Misogyny 2 - The source of male manospheric rage and misogynistic radicalization

We began our first article by stating, "The first and closest distinction encountered by Homo sapiens sapiens is the gender distinction; whether named or not, the name of this distinction is 'man and woman'."

The Historical Role of Women and Patriarchal Realities

Although there are theses claiming that women were as active and strong as men during the hunter-gatherer period, no patriarchal thesis can deny the reality that in an era where birth control methods were impossible, women who were constantly pregnant were physically disadvantaged compared to men.

The myth of the woman who worked in the fields while pregnant and left her child under a tree to continue working as soon as she gave birth may be very pleasing to men who want to belittle their own wives, but that is not the case. In an environment where medical intervention and hygienic conditions were insufficient, the fact that one in every three women who gave birth died means that a woman lived through a process for 9 months where she could die with a 33.33 percent probability while giving birth, and every birth she had brought her a little closer to death.

We do not need to go back tens of thousands of years to verify this situation. According to a report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a severe rise in maternal and child mortality is being observed in Sudan's Darfur region, where medical facilities are inaccessible and hygienic conditions cannot be provided due to the war. In the January-August 2023 period alone, 114 deaths due to sepsis (blood poisoning) were recorded.

I do not know how much the patriarchal fantasy imagines that women were physically superior to men in the hunter-gatherer period, but under today's conditions, even in the most modern countries, the fact that women are disadvantaged compared to men stands before us as a clear reality.

Moreover, the history of women achieving their demands to live in humane conditions does not date back more than 60 years. The year is 1956, Germany; a time when women needed their husbands' signed approval to work. In street interviews conducted in Germany and Sweden, men are asked two questions: "Do you think women should vote?" and "Do you think women should drive?" The answer of the vast majority of men is 'no'. They add that women's duty is to look after the children at home, give birth to new children, clean, and cook. Young, old, educated, and uneducated men see a woman voting or driving as contrary to social norms.

Since the times when women were marginalized, kept out of social life, and imprisoned in the position of a domestic slave do not unfortunately date back to very ancient history, and not every part of the world has received an equal share of civilization, one must fear the re-creation of the monster called misogyny.

Contemporary Misogyny, Algorithms, and the Attention Economy

In this vein, the misogynistic movements that young men have turned to via social media in recent years and the rise of illegal organizations that encourage such thoughts are being taken seriously, at least by developed countries. These trends, which are seen as dangerous, are being researched at academic levels, and countermeasures are being attempted.

The most striking point of the research conducted under the heading of "misogynistic radicalization" is the rapid radicalization processes caused by algorithms.

The social media layer where misogynistic groups are in contact is called the "manosphere". When the social media activities taking place within this layer are compared with the working logic of algorithms, things become completely inextricable. Although algorithms are created by human coders, once they are activated, they become an uncontrollable system that automatically directs content to social media users.

The goal of the system working with algorithms is to ensure that users click on, like, share, and view certain content. Little attention is paid to what subject the algorithm trends, which have already gone out of control by entering the feed, contain. Algorithm calculations that notice a social media user's interest in certain content naturally open the doors for individuals to radicalize on this subject by offering more of that content. Because keeping the individual on the platform for as long as possible, at any cost, constitutes the most important key point of the commercial system called the "attention economy".

The Violence Dimension of Misogyny and the “Incel Movement”

One of the social media trends that men with manospheric tendencies, who communicate with each other through social media platforms and internet forums, have fallen into is called "Incel" (involuntary celibate), that is, the involuntary bachelors group. The posts of sick rage that men in such groups feel towards women are at frightening levels.

When the issue becomes this serious, the definition of groups like "Incel" naturally changes in this direction, taking the name "misogynist radicalization". It is no coincidence that the word radicalization, which is generally preferred to define the process of joining religious or political terror ideologies, is used in the definition of the problem. So much so that "radical misogyny" is accepted everywhere in the world as an element of religious or non-religious right-wing terrorism. Although left-wing movements theoretically display a stance in favor of gender equality, they have been subjected to serious criticism by radical left-wing movements for not behaving that way in practice. Radical left-wing movements have emphasized that left-wing movements continue their patriarchal structures in practice and that gender issues are seen as secondary to class struggle. However, it must be stated that even the fact that left-wing movements are open to criticism within themselves on this issue is undoubtedly better than right-wing movements that place misogyny at the center of their policies.

Definition of Misogyny and Misogynistic Authors

So what is "misogyny"?

This concept, which is translated into our language as "kadın düşmanlığı" (hatred of women), has undergone a certain narrowing of meaning. Actually, it means "devaluing women". In a slightly broader definition, "misogyny" is the conceptualized form of a misogynistic attitude in which men, who think they have been wronged by women because they cannot experience their sexuality, desire to push women back into traditional molds by devaluing and belittling them.

The man cannot resolve the paradoxical rage he feels towards this being he sexually desires but also hates, neither by distancing her from himself nor by staying away from her. I think the best way to understand the state of mind with which such men act is to take a closer look at the lines they write themselves.

