NOTE: This page is in desperate need of revision and expansion. In the meantime, I suggest you use Rationalwiki’s Manosphere Glossary.
For newcomers to this blog, here’s a handy guide to some of the strange acronyms and lingo you’ll encounter here and in the “manosphere” in general. (For a definition of that term, see below.) I will update this entry periodically as needed.
First, the acronyms you’ll see most often here:
MRA: Men’s Rights Activist
MRM: Men’s Rights Movement
MGTOW: Men Going Their Own Way MGHOW: Man Going His Own Way.
Ok, so what do those terms mean?
MRM: The Men’s Rights Movement: A loosely defined, but largely retrograde, collection of activists and internet talkers who fight for what they see as “men’s rights.” Unlike the original Men’s Movement, which was inspired by and heavily influenced by feminism, the self-described Men’s Rights Movement is largely a reactionary movement; with few exceptions, Men’s Rights Activists (or MRAs) are pretty rabidly antifeminist, and many are frankly and sometimes proudly misogynistic. Those who oppose the MRM are generally not against men’s rights per se; they are opposed to those who’ve turned those two words into a synonym for some pretty backwards notions.
MGTOW: Men Going Their Own Way: As the name suggests, MGTOW is a lot like lesbian separatism, but for straight dudes. MGTOW often talk vaguely about seeking “independence” from western and/or consumer culture, and a few MGTOW try to live that sort of zen existence. But most of those who embrace the term have a deep hostility towards and/or profound distrust of feminists and women in general. Many MGTOW refuse to date “western women” and some try to avoid women altogether. I think the Man Going His Own Way acronym MGHOW adds another layer of confusion to an already awkward acronym, so I use MGTOWer instead.
Some other terms and acronyms you’ll run across here:
Anglosphere: Countries in which English is the primary language, or, more narrowly, those countries that used to be British colonies. They are full of evil Western Women (see below).
Incel: Involuntarily Celibate. A term, and identity, adopted by some dateless guys (as well as some women, but it’s the men we’ll focus on here). While there is nothing shameful about being dateless, or a virgin, or having a really long dry spell sexually — most of us have been there at some point — the term “involuntarily celibate” seems to suggest that the world owes incels sex, and that women who turn down incel men for dates or sex are somehow oppressing them. For those (male, straight) incels who are genuinely socially awkward or phobic, this can be a self-defeating stance that can lead to bitterness towards women. And often does.
Mangina: Derogatory term used by MRAs, MGTOW, etc. to describe guys who disagree with them — e.g., me. You can figure out the various connotations of this term yourself.
The Manosphere: The loose collection of blogs, message boards, and other sites run by and/or read by MRAs, MGTOW, and assorted friendly Pick-up Artists. The primary source of material for this blog.
NAWALT: Not All Women Are Like That. Dudes in the manosphere make so many ridiculous and untrue generalizations about women that they’ve come up with their own little acronym to describe the most common reaction to their nonsense: “not all women are like that.” Remarkably, many seem to think that making a reference to NAWALT is actually some sort of clever rebuttal of their critics.
PUA: Pick-up Artist. PUAs are obsessed with mastering what they see as the ultimate set of techniques and attitudes — known as “Game” — that will enable them to quickly seduce almost any woman they want. There is a vast literature on “game” online, though PUA (insofar as it is not complete bullshit) is at its essence simply a male version of the age-old ploy of “playing hard to get.”
Western Women: Also known as WW. Evil harpies, at least according to many in the manosphere. Contrasted with “foreign women,” a term that (in the manosphere, at least) sometimes refers to all women outside the Anglosphere, but often refers to a subset of these women from poor and/or Eastern countries, mostly Asian, who are regarded as more pliable and thus more desirable to haters of “Ameriskanks” and other WW.
Hopefully Chicken Little here will get bored and go complain about how the sky is falling somewhere else soon.
Chicken Little did have a point though I mean he did get hit by a piece of a ufo which seemed like a piece of the sky to him
It was a folktale before it was a shitty movie, dude.
A folktale with the exact opposite point.
“A lot but not all feminism seems kinda hateful a lot of times, nit that I’m against feminism.”
What on earth have you been reading to get the idea that a lot of feminism is hateful?
