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.
I love it when you assholes try to claim that AVfM is somehow less appallingly hateful than the unwashed masses of the manosphere. It’s not like any of us have read that spew for ourselves.
Quick question… Which sect of men’s rights activists are the worst? I think the PUA’s are skum… Fucking asses all they want is sex
First time on this site and this is what I see… I am shocked to see even the mods engage in deviant behaviour as a feminist myself I am disgusted. Two wrongs don’t make a right maybe your parents should have brought you up better it doesn’t matter if trolls started it first you have a moral responsibility as moderators for this site. It pains my heart to see feminists such as myself degrade themselves to the derogatory behaviour of misogynists and believe it’s acceptable. I hope you will not continue to embarrass our movement in the future.
A concerned Feminist.
Is this a honest to goodness only-my-feminism-is-true-feminism (or do I smell straw?) concern troll? or maybe tone troll? He/she is kind of vague about what that “deviant behavior” he/she is so concerned about is. The swearing? The mocking? The cat gravatars? What? O.o
Perhaps the deviant behavior is ending too many complete sentences with periods?
Cocernedfeminist:
Perhaps you meant to name yourself concernedfeminist, or rather concernedtroll.
Please do define this ‘deviant behavior’ of the mods. I’m sure it will be amusing and enlightening.
The horror! We can never recover a moral high ground because our mods told a random dude to zip it! Or called a boring tedious troll to stop being tedious or leave! Oh noes! We aren’t being all ladylike!
Run away, run away!
Someone grab my fainting couch! Clutch your pearls and kitties close!
(By the way, mods, you’ve been rocking. Hence, annoyed sock)
It’s the cats! The cats are deviant!
SHAME ON YOU MAMMOTHS.
Eh heh. He he he.
It’s bad enough being an unconvincing troll, you’d think you could at least construct sentences that make sense.
It pains my heart! The PAIN!
I think that might be heartburn, Concerned Feminist. You should take an antacid, see if that helps.
Well, apparently the blockquote monster is hungry.
I believe I speak for David and Kittehs as well as myself when I say that we apologize for our deviant behavior. As duly appointed authority figures of some feminist blog on the internet, we are of course Official Representatives of Feminism and thus should behave in a professional, polite and cheerful manner at all times. If anyone should see us having fun or failing to coddle every single misogynist ever, feminism as a whole will be ruined, and it would be all our fault. We knew that, and yet we mocked anyway, and now the misogynists are totally justified in rejecting feminism.
Sorry for ruining feminism, everyone. Our bad.
Let’s see.
A woman can file a restraining order on a man and base it on nothing other than she “felt scared” regardless of any logical reason for her to fear a man that has never even looked at her in a cross manner.
Once that is done, and she has drained all the bank accounts. He is deprived of his home and had his children removed from his custody, he is penniless and destitute so now she hits him with the divorce as she moves her new loser boyfriend in with her kids. The court orders that he take on all the bills, pay her maintenance, and punitive child support to the point that between taxes and her, he is left in a form of chattel slavery which he will never get out from under. He will only get to see the kids if she chooses to allow it, regardless of any court order.
There is no equality before the courts between men and women or fathers and mothers. The man walks in and is presumed to be both guilty and evil until proven so. That is why I have taken to telling young men not to ever get married. There just isn’t anything in marriage that is worth that sort of risk.
I wasn’t aware that if you file a restraining order against someone, you get to drain their bank accounts.
Brb. Going to file a restraining order against the Walton and Koch families.
@Jim
That’s a fine story. I have one too. It begins thus: “When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton…”
Ooh, can I take the Getty’s since they’re local?
Jim reminds me of the chapter on custody disputes and divorce in Bancroft’s book. In short, Jim, please don’t date or marry anyone and feel free to encourage men who think like you to also not date anyone or marry anyone. And also don’t have kids. For their sake. Cause you’re waving so many red flags, you could hold a parade.
“Several misleading arguments appear repeatedly in statements that abusers make during family court litigation. First is the claim that fathers are widely discriminated against by family courts in custody disputes. The research actually shows the opposite, that in fact fathers have been at a distinct advantage in custody battles in the United States since the late 1970s, when the maternal preference went out of vogue.”
““The abusive man’s high entitlement leads him to have unfair and unreasonable expectations, so that the relationship revolves around his demands. His attitude is: “You owe me.” … And he will keep feeling that you are controlling him, because he doesn’t believe that you should set any limits on his conduct or insist that he meet his responsibilities.”
“The abuser does not believe, however, that his level of authority over the children should be in any way connected to his actual level of effort or sacrifice on their behalf, or to how much knowledge he actually has about who they are or what is going on in their lives. He considers it his right to make the ultimate determination of what is good for them even if he doesn’t attend to their needs or even if he only contributes to those aspects of child care that he enjoys or that make him look like a great dad in public.”
— “Why Does He Do That: Inside The Mind of Angry and Controlling Men” by Lundy Bancroft
Good! Keep that up! Definitely improve the dating/marriage pool by removing from it yourself and everyone who thinks the way you do. Nobody misses you, or will even notice that you’ve taken 5 other misogynists with you.
I am totally 100% supportive of Jim and like-minded men going their own way and leaving everyone else alone.
That would be awesome if they’d just go away.
Hmmmm:
Wow, if YOU aren’t one of those, Jim, I don’t know who is!
Thanks, Jim. You’re doing us a great service by excising yourself and dudes like you from the gene pool lest some poor creature find themself with one of you and have their life ruined.
So, Jim, let me guess–divorce didn’t go so well for ya? Gee, I wonder why.
Gotta love misogynistic dumbasses who are arrogant and entitled enough to believe that removing themselves from the dating pool will somehow be a huge blow against women everywhere.
Grapes, sourness inherent in them, the usual.