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.
@Katz
LOL. Too bad this solid burn will most likely go to waste because CR aggressively eschews reading comprehension.
“I’ll be expecting a swift and crushing rebuttal to all this sometime very early in 2014.”
And that isn’t sarcasm!
Seriously though, your buddy got screwed when he came home means as feminists(?) women(?) are cunts towards soldiers? Like, seriously? I can’t even.
No wait, yes I can.
You got fucking told by a fucking retired soldier who was in the current wars that most soldiers don’t realize what women here face. And then you went and told us a sob story about how one guy got screwed, and decided that his ex’s horribly inhumane behavior means all feminists are cunts towards soldiers. Or maybe all western women, I really can’t tell. Either way, you think feminists (or women, use he two interchangeably from here out since you seem to be doing so already) are the ones who sent you to war? You fucking think the pro-choice feminists voted the goddamned shrubbery into office…twice?
You manage to blame feminists for the war(s), like we’re remotely the people who voted for Bush; to say that women claiming oppression is like the Nazis claiming oppression (please tell me when Nazis were told from basically the moment the doctor went “it’s a Nazi!” that i they did X and got raped it was their fault for doing X); to claim that we have no respect for soldiers because of some anecdote which proves absolutely fuck all.
And you managed to do all this while proving that you’re a soldier unworthy of the respect I grant any human yet to prove to be an asshole. Congrats sir, mission accomplished (and yes, that is a reference to Bush’s grand moment of fucked up idiocy)
But perhaps most importantly, you made the grave mistake of violating the one rule of keeping me from, well, making comments like this one — you do not go after my friends. The corollary being that you do not question my loyalty to them. Which is exactly what you did by claiming that feminists have no respect for soldiers.
I just have no respect for you.
Now, if you have nothing else fucking stupid to say at the moment, I need to go format some resources for the Borg. Including one relating to cosmetic surgery for service members disfigured in our current set of fucked up wars. ( http://operationmend.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=151 for the curious)
The irony…I’d say it burns, but I’ve just got through the patients stories on that link and dear gods are serious burns horrible.
PS — not all feminists are straight cis women wondering where they can find a straight cis man.
Sorry guys, that got long…well, maybe not in comparison, but still. I had time to stew after texting pecunium and waiting to see if he wanted dibs on telling asswipe where to deposit his fecal matter. Having gotten no reply, I’m assuming he called it an early night.
“You’re either a liar or a freak of nature, but it doesn’t matter because I’m still right.” (Again, I can’t argue with this logic.)
CR is the master of snappy comebacks. You know it.
“CR is the master of snappy comebacks. You know it.”
http://theleafsnation.com/uploads/Image/ohnoyoudidnt.gif
“You know it” being another citation.
I do love that Wonder Woman gif.
It’s been a while since we’ve had one of the extra frothy MGTOWs! They’re the best. They’re always saying things like “you haven’t done anything to earn a date from me,” and “it is obvious that you both are probably wondering ‘Where did all the good men go?'” as part of some truly pathetic attempts to blackmail women they’re attracted to. “You better do exactly as I say, women,” threaten the MGTOWs, “or you’ll end up sad and alone!” Oh no!
Sadly for you, CR, this fails on at least two levels. 1) It is based on the assumption that women would choose to date you, or someone like you, rather than be alone. I sure as hell would choose being single over being with some asshat misogynist like you! 2) It only works if all the “good men” are Going Their Own Way right along with you, when the reality is that the dudes going their own way are all giant assnuggets and there are plenty of actually decent men who are interested in dating women out there.
Deny all you want, but gravity isn’t real. We all know that people are held in place on the Earth by invisible elves whose behavior is controlled by their insatiable lust for our toes.
Deny all you want, but everyone knows that bitcoins are now legal tender at Macy’s.
Deny all you want, but it’s common knowledge that if MGTOW actually went every woman who’d ever met them would get together and throw a party. Oops, sorry, forgot that I wasn’t supposed to make any of these true.
Whenever one of these MGTOWs comes by to threaten us by saying he will never, ever sex us, I think of this.
It’s like someone saying “I will never, ever, perform extreme dental torture of the kind that featured in Oldboy on you”. Why are we supposed to be sad about this?
Pish posh! Purest fantasy. Everyone knows people are held to the earth by invisible Furrinati sitting on their heads. Because SCIENCE!
http://f.kulfoto.com/pic/0001/0035/QrOSH34829.jpg
CITATION!! I HAS IT! SCIENCE!
Proof! Proof!
CassandraSays – Because as EBIL STRAWFEMINISTS™, we’re supposed to desire as many men to torture to get off or something like that?
That or we’re constantly man-hating harpies who are somehow desperate for men’s attention for some weird reason that is never explained.
We need a word to describe the tendency to overestimate one’s own desirability to the point where one thinks that “I won’t go out with you” is a threat serious enough to bring an entire gender to its (political) knees.
Off the top of my head: MHNLIAM
(Man Who’s Never Looked In A Mirror)
Don’t you love the way dipshit boy thinks everyone here is a cis, heterosexual, single woman who’s desperately looking for a man? He’s got it about as wrong as he can, on every count.
Earlier when he was banging on about “where have all the good men gone?” I was thinking “to the kitchen, to feed the cat”. The fact that he considers himself to be an example of the category “good man” is hilarious.
Where have all of the good men gone?
If my Facebook is any indication, Portland.
I think though is that he doesn’t mean, “decent artsy intelligent guys who respect women.”
“In the kitchen, feeding the cat” is THE test of whether a guy’s a Good Man (aka dutiful servant of the Furrinati).
It is a joke that twerps like this think they’re the good men women allegedly look for. Nuh-uh, guy, there’s a reason all those supposedly unhappy singles aren’t battering at your door, and it’s not because they’re a crew of ungrateful harpies.
taitasanchez – I’m presuming you don’t mean Portland, Victoria! ::shudder::
Plus there are good men everywhere you look, they’re really not that hard to find. And I’m not even in Portland!
Kittehserf – Portland Oregon. The rent is cheap and the place is beautiful.
Also I finally read CR Williams full post. Holy crap man.
I never served, so thank you for your service.
However, you’re speaking to bigger issues than western feminism. I mean, not all men served but many women did.
But bringing back things to more general terms, if women were to be completely subservient and things rolled back, we run back into the issues of disposable men and issues of dependency.
But if we go towards feminist theory, then men aren’t disposable and necessary for the system to work. We aren’t required to run everything.
The problem isn’t Men Going Their Own Way or whatever, the problem is the wake of horse shit and the fact that many of you are just bitter and angry and have no real intention of actually going your own way.
If you were serious about it, you’d be a feminist.
I’m guessing your ex is telling people she lost 200 lbs. of frothy man-child, and good for her.
As far as you not dating, bullet dodged. Dating anyone who thinks a date must be “earned” isn’t the prize you seem to think it is.
I’m never sure if statements like “[I] had sex with a few women with in hours of meeting them” from the frothy ones are supposed to prove to us how desireable they are, or if they’re intended to shock and scare us into submission (because MGTOW think that dating/marrying them is some amazing prize that women have to earn by having sex with them, and if women are “giving” sex but not “getting” relationships then we have lost all of our bargaining power!!1! Which doesn’t work, of course, because having my cat scratch my face and then vomit into the wounds would be a better prize than spending time with one of these dudes.) Is it both? It’s probably both.