The Internet’s Red Pill: Normalising Misogyny Online

This briefing provides an overview of Red Pill Ideology and examines the impact of far-right politics on growing misogyny in mainstream media. This piece was written by Mariña Losada Matellanes and edited by Tanvi Sureka.

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Introduction

During the days of second-wave feminism, around the 1970s, another movement was born, the men’s liberation movement, created with the intention of addressing men’s issues under the patriarchy and critiquing conventional–and often harmful–understandings of masculinity. Soon afterwards, there was a split within this movement between feminists and anti-feminists. The feminist subgroup acknowledged that the patriarchy affected women adversely, while the anti-feminist subgroup refused to admit this and continued to perpetuate a patriarchal viewpoint.

Since the introduction of the Internet, and especially over the last twenty years, this anti-feminist current of thought has evolved into what has been named the Manosphere, a digital environment which revolves around the belief in the existence of a gynocentric world order: where women are in control of society and men are the oppressed class. These arguments are based on perceived issues like custody disproportionally going to mothers and the belief that false rape allegations ruin young men’s lives. However, the term ‘Manosphere’ does not represent a unified group, or even consistent beliefs, since there are many smaller groups within it.

Men Going Their Own Way, or MGTOW, holds the belief that men should separate themselves entirely from women, and refuse any interaction with them in order to avoid being manipulated. There are levels to the practice, beginning with a rejection of feminism and culminating in the boycotting of marriage. Pick Up Artists (PUAs) use forums to share strategies to achieve their ultimate goal: sexual intercourse with a woman, often through trickery or deceit. The Involuntary Celibates, or Incels, are another branch of the Manosphere who hold the belief that women withhold the sex they are entitled to. Therefore, women should not be treated as humans, but foids, or female humanoids, and should not be allowed autonomy or agency.

Red Pill Ideology

What all of these branches have in common is the belief in Red Pill ideology, a reference to a scene from 1999’s The Matrix. In the film, the main character is offered a choice between a blue pill—which will allow him to return to his ordinary life inside a simulation orchestrated by the computers that have taken over the world—or a red pill, which will cause him to break out of the simulation and find out the truth. Red Pill ideology consists of the belief that, despite any evidence to the contrary, it is women who truly have all the power in society, and that misandry, men bashing and other oppressive practices are commonplace. ‘Taking the red pill’ means opening one’s eyes to this perceived truth, and it’s the first step in the ritual that comes with joining many of the subgroups within the Manosphere.

While this ideology is not new, it has recently spread widely. Young men are becoming more conservative than previous generations, often through entering these spaces and ‘taking the red pill’, thus falling into what has been named ‘the alt-right pipeline’. Therefore, through entering the Manosphere, young men end up are susceptible to radicalisation. This has caused the political gap between genders across the world to become far more significant than it has ever been.

Rise of far-right politics & its impact

Still, the Manosphere used to be a corner of the Internet, kept within Reddit forums or 4chan boards, until relatively recently. The rise of right-wing populist leaders, such as Donald Trump in the United States, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Tayipp Erdogan in Turkey, and Javier Milei in Argentina has influenced the expansion of the Manosphere and Red Pill ideology into mainstream media. The brand of populism they represent relies heavily on presenting a hyper-masculine, strongman image of the leader so that he can become the saviour in the us vs them narrative inherent to populist rhetoric. They often speak in a blunt, crude manner, presenting themselves as “one of the guys”, part of a camaraderie between them and their followers. This becomes a boys’ club that gives them a sense of power and entitlement that was lost when women entered the workforce and stopped depending on men’s incomes.

This way of speaking extends to what has often been referred to as “locker room talk”, a vulgar manner of talking about women, especially their bodies and sexualities. Rodrigo Duterte performed a crass form of masculinity, graphically and unapologetically misogynistic, including defending comments he made about rape that occurred during the 1989 Davao hostage crisis by simply stating that “men speak like that”. Donald Trump has made innumerable comments about his female opponents’ looks and his level of attraction towards them, and of course, the infamous tape that surfaced in 2016 speaking about women in a derogatory manner. This tape and specific comments within it, which many thought might be his undoing during his first campaign, only increased his popularity. Additionally, Trump refused to apologise for it and dismissed it as “locker room talk”. In Hungary, sources close to Orbán have stated that women’s higher education endangers the economy and could be the reason why the birth rate is declining. Javier Milei disbanded the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity soon after being elected, and is seeking to remove the crime of femicide from the Criminal Code. Tayipp Erdogan has stated that women are not equal to men and that whilst he supports women working, it should never come before having children, since women who don’t have children are incomplete and deficient.

By engaging in these behaviours and narratives, these leaders not only normalise but also legitimise this mentality and this way of speaking about women and women’s bodies, encouraging Red Pill believers and Manosphere inhabitants to move into mainstream spaces. This is exemplified with incidents such as Harold Butker’s infamous speech at Benedictine College, in which he disregarded the recent graduates’ accomplishment in favour of a hyper-Christian tirade about the true purpose of women as wives and mothers. Or Nick Fuentes’ viral ‘your body, my choice’ tirade after Donald Trump’s second victory, mocking the feminist, pro-choice slogan ´my body, my choice’.

Conclusion

Alt-right and extreme right wing parties are gaining popularity, especially in Europe, which has always condescendingly held itself as the morally advanced, progressive, feminist guideline for the rest of the world. The populist, hypermasculine narratives favoured by its leaders only add fuel to the fire of a group of men which was already incensed, legitimising and–purposefully or not–encouraging misogynistic attitudes and ideologies amongst their followers. In presenting themselves as truth-tellers, blunt speakers, and the only ones who don’t cater to political correctness, they discredit any counterargument before it’s even presented. Within their conservative narrative, there are natural roles for men and women, and anyone who acts outside their bounds or speaks out against them automatically becomes the enemy.

As long as these behaviours are normalised and rewarded by politicians who are not held to account—and keep succeeding in their campaigns—there’s no reason for any of the men who subscribe to such ideologies to critically examine their beliefs. The alt-right pipeline is incredibly easy to slip into, especially when it comes to young men and teenagers, who then spend their formative years solidifying these beliefs as the absolute truth. Young men who struggle with their self-image and self-worth, mostly due to patriarchal expectations of masculinity and strength, are easy prey for these Red Pill narratives. The blame is shifted from the systemic failures of the patriarchy to women, who then serve as the scapegoat and most convenient target of male rage.