In my opinion many men who go looking for Thai/Asian brides do so because it makes them feel powerful, manly and entitled but I wouldn’t mess with these women because they can see right through most of them! Many a man has learnt a horrible lesson and scuttled back to his own country. In the UK lots of women are preferring to stay single as their previous boyfriends have been absolute nightmares. You should go to the Daily Mail online website where the comments are given a green arrow for approval and a red arrow for disapproval and I can guarantee you that where relationships are concerned, it is the men who write the most ridiculous, misogynistic crap you could ever imagine. They are very bitter and keep harking back to the 50s & 60s and secretly wishing women were doormats again and knew their place ie in the kitchen (can you believe they actually STILL say that!!) and the man of the house has the last word which speaks volumes, pun intended! They can no longer lord it over us or control us like the good, old days and it pisses them off big time imo. Lastly I think the MGTOW forum has many men on it who are terribly lonely which is sad but hey they chose the lifestyle. I thought there’d be hundreds of them on there but was very surprised at how small this men’s movement is. It hardly warrants a mention really and I doubt society will collapse because of them. In their dreams basically! Deary me. The egos on them!
*wracks brain* um, well, uh…the dark ages? Of course…that was centuries while the plague was making a habit of killing a third of the population (and just Europe).
Oh, I know! The last 400-500 years in America! Societies totally “collapse” when invaded and shoved off their own land.
So yeah, I think much of the places with widespread internet are on the “winning” side of that.
Complete and total collapse? Well, Atlantis? I can think of a few near total collapses caused by floods and volcanos and the like, but human caused? Yeah, invasion and genocide, always.
/answering rhetorical questions
Re: MRM being hateful — I saved the “cut out baby girls’ voice boxes” link — http://www.somethingawful.com/d/weekend-web/spearhead-forum-misandry.php?page=7
I’m really not sure what to believe about the manosphere some of it certainly makes sense, like the whole “pay attention to how women behave, not what women say” thing….I’ve definitely come to realize there’s a huge incongruence between what women say and what they do. also that whole pay gap thing is clearly made up. (in terms of pay for productivity) It doesn’t help that most of the people in the comments here are clearly being dismissive for example one of you said “until the MGTOW are individuals I respect, I’m going to be glad they’re GTOW.” how can you possibly know that you don’t respect someone on the internet? you haven’t met them?….another wrote “He’s already getting sex so she’s doing HIM a favour as he probably ‘aint getting it anywhere else” so for a woman to have sex with a man is a favour to him?? hmmm..why?. also jumping to a conclusion with the whole “aint getting it anywhere else” how could you possibly know that???? another commenter calls MGTOW “overgrown four-year-olds” and comments sarcastically “I’m running away, Mom! I really am! Look at me, I’m running away from home! Look at meeeeeeee!”” it really seems after viewing manosphere material and feminist stuff, the manosphere makes way more sense and the people commenting seem to know what they’re talking about, like you can have actual discussions with them, whereas here on this site for example it seems like the people commenting are just dismissive and sarcastic and condescending towards the manosphere. like if you’re not going to listen to someones ideas (even if those ideas are weird or maybe even offensive to you) how are any of us ever going to learn? there’s young kids out there who don’t know up from down in this crazy world, they’re gunna be influenced by the ideology of the manosphere and some of you guys are not helping by being dismisive, lets all focus on our own ideas and why we think they’re right rather than disregarding everyone else’s idea without even trying to understand them. x
The men on the MGTOW site (a) sound like a bunch of bitter losers whether they realise this or not (b) their language is absolutely filthy/disgusting/vile and it’s totally uncalled for (c) a lot of them come across as almost deranged with their hatred of women (d) it’s difficult to take them seriously with the whole White Knight, Blue Pill/Red Pill blah blah blah references because they just sound like something silly, little teenage boys would make up and I know it shouldn’t but it makes me and my friends laugh. How insensitive I know but I’m being honest and (e) I somehow doubt the world will end or mankind will be doomed if you go your own way which I bet most of them are praying for so they can shriek ‘See I told you!’ But it ‘aint ever gonna happen. Adding all the above together I think I’ll pass on wanting to actually know any of them personally and they don’t want to know me so it’s all good. I’ve also noticed that for something they obviously chose to do, they don’t half sound miserable and lonely going their own way which is quite ironic really and oh before I forget, it takes two to mess up a marriage and for a marriage to fail but it seems many of them are taking zero responsibility for any of it. While they may say they don’t care what women think I bet they do so to all the lurkers who come here, enjoy going your own way but please. I beg of you. Try and have a bit of fun for heaven sake and stop taking everything so seriously. Not ALL women are out to get you so grow up and try and loosen up a lil or the whole going your own way thing will be pointless. You may as well just get with the enemy again if you’re all going to be so miserable on your own anyway!
