Online Misogyny
Online misogyny refers to the spread of misogynistic values through platforms such as social media, blogs, or podcasts. This is especially prominent in spaces such as the manosphere - online communities of men often dominated by a feeling of superiority over women and hostility towards the progression of women’s rights. Young men can especially be easily influenced by these spaces, further enhancing the effects of this hostility. This can lead to the incel pipeline; starting at wondering “why do girls not like me?”, and potentially ending with becoming violent towards women and girls due to a resentment of women. Online misogyny can be as obvious as someone saying “I hate women” in a TikTok, but it can also present itself subtly through self help and dating advice videos. It’s important to note that this form of misogyny is also marketed to women and girls, often under the guise of mental or physical health, particularly in regards to birth control; this can result in deeply rooted internalised misogyny.
Signs of Online Misogyny
Those affected by this might start advancing these ideals to the real world, perhaps through making sexist jokes with their friends or attaching labels used exclusively in these extremist circles to people, such as “low value female” and “70/30”. They often become isolated from the outside world and often develop an “us vs them” mindset. When considering women and girls, they might start showing signs of internalised misogyny, such as a strong preference for traditional gender roles, victim-blaming or believing that feminism was a mistake.
Who can experience Online Misogyny
Anybody that uses the internet can experience online misogyny in some form, either by receiving misogynistic comments & DMs or by developing misogynistic beliefs. Those most at risk of either include young people, people that spend a lot of time online and those struggling with their mental health
Handling Overt Misogyny Personally
The simplest way to take action against this harmful mindset is to detox yourself from all social media platforms for some time. For example, you could take on a new hobby. Algorithms feed on your attention to certain types of video, which is why you might have subconsciously developed this way of thinking in the first place. If you feel unable to quit social media, you could train the algorithm to behave in a less harmful way. Engaging (liking, commenting) with this type of harmful content can keep it in your feeds, so refrain from doing so. You could also look for positive male influencers to follow that don’t believe in manosphere values.
Handling Overt Misogyny in others
You can create a safe space; listen to them and ask them questions about why they think the way they do without being judgemental. You need to understand them and other underlying issues first, and then you can start challenging the behaviour. If you’re a parent, you could also look into applying restrictions to your child’s device to keep them from seeing this kind of content.
Examples of Online Misogyny
AI Deepfakes
This is a relatively new way to make people feel undignified. It involves taking an image of a person and creating a sexual photo of them with AI. This can have drastic consequences for the person affected, as not only do perpetrators use these as blackmail, but they can also be creating illegal images of children. Deep fakes can make someone feel paranoid about sharing pictures online altogether, as they’ve essentially removed another layer of privacy from people’s lives.
Harassment and Abuse
Often going as far as cyberstalking, some men will obsess unhealthily over the idea of dating female influencers. This might seem like regular harassment, but at the heart of it lies the thought process that women are weak and can’t fend off any advances. For example, someone with such an obsession could send a woman doing a live stream expensive gifts with deeply personal messages, making her uncomfortable.
Manosphere Influencers
Often disguising themselves as self-help gurus, providing dating, gym, or health advice, these content creators specifically target young people, some of whom may have just started using social media. Their aim is to indoctrinate primarily young boys to have a misogynistic view of women. For example, they could say things like “all women are like that” or, for young girls, telling them what men do and don’t like. What makes this even more enticing for young people is the lavish lifestyle these influencers are portraying, leading them to believe that success lies in being oppressive towards women.
Casual Misogyny Through Memes and Jokes
A common trope used online is to call assertive and demanding women “Karens”. While this might seem initially harmless, it’s important to note that when men behave like this they’re not ostracised in the same way; there is no true male equivalent of “Karen”. Netizens are more inclined to make memes, even satire ones, based on misogynistic tropes.
Algorithmic
Bubbles
Social media algorithms are constructed by psychologists to keep you engaged for as long as possible. As you spend more time on these apps, the algorithms learn your likes/dislikes and recommend you appropriate content. However, this can damage someone’s perception of the world because, by flooding you only with content that appeals to you, this algorithm is essentially putting you in an echo chamber of what could possibly be extreme ideologies.
Unsolicited
Pictures
This could fall under harassment, but the psychology behind it is different in some ways. Firstly, this serves to assert dominance and reduce a woman’s experience to pre-civilised times. By sending explicit pictures, men see themselves as being in control of the situation. Secondly, some men might see this as almost doing the woman a favour.