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 mean, the reactionaries aren’t wrong about one thing: the liberation of women is partly responsible for declining birth rates. It turns out that when we have access to birth control and education/the work force – in short, when motherhood is simply one choice among many rather than “what women are for” – we tend to have fewer children and do so later in life (if at all).
Where the reactionaries go wrong is in acting like this is a bad thing. We cannot keep cramming people onto this planet. We juSt can’t.
Yeah, sure, everything’s women’s fault. Just tell yourself that when you’re force thawing your chicken dinner for 1 in the sink.
Bye-bye.
And then eating your rape Jello while you turn your bland chicken into bland charcoal in the oven.
Women are more likely than men to end up in poverty after divorce. Articles discussing studies:
Here
Here
And an op-ed discussing the issue
Yep. All divorced men immediately waste away as soon as the paperwork is complete. It’s just tragic.
Oh wait, no. My parents divorced finalized in 2002 and somehow my dad lives!
@Truthandlight, I hope things continue this way too! Things are getting more and more awesome for everyone, including you misogynist snotturds! Someday, you won’t be so bitter and angry. I promise. ^_^
“Someday, you won’t be so bitter and angry. I promise. ^_^”
Yep, nobody lives forever.
My dad’s a healthy, filthy rich bachelor who couldn’t be less interested another serious relationship since he and my mom split fifteen-ish years ago.
Some people do just great on their own including men following divorces.
I can’t access mod functions on mobile, but I will delete TruthAndLight’s comment when I get home. I will also be suggesting a mod challenge: I’m thinking a 1000 word essay on why divorce is absolutely nothing like rape and people who make that comparison should feel bad.
@emilygoddess
ONLY a 1000 words? Isn’t that just a page or two?
In growing numbers men are walking away from women.
Laugh for now all you want.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/disneycreate/images/d/d2/NO_ONE_CARES.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130921143347
I’m so glad miserable fucks like that guy are walking away from women (though they don’t seem to be following through with the “threat”….)
And yes.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonball/images/6/62/No_one_cares.jpg
@:)
Please do walk away at any time now.
Some days lots of adults are unmarried because men are going their own way. Some days it’s because women are evil whores who are riding the a.c.c. until they hit the wall.
Which is it fellas? Because it can’t be both!
When I heard the about Men going their own way (MGTOW), spurning women, I was thrilled. I thought, yeah! All the misogynists are going off into some compound or into the wilderness or some island somewhere, so women will not have to deal with them anymore. Peace has come upon the land! (Ur, except for all the other world conflicts). But they are still here, damn it! They are not going their own way, they are getting in OUR way.
I find it hilarious that men who can’t get women to date, marry or bang them due to their shitty attitudes think that they’re the ones who are walking away. They’re not going their own way, they’re admitting that nobody wants them and giving up.
As far as I see, the reactionarism and misogyny are seen as solutions by the typical MGTOW, it is an easy conclusion. (Feminism/Today = Bad ) = (Patriarchy/Back Then = Good )
In reality, far from being a solution, these are downright harmful to, decredibilise the stated MGTOW and MRA objectives.
This is ignored because most MGTOWs and MRAs, they ignore their stated cause because they are so caught up in reactionary emotion-ladden propaganda.
Also, the whole “man brings home the money, woman works at home” pisses me off on a personal level, I say good riddance to that! Work 60 hours a week? No thanks, please go f**** yourselves!
Funny (dark humour) how Japan have an even lower birthrate than most western countries because of that retarded meme.
That´s my idea of the red pill, men should follow the lead (lol), reject with disguste the “traditional gender roles” just as women have.
Hovewer, this rejection should not be out of some sort of victimhood mentality were men are somewhat oppressed by women not wearing make-up, having tattoos, not being submissive and other ridiculous garbage.
That is being just as dumb as those individuals ranting about microaggression, triggering and the word bossy.
I mean, if you think the SJWs and their oppression olympics is bad, why join them in it?
@Quartzok-43 “Funny (dark humour) how Japan have an even lower birthrate than most western countries because of that retarded meme.”
Care to rephrase that without the ableism?
Well, three separate responses, and putting them all in one post…Please assume this is not one long rant.
Mr. MRA: I actually lived in Japan for a little over a year. I can promise you, Japanese women are not at all submissive. When they make up their mind about something, the discussion ends right there. You are welcome to keep talking, but you’d be better served to go out and talk to the rock wall. In Japan, the husband turns his paycheck over to his wife and she rules the entire household with an iron fist. “Household” also includes *husband*. Hers is the first and last word on anything happening domestically, including how much of her husband’s income is spent on what things. If he wants a liquor budget, he’d better work overtime. The husband’s power exists only outside his home, never in it. Since men and women traditionally hang with the people of same gender that they grew up with, and or work with, men and women, husbands and wives, almost never do much together outside of their homes anyways. The vast majority of Japanese men tend to be gentle and abiding toward their wives, and many feel lucky to have one at all. Married men often endure intense jealousy from their peers if they do have a wife, especially a loving one. Any Japanese woman who marries an abusive or controlling “gaijin” will quickly divorce him and flee. I strongly advise you not to pursue her back to Japan.Sadly, mail order brides from any race or culture are almost guaranteed to be victims of traumatic abuse, sadistic controlling, and far too many end up murdered or committing suicide. I lost a briefly known but deeply cherished friend this way, and something snapped in me after that.
