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.
yeah I know this isn’t a mgtow forum. It just pisses me off when proclaimed mgtow show there ass without something interesting to say. I don’t want validation from these men. I want them to grow, move on, enjoy life. These men are still bound they just don’t know it. Once they remove the hate they can truly go their own way. They can have a girlfriend, sex, or neither. If they chose to do so or not would no longer matter. Either way they’d still be going their own way.
Sparky I just thought I’d drop by. Nothing wrong with saying hello.
Actually, I think it pisses you off that we treat you like you actually have gone “your own way” and get on with our own lives instead of mourning the loss of your company.
Nailed it, hippodameia! If these fartfails didn’t keep turning up to say they’ve gone, nobody would ever notice them. Nobody wants ’em around, nobody cares when they go. They’re less Men Going Their Own Way than Nowhere Men.
Huh? *shake head* you guys still haven’t learned.
This world isn’t made of just women, nor does it solely revolve around them.
Why can’t you veiw an oppion for what it is. Just someone elses point of veiw.
Anyway, i dont feel like going through this again. Cya around Sparky.
Gosh, do I ever know a lot of men who will be glad to hear it.
Oh we have accepted that men can make that choice and we could care less. How bout go get a nice hobby or do something enjoyable instead of constantly talking about us evil feeeemales. And no one thinks the world is for or revolves around women. Nice try.
Anyone else smell the scent of sea lion?
What’s an oppion?
Pot, kettle, etc.
You’d never figure that if you’d visited a MGTOW forum.
My inner language police is screaming in agony, but I’ll just ignore it for now in order to address your actual point.
Look here, not all opinions are equal. Especially not those that deal with people, relationships and power dynamics in society. There are times when your opinion is based on sterotypical thinking, misinformation and outright lies, and thinking such an opinion is inherently worth as much as an opinion based on education and/or life experience just shows that you don’t care about educating yourself and becoming a better person. You don’t care if an opinion is outright harmful to someone else,as long as it’s not harming you directly. You may not be saying that, but you believe any opinion expressed by anyone, no matter how ill-informed, misguided and hateful it may be, is valid. That is a terrible way to look at the world.
Thought experiment: Let’s say you’re a misogynist. That means you don’t view women as people who deserve the same rights and possibilities in life as men. You may say you don’t hate all women, just feminists and claim that’s due to “what modern feminism has become”, but you show your ass right there: You know full well that feminism has made and is making progress in society. Women are becoming more equal with men. Full equality is still a long way off, but now, more than ever, there is hope. No, you don’t hate feminism for “what it has become”. You hate it because of what it’s always done: liberated women and made them more independent.
Women can work. Women can own property. They are not under the jackboot of whatever man is currently in their life, be it father or husband, and that’s what makes you angry as a misogynist. Because you hate independent women, women who have their own opinions and lives that don’t revolve around you. Women who can choose their partner, or choose not to have one. You hate that because women can make their own money, you can’t punish them by withholding food and shelter “until they learn to behave.”
You cannot own a woman,and that makes you angry. You may resort to violence, a far too common and tragic response when you don’t get your way. Or, if you fear the repercussions too much, you may just pretend you never wanted a “slutty Western woman” anyway and Go Your Own Way. Except that you can’t, because this is all about women and how terrible it is that they’re not men’s property anymore.
And there you have it, the mindset behind MGTOW. They’re not pretending to cut loose from society because they feel they can achieve more in their lives without relationships complicating things. That would be “living your own life as you see fit”, and you don’t need a movement for that. No, the whole song and dance about Going Your Own Way is a desperate attempt by controlling, temper-tantruming power-hungry losers to “put women in their place” by withholding their precious company (did I mention being a MGHOW takes an enormously bloated ego). It’s about chaining others, not freeing yourself.
Would you claim this opinion is just as valid and important as the opinion that women are full human beings who deserve equal treatment with men? If no, congratulations! You’re one step closer to not being a terrible human being. If yes, why do you think that? Do you really believe opinions and points of view don’t affect how society treats groups of people? Are you so badly informed about society that you think ideas don’t shape it?
Don’t you realize that by saying “all opinions are valid because they’re someone’s point of view” is justifying the opinions of all terrible people on this planet? Misogynists, racists, homophobes, transphobes, anyone with an opinion and an asshole? Don’t you realize how fucked up that is?
Then why come here at all? Go away if Sparky oppresses you so much by pointing out the problems with your thinking.
@cassandrakitty:
Oppion is a substance derived from the insufferable twit that has sleep-inducing properties.
So it’s like valerian, but it tastes awful.
I was thinking an analogue to “opium,” but that works too.
RE Traveler dude:
When MGTOW go around announcing to various feminists that they are leaving, the purpose isn’t for validation. They want a reaction. They want women to feel that all the good men are leaving, feel sad about it, and feel like they have to change their ways to bring the men back.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of men would have to go for women to notice, so instead the MGTOWs announce that they are leaving in the hopes that it will skew women’s perception.
It doesn’t work. The women being announced to generally live in the real world and interact with real people, many of whom are men, probably none of them who are MGTOW. Some random stranger online announcing their departure isn’t going to phase them in the slightest.
You have to realize that MGTOW was only ever about trying to punish women, otherwise they would just bugger off. Then you have to realize that that “punishment” is, to most women, actually a reward. Maybe then you’ll finally just shove off and focus on yourself rather than on some convoluted retrobution scheme.
The thing is that all the men announcing their departure are the ones who nobody wanted anyway, so…it’s like someone at Xmas dinner saying “you can’t have any Brussels sprouts” when you hate Brussels sprouts
@cassandrakitty:
They’re spoiled durians that have convinced themselves they are actually sour grapes.
I dunno, I know people who like durian, but I’ve yet to meet a woman who’s interested in these guys.
feMRAs? Maybe? Though it’s probably more that they feel the appropriate reaction of “oh noes, all the men are leaving, what do” rather than that they would actually pair up with any real MGTOW.
Then again, traveler dude claims that you can have a girlfriend/wife and still be a MGTOW, so if that isn’t just a hypothetical then someone out there is dating these knuckleheads.
Well, c’mon! Somebody has to take care of the laundry and stuff!
Uh…So how about you just take your ‘oppion’ and have it somewhere else, huh?
Ooh, phasma, how’d you get the tooltips over your words?
Test…
Shit! I had thought project kill all men was a success. Now I learn there are still a few left. Huge drag!
Is that a threat or a promise.
Ah ha ha! Awesome!
For anyone else’s reference:
<abbr title=”tooltip text goes here”>Regular text goes here!</abbr>
Anarchonist:
You mean other than the one on his head?
My inner language police are screaming in agony too.
Priceless, kirbywarp!
Ya-know crazy enough, since you guys are all about independence and individualism. You should be agreeing with my advice towards mgtow. I mean, i even agreed with u that most mgtow that come here are looking for validation. But you guys weren’t able to catch that due too your quest for misogyny. This pretty much make any further conversation useless. So understand im not here for you. Im here for them.
Mgtow men, and would be mgtow men. Stop giving these women power over your own way. Stop using mgtow as a means to punish women. By doing so your still centering women around your new way of life. Become a better man for your children and yourself. For your future and your dreams. Don’t hate feminist. Accept them for who they are and enjoy them for what they’re worth. What they’re worth is based on what they themselves are willing to offet you as a person and then as a man.
I’ve finally figured out why MGTOW can’t just GTOW already: the way that they’re going, which is their own way, is straight into a relationship with one or more women, so obviously they’re going to hate and resent women if the women don’t cooperate to make this a reality.
It all makes sense now.