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.
Pendragon, do you always ignore women when they say “no”?
There we go XD HAVENT REACHED SEXUAL MATURITY YET XD, btw I’m a biologist who is currently researching regeneration. I think I know more about that amphibian than you do XD. Don’t you have something better to do than be a misandrist and does it really take this many of you?
Nivi has all the cute!
No I don’t but I don’t consider you girls and I would never ask any of you for sex. Do you always act like a dick when someone you don’t agree with makes a valid point?
Guys, Pendragon doesn’t want to have sex with me! What do I doooo?
Get used to it XD
Uhh…that wasn’t remotely a small penis joke. It wasn’t even about you. Also, I’m not a girl. But hey, I’m not surprised your failure rate remains high.
To everyone else — my mother just, today, realized that Nivi has toes. This bothers her for some reason. I don’t get it, I think zir little toes are adorable!
Some sort of celebration seems to be in order.
Just a question then I’ll leave, I promise. Would you go insane if every guy was like me? If every guy didn’t want to date women because well… They aren’t worth it.
I have better things to do, like hobbies, golf and martial arts
I have better friends, mainly guys and non crazy feminists
I have a job and you require to much attention
I am required by some feminists/women to pay on dates for no reason. (If it’s so hard to get dressed up I would rather see you without make-up and split the bill)
I have no way out of parenthood. All men have is condoms. Women have birth control pills, the morning after pill, abortions ect. Is that equality?
Men die 4x more by suicide… I wonder why.
Men are ~90% of workplace deaths
Men are the only ones to experience the excruciating pain that happens when a major part of their genitalia is removed due to relegious customs
Women recive 30% of the time in prison for the same crime
Women receive scholarships BECAUSE they are women… Is that fair?
School systems are for women. You don’t think so? The overwhelming majority of drop outs in highschool are male. Females work better in a structured environment that uses memorization and constant quizzes of knowledge… Sounds like most schools to me….
So are you REALLY oppressed or are you just indifferent to the problems men face. Are men less important than women?
@Kim I found a balloon:
Pendragon, WE DO NOT WANT TO DEBATE YOU. No means no. Now GO YOUR OWN WAY ALREADY.
Kk thanks for your time have a nice night
If every guy like you would just leave women alone, I would buy all of the fireworks and set up a huge public celebration with free pie and a kitten petting zoo so that everyone else could be nearly as happy as I was.
If all men didn’t want to date women, we’d just have to shack up with each other (and nonbinary folks), which as a bisexual I wouldn’t enjoy at all…
“I can’t get anyone to take me seriously. I know – I’ll invent an alternate fantasy world where everything I believe is true. That will make them talk to me. I’m so lonely”
~ Pendragon
Protip, Pendragon: a man who was actually going his own way wouldn’t have spent the last couple of hours begging women to talk to him. Just saying.
Emilygoddess — really! If cis men all decided to stay single, I’d go from two lovers to one lover and a friend. I’d be just devastated (yeah, we technically broke up already anyways, in practice that’s isn’t meaning a whole hell of a lot)
Oh, and I wouldn’t have to hear about my brother’s best-friend’s on again off again she’s a horrible person why do you keep getting back together GF.
So yeah, major win in my view.
Saying “what if all men were like [pendragon]” is like saying “what if all the men suddenly turned into spaghetti”. You can talk about what the repercussions would be, but it’s pointless since it’s never going to happen.
UT: Something that I need to address first, you guys are using Loretta post as if she/he unlocked some dynamic truth to what I wrote
She did (only in that she beat me to it).
There is no such thing as “equality only for yourselves”. That’s inequality. Now, if you want to argue that feminists aren’t actually arguing for equality for women… knock yourself out (I reccomend arranging a good slip and fall, it’s hard to give yourself an adequate whack with the clue x 4. One tends to flinch at the last moment).
The nonsense about how we can’t afford to let people be themselves, they need to conform to your idea of what makes for reasonable gender roles… some “equalism”, since those gender roles are unequal in their function, and their social valuation.
. Personally I don’t care what women do from this point, telling you what should be done isn’t why I’m here.
Really?
Let’s take a look.
IMO Feminist would’ve had a better chance at achieving harmony if they would’ve simply talked with men and revamped gender roles rather than removing them.
-1, for telling us what should be done.
So what we have now in 2015 is an anything goes types system were people become consumed by their own individuality. They become dysfunctional
-1.5 For burying the things which should be done in obfuscutory persiflage.
