By David Futrelle
Remember when “cuck” was the favorite insult of every internet edgelord? Now another old insult has become a new favorite: the word “simp,” which has crossed over from incels and MGTOWs into the wider vernacular, proving more popular than “cuck” ever was.
Like “cuck,” the term is used to denote any guy who’s seen as being too nice or accommodating to the girls and women in his life. It seems to have originated in black slang before being taken over by incels and MGTOWs and assorted other misogynists.
Now the word “simp” has become so popular with misogynistic men and insecure boys that some have convinced themselves that it has the power to destroy feminism entirely. Take this post, for example, which I found in the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit today.
“Simp” is indeed enjoying a weird burst of popularity right now. But the idea that 12-year-old PewDiePie fans are going to destroy feminism by calling their classmates “simps” for talking to girls seems a tad far-fetched — especially since the idea behind the “Simp” insult is hardly a new one; it’s not like PewDiePie just came up with the idea of guys impugning each others’ masculinity.
And as insults go, “simp” is a pretty ineffectual one; it seems in many cases like little more than an sour grapes attack on boys and men who actually have girlfriends and wives. Just as the word “cuck” came to taint those who threw it around more than their intended targets, using the word “simp” makes one look like an angry, jealous incel rather than a conquering alpha.
The chance someone will call me a simp for writing this? Roughly 100 percent. The chance I will care? Zero percent.
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Simp is a new word? I feel like it’s about as old as cuck.
Yet more proof that far right bigots can’t come up with anything original. Literally all of their memes and slang and other media comes from someone else. All the “red pill” terminology, including the original idea, was stolen from someone else.
Yeah, it’s not like men who defy toxic masculinity were never mocked by other men. I remember as a kid (everyone thought I was a boy back then) I was always mocked for having so many platonic friends that were girls and for not being an asshole to them. I never really gave a fuck. Hopefully, kids today can understand the ones calling them “simps” are just assholes.
I also seem to recall the people this blog talks about using the word “simp” for years before, so it’s not even really new to them. Like “cuck,” it’s a poorly used insult that just tells you that any person using it unironically is alt-right or alt-right adjacent and not worth your time.
Nah, simp is only attested as far back as the early 1900s, while cuck dates at least a century before that.
How frustrating that feminism refuses to die just because these men tell it to. I weep for the cause /sarcasm
I thought he got demonetized?
@Nequam
Idk if he got demonetized, but I do know that a lot of major studios distances themselves from him after he revealed himself as a Nazi. I’m sure he’s still turning a profit though, seeing as he’s got 104M subscribers still.
There’s this weird sort of mob mentality about the man. People claim to be unaware he was a Nazi, then seem to know exactly why he is one, then defend him, and still go around parroting the “subscribe to PewDiePie” meme and hacking printers to print it. Even people on the left fall for it.
“Simp” is an older word. It was semi-common throughout the 20th century. I think “cuck” is older only as it was used in the word “cuckold”, which is indeed a very old word. But I first heard “cuck” by itself after the Righties came up with “cuckservative”, which was admittedly based on “cuckold” and “conservative”.
I remember they were quite pleased with themselves when they coined it.
@Dalillama – the original word “cuckold” goes back to at least 1250.
Sir mix alot uses simp in baby got back. I’m pretty sure of it. It’s not a new word at all.
Incidentally, back in the days these people probably want to live in, cuckolding was serious business, but for entirely different reasons than these lunkheads think. Basically, a bastard was a human wrecking ball that could throw carefully planned lines of inheritance for a loop while ensuring the child was treated as a second-class citizen (or possibly not as a citizen at all). Needless to say, a combination of paternity testing, easier divorce, inheritance laws that actually make sense, and little things like the concept of equal protection under the law make all of those a non-issue.
If only men relentlessly insult other men for every tiny moment in which men fail to live up to the expectations of masculinity we will finally have a world that is friendly to men’s success, health, and happiness.
Either I hang out with the wrong people or the term “simp” is already ironically (parodically) used by young, not terrible, people. Could be both and I should reexamine some friendships, but my money’s on the latter. The term has no teeth. In any usage it has Poe’s law written all over it.
I think the first time I heard the “simp” insult was on Saved By the Bell. Zack used it on Screech. I think he meant it as short for simpleton.
Yeah, “simp” sounds familiar to me too. Webster’s says it entered the language in 1903 (so specific!), and means “simpleton.” I don’t feel destroyed by the word. I’m pretty used to the fact that some men — take my brothers, for instance — would seemingly rather die than thank me for anything. My stance is, Fine. Don’t thank me. I understand you’ve taken a vow to never thank a woman. Got it. I did draw the line when one of them called me stupid for helping him. That said, I’m still not destroyed. These manospherians are taking a long time to understand that feminism will not be destroyed by their idiotic comments — or anything else. Even if feminism were to go underground, it would always remain.
Shorter Kat: manospherians are true exemplars of the term “simpleton”.
@numerobis
Let’s just say that they’re not using their brains. Too lazy. Too hostile.
I first heard Simp being used in relation to Castlevania Season 3 (Because one of the main characters is being lead around and imprisoned by an extra hot, dominant vampire lady). I should have known it was right-wing BS.
Also Feminism keeps getting destroyed, how come it keeps coming back?
“Simp” dates back a long time, but there’s a misogynist acronym version of it that is new.
@Temascos
The hive vagina spawns new princesses and would-be queens every day and there are horrible double and quadruple or even 2^n agents (e.g. trans people like me but also other marginalized folk who have issues with patriarchy for some obscure reasons like some problematic dudes that are in no way connected to patriarchy as a whole and which no reasonable alpha male would consider even worth considering in true manlogics) who spread feminism’s powerful message even on the uncharted areas of the web. Hell, even some men like this David guy from this one blog help the cause!
*turns the sarcasm down a bit*
Also it’s sorta normal to not go around spreading hatred to little kids to make them toughen up, you know? Kind and caring fathers and parents or even community members are much better for a child’s development. You’re welcome and I’m sorry for answering a question that was probably rhetorical in this fashion.
A meme can destroy something, I seriously doubt that.
If that would work I would call Trump Kodos (He wants to sacrify his people for the economic instead of survival for the rest and it is not half) from Star Trek. Even if that would go viral, it wouldn’t destroy him political.
@Who?
Trump wouldn’t make a good Kodos anyhow. He’d be bragging to Ivanka about all the mass murdering he did even while he’d be trying to make everyone think he was Anton Karidian. I don’t even know if his attempts at performing Shakepeare would be entertaining.
I bet it’s hard for all sorts of bozos that they can’t really be compared to fictional villains because fictional villains tend to be good at something.
@Nequam
He makes too much money for YouTube to refuse him.
@Trivia
Yup, the word is in there:
@NautaliaC
Most manosphere insults are weak, because most people don’t care what some random MRA thinks about them. I mean, if someone uses the words “mangina,” “cuck,” or just shouting slurs—those are all just showing a lack of creativity and reminiscing you that the person saying them is not worth your time.
Thank goodness for PewDiePie. Before now, boys never had a way to insult each other. Twelve year olds were forced to compliment each other approvingly. Those were dark days.
“Oh no, dozens of boys might call me a word that means weak and supplicating. Better change my personality into a toxic dumpster fire to appease them.”
I recall someone (a feminist) somewhere online a decade or so back commenting that feminism gets declared dead every few years and always comes back, “which makes it the Freddy Krueger of social justice movements.”