Is The Manosphere About To Go Mainstream?

February 23, 2013

Back in November of 2012 I remember reading a number of comments questioning the future of the Manosphere movement. The news that some very prominent and influential bloggers had decided to call it quits left many of those posting concerned about whether the movement was even going to survive their departure. While I am not about to suggest that these wayward bloggers have not been missed, the interesting thing to me is how often I now read comments asking the question of whether “the Manosphere”, and its ideology is about to go mainstream.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and firmly state that…it depends. It depends on how much effort those who are the most invested in the movement want to expend. It also depends on the definition of “going mainstream”. Not long ago an article was posted which claimed that the membership of the Manosphere included many liberals. According to the author the movement was doing itself a disservice by not recognizing these members as fellow travelers and enlisting them as fellow soldiers to help fight for the common cause. Although I agree that there is no point in unnecessarily alienating anyone professing support I have to wonder which values are the ones which he claims that we share.

The thing is that he is apparently a well known blogger, certainly when compared to me, and from the articles I reviewed it does seem that he supports many of the fundamental precepts of the Manosphere. Unfortunately, at least in the article in question, he seems to have given his inner liberal predilections full reign. To be fair, he was attempting to practice what he preached, but in so doing he ended up highlighting the incompatibility of the two worlds of which he is a part. While his insights pertaining to those topics related to the Manosphere certainly seem well within normal boundaries, his attempts to analyze more general topics using his liberal glasses seem to completely ignore the rules to which he holds himself when discussing the former. Is there really any way to avoid the fact that by embracing the world view professed by those on the Manosphere that one has to reject all of the premises of modern day liberalism?

It seems to me that what he is suggesting is the same thing that liberals always suggest; in order to be more inclusive you must exchange the truth for the false. If liberals feel unwelcome or under appreciated perhaps it has something to do with their ideology. If the only area in which liberals agree with those in the Manosphere has to do with picking up women than they are completely missing the point. I am not pointing fingers at the author of the article in question, but if the liberals to whom he is referencing are getting in touch with their inner misogynistic feelings and believe they have come to the right place, might I suggest a counselor or therapist as a better alternative? I don’t see a whole lot of hatred of women on the blogs I frequent. I see a passionate response against the inherent unfairness of the feminist narrative which is in the forefront of the war against men and the society. In short, the progressive agenda. I further see a bitterness against those who claim that women are men and yet when push comes to shove expect the man to act like one. In other words, I personally, and as a relatively insignificant member of the community, welcome all those who agree with the principles and thus if liberals agree with the principles there should be no conflict. There is no need to feign a welcome or act like a victim, but the more fundamental problem is that the claim to shared values is simply not true.

I would thus suggest that those who ask if the manosphere is about to go mainstream have apparently not yet grasped how truly seismic such a change would be. The ideology of the Manosphere is inherently and irrevocably a conservative one. The Manosphere is subject to the same virulent and emotionally driven reactions as any other conservative movement. Feminism, the ideology, and Feminists, the shock troops, are integral parts of that which we call the progressive movement. The ideology of the Manosphere is mainstream, the problem is that so many people just don’t know it. It is due to the transient freedom we enjoy for now on the internet that like minded people even know the other exists. It will almost certainly soon become irrelevant as it is always the crying child who gets the milk and all the attention, aided and abetted by our politicians and media. Nixon’s “Silent Majority” continues to remain silent and for many of the same reasons they were silent back in the 1970’s. It is not the fault of the progressives that victory is in sight, it is the fault of every one of us who remained silent as we watched the loud, aggressive, and motivated radicals of the 1960’s impose their restrictive and ruinous ways on the rest of us. They began on the outside looking in, now they are on the inside, looking out.