The Manosphere and Politics

Abstract

The revived men’s movement, colloquially the “manosphere,” has recently increased in prominence and influence, and has been connected to numerous instances of violence, including mass shootings targeting women. Despite this, political science has paid scant attention to the manosphere, and the tactics these groups use against women, feminism, and gender equality, including violence. This theory-building paper begins to fill this gap by focusing on two goals. First, using an original dataset of manosphere blogs, forums, and websites, we provide a descriptive analysis of the manosphere. Second, we develop an original typology of the manosphere along two dimensions — communitarianism and their interactions with women — which helps us theorize about which manosphere subgroups are more prone to use violence. We also compare cases from each subgroup to show initial proof of concept for our theory. Ultimately, we show how excluding the manosphere from political conversation inhibits a comprehensive understanding of contentious politics.