I have realized that many people are unaware of or have misconceptions of what the various men's groups are. I decided to make a rough glossary/primer for those who wish to get a broad overview, I'm sure this won't be useful to most of you guys, but it may be helpful to new people who just stumble into this subreddit.

I have tried to remain as impartial as possible when describing the various groups or terms, but it can be difficult. I have separated the descriptions into two: denotation, where I try to be as literal and non-judgmental as possible, and author's view, where I describe each group in more detail and context with likely some bias involved. I have also tried to talk about the groups broadly when possible, rather than focusing on individuals or specific corners of the group.

Note: I consider this a draft and I may change things, or add more groups, please feel free to correct me or argue why anything is not accurate, I am not completely happy with how I have characterized everything

This initially started with me personally trying to get a better understanding of each of the various groups listed. Maybe it can be transformed into a proper resource.

Glossary

Men’s Rights Activist (MRA) / Men’s Rights Movement (MRM)

Denotation - Alternately Men’s Rights Advocate. The Men’s Rights Movement is a social and political movement advocating for the equal rights of men to women. The basic belief of the MRM is that social and legal inequality exists against men and aims to protect the rights of men and address male issues. A non-exhaustive list of issues cited by the MRM include male suicide, workplace deaths and injuries, circumcision (male genital mutilation), discrimination of male victims of rape and domestic violence, conscription.

Author’s View – The only real qualifier to be an MRA is advocating for men’s rights and self-identification. The MRM is not specifically tied to any point on the political spectrum, i.e. left-wing or right-wing (it defies the standard political divide), nor is it specifically pro- or anti-feminist. People who identify as both feminist and MRA do exist, albeit they are uncommon. Feminist critical or anti-feminist sentiment is common in the MRM however (see Anti-Feminist), although this depends largely how ‘feminism’ is defined. From my experience, those that believe men are ‘more oppressed’ than women, at least in the West, are common in the MRM, although this is usually described in the context of legal rights. The MRM is not a misogynistic or anti-women group, nor opposed to women’s rights, as often incorrectly claimed to be. Misogynistic MRAs do exist but they are a small minority of MRAs.

Men’s Liberation Movement (MLM)

Denotation – The Men’s Liberation Movement was a movement born out of the second wave feminism movement and is focused on liberating men from their gender role and constrained notions of masculinity. The Men’s Liberation Movement experienced a split in the 70s, separating into Men’s Rights Movement and the pro-feminist Men’s Liberation Movement. The Men’s Liberation Movement waned in the following decades, largely being incorporated into the pro-feminist movement, but has experienced renewal in recent years.

Author’s View – Both the historical and current Men’s Liberation Movement are explicitly feminist or pro-feminist in nature, and thus use a feminist lens and feminist theory to look at men’s issues. This is the primarily reason the MLM in dispute with the Men’s Rights Movement. The MLM has a strong focus on looking at intrinsic elements of masculinity rather than extrinsic factors, for better or worse.

Fathers’ Rights Movement

Denotation – The Fathers’ Rights Movement is a movement advocating for the legal rights of fathers, who they believe are discriminated against by the legal system (and society generally). The Fathers’ Rights Movement primarily focuses on reforming family law, particularly child custody (in favour of shared parenting) and child support.

Author’s View – The Fathers’ Rights Movement is arguably the precursor to the modern Men’s Rights Movement, originating in the 60s. While Fathers’ Rights Group operate separately to Men’s Rights groups, there is often a strong overlap between the two.

Intactivist / Intactivism

Denotation – Intactivism is a movement with the primary goal of outlawing male circumcision – more commonly called male genital mutilation (MGM) by Intactivists (and other men’s groups). Inactivist originally referred to opposing all forms of genital mutilation (right to genital integrity), for both girls and boys, though the meaning as primarily narrowed in focus to MGM due to the relative rareness of female genital mutilation in the West.

Author’s View – Intactivism in primarily focused around creating or enforcing rights, arguing that MGM (and FGM) violates a child’s right to bodily integrity, and highlighting the inability for babies or young children to consent to any such procedure. Additionally, intactivists often argue about the negative physical and mental outcomes MGM has. Anti-MGM intactivists have sometimes been criticized for being anti-Semitic or Islamophobic due to the cultural aspect of circumcision in those cultures. However, intactivist largely have no issue with men who wish to undergo circumcision when they are older and able to consent, for cultural reasons or otherwise.

