Modern misogyny and rape culture on social platforms — Welcome to the world of ‘Manosphere’ amidst a global pandemic.
In a world driven by social media, one can easily assume that over the past months, communities have increasingly turned to the online realm for connections amidst a time of upheaval and social distancing. However, there have been an alarming concern on the repercussions of a global pandemic on domestic violence. Whilst the crisis has taken its toll on a large number of individuals on a global scale, there have been reports that young men are increasingly pressuring women into breaking social distancing restrictions and meeting up for sex. With such concerns in mind, this article will discuss how men’s groups on social networks are responding to the pandemic and reinforcing rape culture.
Rape culture is somewhat being normalized by a loose-knit network of groups and activists who believe that men have become enslaved by a feminist-driven culture. These groups usually use typical misogynistic tactics to seduce women into performing sexual acts, which in some twisted way allows men to recuperate superiority in society. In such communities, men are overwhelmingly in denial of the pandemic crisis, assuming that women have irrationally contributed with governments to reinforce restriction policies that financially cripple male-owned businesses or rather being accused of spreading the virus themselves.
Social platforms like Reddit, created an opportunity for these communities to broadcast anti-feminist ideas and elevate misogyny to radical levels of violence and virulence, Zuckerberg (2018). Among the pickup artist community there has also been a great focus on the preparation of the ‘Grand Pussy Reopening’, where men are highly anticipating that once restriction policies have been lifted, women will be more sexually available and open to a myriad of sexual rituals. The pressing issue on such matters is that the ‘post-quarantine era’ might be subjected to higher rates of sexual assaults amongst young women. Moreover, this community is attempting on improving their seduction skills in preparation for social liberty, which might potentially upsurge predatory behaviours, Farrell et al. (2019)
Further, in these spaces’ men are disregarding social restrictions and sharing tips on finding women who will breach social distancing rules for sex. Amidst a global pandemic where people have been mandated to stay inside, it’s natural to feel isolated and lack any form of intimacy, however, this allows men to forcefully impose sexual opportunities upon women, Iovine (2020). In the face of a crisis, although these communities are providing a sense of connection between men, these concerning issues which lead to misogynistic attitudes are enforcing online trends of rape and sexual harassment.
One can also assume that on some level the manosphere culture seems to trust that they are influencing policy. In electing a self-declared ‘’pussy-grabbing’’ former president certainly validates the attitudes of such communities, “The irony is, of course, that the people you would hope to most reach, that you think you might convince and present this case to, would be the last to read this book and the problem is we end up making noise in our own echo chambers.”, Zuckerberg (2018)
In such perilous times, it is well beyond the scope of this article to perhaps impose additional effective feminine strategies that metamorphically neuter toxic masculinity. Further attention must be drawn upon perniciousness of cyber misogyny and the harmful repercussions on offline behaviours. Objectification of women, making rape jokes and flirting to extents that makes women feel uncomfortable, all constitute with rape culture, as such statements compel us to normalize inequality meted out against women.
Normalizing rape culture is as serious and damaging as rape itself.
Author: Ruby Sacco
This blog is a project for a study unit: MCS 3953, University of Malta.
References:
Basu,T. (2020), The ‘’manosphere’’ is getting more toxic as angry men join the incels. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/07/349052/the-manosphere-is-getting-more-toxic-as-angry-men-join-the-incels/
Ellis, E. (2019), Reddit’s ‘Manoshpere’ and the challenge of quantifying hate: Researchers analyzed Reddit’s most misogynist communities. It’s exactly as bad as you thought. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/misogyny-reddit-research/
Farrell, T., Fernandez, M., Novotny, J. & Alani, H. (2019). Exploring Misogyny across the Manosphere in Reddit. In: WebSci ’19 Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science, pp. 87–96. http://oro.open.ac.uk/61128/
Iqbal, N. (2018), Donna Zuckerberg: ‘social media has elevated misogyny to new level of violence. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/11/donna-zuckerberg-social-media-misoyny-violence-classical-antiquity-not-all-dead-white-men
Marwick, E. & Caplan, R. (2018), Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment. Taylor & Francis Online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2018.1450568?scroll=top&needAccess=true
N.d. (), Men Are Harassing Women on Dating Apps To Meet Up And Break Social Distancing Rules. Mashabale India. https://in.mashable.com/culture/13525/men-are-harassing-women-on-dating-apps-to-meet-up-and-break-social-distancing-rules?fbclid=IwAR33YfRpFpz5MbD3TIG14VXPHRAeUzJ0A245b2umsjKH-Kzya8lRftIliAI