Flumpy,
lol no worries dearie; We’ve listened to you shitheads long enough. You’ve already shown yourself to be a misogynistic dipshit.
Paragraph breaks, people. They’re a thing.
Ayup. Read the tag line.
What word could replace “women” in this sentence for it to make a little more sense and be a little less sexist?
Hint: women are people.
An “often” or “sometimes” could probably go in there, too, but perhaps I’m just too optimistic.
Way too optimistic. You’d have lost him at “women are people”.
And how did you come to realise this? It came to you in a vision? You looked across at a female colleague and thought “I’m sure I work harder than she does”? You have always secretly felt this way but were too afraid to admit it?
Pro-tip: “clearly” usually means it’s not and that there’re some massive ass-umptions happening somewhere.
In other words: Find a citation or STFU.
What’s with the huge stereotypes and “pigeon holing” of ideologies? I am passionate about men’s rights (it stems from real problems and issues not made up poor me shit) and I don’t hate women, I don’t participate in rape is ok campaigns …. I treat as I would like to be treated and don’t subscribe to any victim mentality.
Would be nice to see less mens movement (masculism) = bad, feminism = good tripe. Otherwise it will be a long journey that’s just shitty for all.
Let us assume that what manboobers say about themselves is true- that they do not like men very much and find them rather unnecessary.
Surely these people should welcome MGTOW? It would seem a win win situation for two groups of people who have become rather tired of one another to BOTH go their own way?
Why not ENCOURAGE men in this direction if they are generally so awful? I read here most of the female posters regard themselves as sexpots who can hardly walk down the street without being propositioned. Surely more Men Going Their Own Way is the answer to this problem if it really exists?
@BlackFedora: MGTOW are not men dropping out of the dating pool. They’re men who constantly whine about how they’re going to drop out of the dating pool, any day now, because women are so awful.
If they’d just shut the fuck up and drop out already, everybody would pop the champagne (or nearest non-alcoholic equivalent, for this straight edger).
And what you say you read here, once again, has absolutely no relation to what we write about here. We like men just fine. It’s misogynistic asshats (like yourself) we have a problem with.
@ BlacBloc
This sounds like projection to me. What is feminism if it is not a movement of women who need a man like a fish needs a bicycle and yet they go on ‘slut walks’ to let the bicycles know what they are missing.
Ever seen a MGTOW slutwalk? No? Me neither.
Feminists should stick the flounce. Now they have MGTOW to help them.
So why don’t they?
Because social inequality is still a major challenge faced by women.
Feminism isn’t women going their own way. Feminists don’t, by definition, swear off men. Feminists don’t, by definition, hate men the way MGTOW hate women. Lots of feminists have men.
When men are systemically held responsible for sex crimes committed against them, the lack of dudes slutwalking will be relevant. Until then, no equivalence.
Who says we/I don’t like men? I’ve loved my husband for nearly 40 years (yikes!). I’m very fond of my male relatives and several close men friends. I have many more not so close men friends. I like my men neighbours.
Unfortunately, there are men who are not so lovable or likeable. And, there are far, far too many men who are personally amiable but who have deeply toxic attitudes about women they don’t know, especially those who might have business dealings with them. And there are the others who are only “nice” to the women they’re close to if they comply with the man’s demands or every passing whim.
All of these not-so-nice people could do with a clue by four.
Let us assume that what The Black Fedora says about himself is true, that he hates pants and walks around without them on most of the time.
Oh, wait, I thought it was make random incorrect assertions about people day.
MGTOW are laughable and the world has no need for them.
The thing is there are lots of men who feel no need to go their own way. Lots of them are wonderful.
The slut walks aren’t about that at all, fedora, they’re about showing that a woman dressed scanty doesn’t deserve rape. It gives a face to the “sluts”.
The whole thing with the Slutwalks was that they came from that idiot policeman in Canada who said that women “shouldn’t dress like sluts” if they don’t want to be raped. They are full of women wearing jeans and a jumper, or clothing even the Amish would call modest, just as much as of women wearing “sexy” clothes. The point is that rape isn’t about what the victim wears. Rape is a conscious choice by the rapist to dehumanise and terrorise another person, and the “don’t dress like a slut” crap is just so much more victim-blaming.