Egalitarian

Denotation – Someone who supports equality for all people. An identification typically used by those who advocate for gender equality but do not wish to identify with either feminism, the MRM or any other gender equality movement for various reasons.

Author’s View – My experience is that those who call themselves Egalitarian generally do so because they find both feminism and the MRM as reductive or tribalistic, or they do not feel participate in activism enough to justify identifying with either group.

Anti-Feminist

Denotation – Someone who actively opposes the feminist movement and/or feminist theory, goals or actions.

Author’s View – The distinction between what distinguishes ‘anti-feminist’ from ‘sceptical/critical of feminism’ is not a clear one and is largely subjective. A possible distinction is that an anti-feminist someone who believes the modern feminist movement is inherently flawed and beyond redemption, while someone who considers themselves ‘sceptical/critical of feminism’ believes the modern feminist movement retains some merit. Ultimately comes down to self-identification.

Anti-feminism is not synonymous with anti-women or misogyny, with the two often being conflated by critics of anti-feminists. The reasons anti-feminists oppose feminism vary. There exist two broad types of anti-feminists – traditionalist/conservative anti-feminists and progressive anti-feminists. Conservative anti-feminists typically oppose feminism because they see feminism as a disruptive or destructive force in society, and/or see feminism as part of a moral decay in society, and that feminism has made men’s and women’s life worse, and they may promote traditional gender roles. In contrast, progressive anti-feminists typically oppose feminism as they see (modern) feminism as intellectually bankrupt, stagnant and regressive, harming constructive discussion on gender issues. Progressive antifeminists who advocate for men as well may argue that feminism is insufficient or actively working against addressing men’s issues and men’s liberation, or perpetuating male gender roles. Conservative and progressive anti-feminists usually have different criticisms of feminism and differing goals.

MGTOW

Denotation – Short for ‘Men Going Their Own Way’. MGTOW is a social movement of men who believe that the social and legal systems that currently exist in society are overwhelmingly anti-male, primarily in the context of relationships and marriage. As such, MGTOWs have decided to ‘opt-out’ of relationships, marriage and dating, as they believe in engaging in them will result in a negative outcome for men. MGTOW thus try to create a male identity that is removed from sexual or romantic relationships. Relationships with women are kept purely professional.

Author’s View – The core idea of MGTOW is not misogynistic or hateful in anyway, they are men who see no benefit for men entering relationships at thus have gone ‘on strike’ so to speak. However, I do believe misogyny is relatively common within MGTOW. This is because I believe there is a tendency to assign blame for what they see as a broken system in society to women as a whole and many members of MGTOW have had bad personal experiences with women (e.g. divorce) which led them to becoming MGTOW.

Incel

Denotation – Short for ‘involuntary celibate’. A subculture of men who seek a sexual or romantic partner but are unable to do so. They typically blame their ‘inceldom’ on women being selfish, shallow or having excessively high standards. The female phenomenon of incels are typically called ‘femcels’.

Author’s View – Interestingly, the original incel online community started in 90s was started as a healthy space for all people to discuss their experiences and frustrations with being unable to find a partner. However, this far removed from the current incel community, which is almost completely predicated on misogyny and sexism. Incels feels they have been mistreated by society, women most of all, and that their inability to find a sexual or romantic partner is cruel and hurtful towards them. Incels typically believe stereotypical misogynistic beliefs such as women being only good for sex, are whores, that they are gold-diggers and are purely self-interested. Incels see themselves as physically unattractive, and women are to shallow to consider them. The community breeds hatred for women, and often successful men, which in its worst form has advocated for violence, sexual or otherwise. I do think incels need more empathy than derision. I think they are too often portrayed as inherently evil rather than the result of social factors causing the disconnect and radicalization of young men. Ultimately their hateful nature is derived for self-loathing, depression and a desire for an emotional connection with a partner. Unable to find love or empathy, they have lashed out at society and women. We should treat incels as those who have depression and self-destructive tendencies.

Pick-Up Artist (PUA)

Denotation – A community of men whose aim is seducing and having (casual) sex with women and developing and refining techniques to aid in that goal.