Gender roles are needed in some way or form. The problem today is that there are none.
-2 You not only said things should be done, you contradicted your previous statement that there are no rules by saying there are people who try to impose them, but the lack of social expectations of gender roles negates them.
Since we have gender roles (to the tune that at 5 year old was denied entrance to Kindergarten because his hair was too long) I’ll tack on another -2 points for being too stupid to come up with an argument which wasn’t harder to falsify.
So you lost 5.5 marks on just one comment.
4. I needed proof of my own demographic conclusion. I don’t like generalizations without actually experiencing the behavior I’m basing it on. I don’t deal in absolutes unless there are grounds to do so.
Now your just trying to make us laugh.
Pendragon: Really? I thought I said things that were self evident! I get it you are scared of equality!
Yes I value human life equally if a woman and man were dying in front of me and I could only save one I wouldn’t rush to aid the woman BECAUSE she is a woman.
I want equal parental rights, consenting to sex (something I agree with whole hearted with) isn’t consenting to parenthood for women, why should it be for men?
I don’t want anyone to suffer, men or women. I never said anything crazy, mysoginistic ect. You simply don’t like what I’m saying. I would “raise” the precent of female deaths in the workplace by simply having them work the same dangerous jobs men overwhelmingly work now. Why is the fact I wouldn’t care (and would prefer) safer conditions for both genders anti female. You don’t care that men die on the job in way higher numbers. You don’t care men commit suicide about 4 times as often as women, or that only a man will be drafted in the event of a war.
So much bullshit.
You don’t value human life equally. You said women needed to die at equal rates to men. If you valued life you would have said the deaths of men needed to be reduced.
If you valued life you wouldn’t be looking to make children suffer by letting men “opt out” of supporting the child they helped create (if they don’t want to pay for children, they can get cut, or not fuck).
You could have argued for a social support network which obviates the need for male support of children. That would be valuing life. You didn’t. You valued male money over the life of the child he begat.
You say you don’t want anyone to suffer, but the only “suffering” you want to ameliorate is that of the males who want to skip out on their responsibilities, leaving the women and children they fuck, forget, and fuck over, to suffer.
Only a man will be drafted?
There is no draft. Hasn’t been a draft in the past 45 years. There won’t be another all male draft. If there is (again, not gonna happen) it’s not because feminists want it. Feminists are opposed to the draft altogether. They have also filed suits to get women included in selective service registration.
Sou can fold that bullshit until it’s all points and use it as a suppository.
You’re a lying hypocrite.
By the way please pick apart my argument. Show me what’s wrong with what I’m saying.
We have, you pretend otherwise.
I WANT to have a debate and see the good qualities of this site and feminism. I stumbled upon this place and am kinda curious.
I don’t believe you. I think you came here to stir shit and cackle about how you, “showed them”.
Lol, didn`t take long for them to put words in my mouth did it?
” and you also blame women and think that they owe you sex”
Never said or even implied any of it, but of course if i disagree with feminists on this it must mean i hate women. And if they cannot find any clue of then in my words, well, they will make one up.
Typical, and utterly predictable response from feminists and their lapdogs. Dare to question anything in feminism and they cry misoginy. (As if this word even had a meaning after used every time someone dares to even look at a Woman.)
Took you a whole month to come up with that response, huh, Muzolf?
Here’s what you first wrote (which we can easily see by scrolling back a few pages):
Feminists have never said any of that, and neither did David nor anyone here.
Who’s putting words in who’s mouth now?
@Muzolf, did you know that on many an occasion if a woman disagrees with a man’s point of view or has a different opinion to him it has been widely reported that she must be, you know, one of those right on, rabid feminists who hates men. ‘I bet she has really short hair!!!’ they cry in unison. These fuckwits say this continually and on a daily basis mostly because a woman dares to have an opinion. Typical and utterly predictable response from ‘your lot’ right back atcha!
Wow, a steaming pile of stereotypes and superficial impressions likely gathered from late-night arguments with pimple-faced teenagers on social media who wear the label (it sure as hell wasn’t formed while reading AVFM pieces!). Served up as … I don’t know, what is this supposed to be, journalism? It isn’t Woodward and Bernstein, that’s for sure. I don’t know what the fuck it is.
Yeah let’s just gobble this shit up. No reason to think it’s a pile of crap, right?