a capable parent, yet somehow she elicited the judge's sympathy and managed to get custody.

Somewhere at this point I told him I consider myself MGTOW and have no desire to get involved in any of the politics. Discussing the different factions by the end of the conversation we agreed there were basically four camps and they were organized along 2 different axes: activists and the degree of desire for female companionship.

Viewing it in this light it seems like we can look at Men's Rights Activists (MRAs), Involuntary Celibates (Incels), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), and The Red Pill / Pick Up Artists (TRP/PUA) as existing in four distinct quadrants in relationship to these axises.

• The MRAs are sick of feminism and the hysterical tone of media outlets advocating for women's issues when men are suffering as much, if not more, than women in many areas.

• Incels want female companionship, but feel completely abandoned by society. This sense of betrayal has resulted in radicalized acts by the likes of Elliot Rodgers and Alek Minassian.

• MGTOW guys like us just want to be left the hell alone and are happy to have a laugh here or there pointing out the shittiness of modern gender dynamics.

• TRP/PUAs are just looking to get as much action as they can before the whole game blows up in everyone's faces.

After our conversation I quickly put this graphic together because I figure it might help explain the broad landscape of what's happening in the manogrid so we don't all get typecast as incels and further pigeonholed as a group of radicals that needs to be silenced.

We are the exact opposite of that. We are just guys who want to be left the fuck alone.