Author’s View – In the tamest or most palatable form, PUAs are men aiming to build charisma, confidence and appearance (‘game’) in order to become highly attractive to women. At their worst (which I believe the trend is towards), PUAs build an unhealthy worldview and beliefs around sexual and gender dynamics, including objectifying women, using degrading sexual strategies (e.g. ‘negging’) or a purely superficial or material view of relationships. They are not concerned with men’s issues or rights, and some PUA groups outright despise MRAs.

The Red Pill (metaphor)

Author’s View - The red pill metaphor (and its derivatives of [colour] pill) is derived from the film The Matrix, where in the film taking ‘the blue pill’ will return you to the dreamlike, fantasy, false reality you currently were taught and exist in, while taking ‘the red pill’ will awaken you to the harsh, uncomfortable truth that society doesn’t want to acknowledge. The metaphor has been used by various groups over the years to describe a radical new perspective on an issue, including those not related to men’s issues. The metaphor was initially used by MRAs to describe their perspective on gender issues in contrast to feminism. It was later used by TheRedPill subreddit to describe their view, which is currently what the metaphor is most strongly associated with.

TheRedPill (subreddit)

Author’s View – I’m skipping denotation here because it’s very hard to describe exactly what TheRedPill subreddit is, especially in any objective way, so I will be talking in broad strokes here. TheRedPill started as a PUA group, and in many ways still is at its core, TheRedPill has expanded to encompass a gender and societal philosophy larger than any other PUA group. PUAs tend to limit their sexual and relationship philosophy to how to sleep with women (i.e. how to appeal to women’s ‘base’ instincts), while TheRedPill has broadened their philosophy to essentially encompass all gender relations. Again, it’s hard to fully describe TheRedPill’s philosophy in a short summary, but in essence they believe all gender relations serve as performative functions in order to maximize sexual success. They believe concepts like romantic love or ‘be yourself’ are falsehoods, and that women’s sexual preferences are purely driven by economics and power (‘sexual market’). Thus, it is men’s goal to become as powerful (both physically and social status) and become wealthy to attract and ‘keep’ women, and advocates for self-improvement of men in this context, albeit in a very traditional ‘macho’ way, as they believe this is the only way to success for men. TheRedPill see feminism as simply a sexual strategy of women to gain the upper hand over potential mates and in relationships and put themselves in a better bargaining position (their view is more complex than this). TheRedPill is largely indifferent to the MRM, and generally consider MRAs fools for trying to change a system that cannot be changed.

I would describe TheRedPill’s philosophy as hyper-utilitarian and gender essentialist, seeing gender relations as purely transactional. I think there is a nugget of truth in TheRedPill, in particular the criticism of how we portray relationships as romantic or fantastical ideals, rather than the pragmatic function they typically serve in the real world. Additionally, I'm sure many men have improved their lives in tangible ways because of TheRedPill. However, TheRedPill's philosophy ends up being extremely reductive, to the point of being sexist (towards both men and women), as they portray both sexes as essentially slaves to their sexual desires and purely self-interested and manipulative, and women in particular as irrational.

The difference between the MRM, MGTOW and TheRedPill is often loosely (and somewhat reductively) summed up as:

  • MRM: The system is flawed, let’s fix it

  • MGTOW: The system is flawed, let’s abstain from it

  • TheRedPill: The system is flawed, let’s exploit it

The Red Pill (film)

Denotation – The Red Pill is 2016 documentary by Cassie Jaye documenting the history, goals and beliefs of the Men’s Rights Movement.

Author’s View – Pretty much a must see for anyone interested in gender issues, or interested in learning about male issues and what the men’s rights movement is.

The Red Pill is not about, nor associated with TheRedPill subreddit. In fact, in an old Reddit Ask Me Anything by Cassie Jaye, MRA and Redpillers argued about the use of the term.

Manosphere

Denotation – A catch-all term used to describe movements or communities, typically online, that are about men, masculinity or male issues.

Author’s View – I strongly dislike the world ‘manosphere’ because I believe it conflates, deliberate or otherwise, the various men’s groups with one another, even when those groups have antithetical ideas or goals. An analogy would be like calling radical feminism and a Christian women’s group as part of a ‘femosphere’ because they are both concerned with women. As such, I do not find ‘manosphere’ to be a particularly useful term.