Mapping the Neo-Manosphere(s): New Directions for Research

Abstract

In a digital ecology that is increasingly conducive to social harms, misogynist ideology operates across a spectrum of primarily online actors known colloquially as ‘the Manosphere’. The manosphere and its associated red pill philosophy has now been around, in its current transnational and highly networked form, for over a decade. Yet the manosphere, particularly in the context of Covid-19, influencer culture and the affordances of new social media sites, has evolved rapidly in this time, and scholarship has yet to adequately capture these developments. This paper begins with a stocktake of contemporary literature on the manosphere and its core themes, before evaluating the evolving status of this online ecosystem of anti-women actors. It advances our theoretical comprehension of the neo-manosphere and its likely future directions by identifying and evaluating the four key developments which distinguish it from the earlier manosphere; namely migrations to new platforms, mainstreaming and monetization, ideological and ethnic diversification, and overlap with other extreme ideologies, most of which are driven by recommender algorithms.