Mr. MRA: In 2008, I was a gorgeous lady, and I was being hit on relentlessly by a few jerks at the university I was attending. About mid-semester, I barely survived a near-fatal auto accident. My scalp and shoulders had been “degloved”, and gravel ground so deep into my subcutaneous tissues that I’m still digging tarmac pebbles out my skin today. While in the hospital, I caught a MRSA bug, and it became the second thing to almost kill me. I left the hospital weak, flabby, overweight, extensively scarred, riddled with half healed sores, and with slurred speech and delayed cognition from my head injuries. When my Romeos saw me return to class for finals, they back-paddled to the ‘nth power. I like Buttercup Q. Skullpants’ take on this activity… “Douchecanoeing”, I believe it was.
During my comeback, my smile was never brighter. I decided that it was time to give the jerks what they had been giving me, and had asked me to give them. Hey, I live to serve. I began hitting on them relentlessly in public, and trying to touch them intimately as often as I could snake around their rebuffs. Funny how those guys learned to teleport so rapidly when I tried to plant my butt in their lap, and it was so “odd” to feel able to relax while reading and book or drinking coffee in public. I took pro tips from their creative ways of blocking me from accessing their social media accounts. Sadly, their protests to my incessant attentions were identical to mine, so, I opted to make their wishes be as valid in my mind as mine were in theirs. I’d tell the Romeo’s intended conquests that I was the bad boy’s woman so back off, and I would hunt these guys down so that I could harangue them about how they owed it to me to be my man because they had hit on me before. Other annoyed ladies would let me use their phones to call the number the Romeo gave them, and then I’d call Romeo and whine about being rejected by him until he hung up. Then I’d call him back as long as it took for him blocked the girl’s number. I got a lot of free coffee and slices of pizza from dozens of grateful ladies after that. I mean, when do you guys find time to do anything else? Like, molding yourself into a genuinely likable person? Maybe then those ladies would buy the coffee and pizzas for *you* instead of for me because I rescued them from you.
One of my Romeos “got it”, and he laughed his ass off as he called me on my revenge. But, he also made real efforts to change his ways. He told me with complete sincerity that he was sorry it cost me so much to show him what it was like to be relentlessly bullied by a person one has repeatedly rejected. If he did mend his ways, and even if he was the only one to do so, I am grateful. I’d rather use humor to teach respect than to use a loaded gun, and while it takes more courage and creativity to take that road, it’s never wrong to strive to be the best version of yourself that you can.
Mr. MRA: Pain and anger make your eyes blind and your ears deaf to everyone and everything around you, and a person in such a state is bereft of the very same tools that he or she needs to use to reason with. Understand that no one can love, forgive, tolerate, respect, or nurture a person who cannot or will not give the same things to them and to themselves in equal measure. My adventures taught me that anger is addicting. Anger is the great motivator when grief leaves you paralyzed. But, anger eventually and inevitably suffocates your reason and your compassion, and the only way to preserve your humanity is always be vigilant against turning into the monsters that bite you. It’s okay to listen to what that monster has to say, so that you know where you are ethically in that moment. But when you *agree* with that monster, you step over the line. Finally, human is human is human… Regardless of your needs or expectations. As my post-accident experiment clearly illustrates, only the weak and sick need to resort to aggressive disregard for others rights, wishes, and boundaries, so they can trap and keep a mate that would not willingly choose them. So, instead of assuming the whole world or an entire gender has it wrong, assume the one who has it wrong and needs to change their ways, is you. Change yourself into the kind of person that your kind of lady would love in truth. If you don’t find any ladies cuddling up to you, maybe it’s because that kind of lady doesn’t exist. Modify your definition of what is humanly possible…I.e., name one non-evil person who is pleasant when they are furious at you. It’s not rational to expect angry people to just be passively accepting and polite. When you are mad, how do you behave? Good people understand that being a good person means they cannot always be a “nice” person, but, respect is never sacrificed. Want others to respect and listen to you? Show them you can listen to and respect them first…That’s how society operates in *any* part of the world. Over and out.
Ahhh this site should be renamed you hunted all men. MRA is nothing. Feminsit doctorine is too ingrained in this society. They will only have minor changes. The real movement thay will leave a hurt for everyone is MGTOW. It wont be overnight but i see something happening in the next decade. Men are just abandoning women at a pace that’s alarming. Guess who will hold the shit end of the srick when it happens? It won’t be the men.
@kp:
Lemme guess… men only use proper grammar and spelling when they’re trying to attract women, and you aren’t trying to attract us.
Which is the shit end of the srick (stick?)
I and millions of other women do great weigh no support whatsoever from men. We welcome you to go your own way, son.
@kp:
Good-bye you won’t be missed! You leaving women alone would make everyone happier!