Alfred Döblin, in his book "The Memoirs of a Man Without Feelings" written in 1910, reveals the characteristic features of misogyny like a full confession. In the "Disgust for Women" section of his book, he begins his confessions by saying, "I have a natural inclination towards women, but this inclination is more because this being is just a woman than because of the woman herself." Despite the bad feelings that everything that is a woman arouses in him, Döblin has a sick idea that his dependency on women, which disgusts him, is not just a problem related to himself, and that women should even be seen as a danger to the country's future. Therefore, he does not refrain from sharing this idea with the whole country by turning it into a book. He expresses that he stays away from the being called woman during the day with a metaphorical analogy, saying, "but when night falls, I put a linen sheet over me and undress, because I am ashamed to undress in front of her; while I want to be with her, I also hate her." "These two feelings are constantly side by side within me: 'I hate women, I hate, I hate, I hate!' My rage is so intense that I want to cry from anger, damn creatures," he says, and when the end of the book is reached, the disaster occurs where Döblin declares himself the victim and the woman the perpetrator. He rapes the maid at the hotel where he is staying, but he does not hold himself responsible for this situation in any way. By saying that the woman poisoned and corrupted him, he claims that he should be exempted from his immoral, criminal, terrible monstrosity, and that this right should be given to all men to prevent a national collapse.

Another author who turned his terrible ideas into a book is Henry de Montherlant. Montherlant, whom Simone de Beauvoir condemned in her book "The Second Sex", depicts women mostly as passive, weak, and dependent individuals on men in his four-book novel series titled "Les Jeunes Filles" (The Young Girls). The main character of the novel, Pierre Costals, sees women only as a sexual object or beings that make his life easier. Elsewhere in the novel, Montherlant says that he feels "desire, anger, and pity" towards women at the same time. The characteristic features of misogynistic authors like Montherlant or Döblin are almost exactly the same.

Simone de Beauvoir, in her book "The Second Sex", which broke new ground in the field of feminism and was of course violently suppressed by the patriarchal male world, specifically mentions misogynistic authors such as Henry de Montherlant, D.H. Lawrence, Paul Claudel, and André Breton. She systematically criticizes these authors for ignoring the individuality and subjectivity of women and seeing them only as objects that give meaning to men's lives. In fact, Simone de Beauvoir refutes the misogynistic arguments of these men with just her own life story.

The truly destructive side of the books written by these misogynistic men was that these authors, with their books, not only influenced their own personal worlds but also affected the perception of women in society by influencing the social norms of their time. So much so that the whispers in the books of these pathetic creatures still find an echo in the dark minds of patriarchal communities.

Violence Acts of "Incels"

Because of these dark ideas that never seem to disappear, we are currently talking about the violent tendencies of misogynistic groups in the manospheric layer formed on social media. To understand the gravity of the situation, it is useful to look at the violent incidents caused by the "Incel" group, even if it is not very pleasant.

2014 Isla Vista Killings; Elliot Rodger kills six people and injures 14 in an attack he organized near the University of Santa Barbara. In the "Manifesto" he published after the attack, the attacker, who blames women for not showing him sexual interest, states that he carried out the attack to protest this situation. What is more frightening is that Rodger has been accepted not as a murderer, but as a hero of the "Incel" community...

2018 Toronto Van Attack: Alek Minassian, who killed 10 people and caused 16 people to be injured by hitting people on the sidewalk in Toronto with a van he rented, publishes a message on social media before the attack declaring his support for the Incel movement. Minassian says he did his act to continue the "Incel Rebellion" started by Elliot Rodger by glorifying him.

The male profile that shows this type of behavioral tendency attributes the reason for his unexperienced sexual desires to the woman who rejects him. In this sense, by seeing the existence of the woman as a burden to himself, he develops an aggressive, pathological reaction towards the woman. That is, while desiring the woman on one hand, he shows a tendency to belittle and apply violence to the woman on the other.

The use of the concept of pathological reaction here does not, of course, mean that the individual is sick. The person in question is an adult male with criminal capacity; a character who, instead of turning himself into a reasonable person that a woman could accept, can normalize in his mind applying violence to her or raping her because he was rejected, and perhaps has the potential to attempt an act of violence.

The Determining Effect of Social Norms on Misogyny

And the most paradoxical point we must not forget is this; The ultimate goal of these men is usually not to kill or rape a woman.

- They want to live in a society where no one can hold them accountable when they kill a woman.

- When they want to marry a woman, they wish that even if the woman does not want to, she is not strong enough to reject them.

- When they rape or beat a woman to death, they want the woman not to be brave enough to go to the police.

- They want society to find the raped or murdered woman guilty, not the man who rapes or kills.

Do we live in such a society in Turkey? YES... Therefore, as a society, we are not yet at a stage where we can talk about our social norms, traditions, and incorrectly coded cultural behavioral patterns that cause misogyny. In our social media, misogyny is not carried out by groups like Incels, but by cult leaders who have tens of thousands of members. While these men, who travel in luxury cars, are not even allowed to step on roads where rose water has not been poured, their hands and hems are kissed, and the beards they cut are made into amulets and worn as necklaces by the community.

In a community where narrators of violence are so glorified, and science and rationality are belittled in parallel with womanhood, misogyny cannot be the subject of thousands of doctoral theses and cannot be researched, of course. Therefore, we cannot develop a systematic and solution-oriented strategy regarding either the fate of our young people who are exposed to this content on social media or what kind of society these young people will turn us into in the future.

So what should be done?

As a first reaction, the thought of feeling anger and punishing naturally comes to mind. There is not much left to do after the incident turns into a violent case anyway.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the courts found the victimized woman right and made a favorable decision; in a system where social norms in the community condemn the woman by imposing the most severe penalties, it is still very difficult to estimate where to start for the solution of the issue.

Because the prescription to be written for our country does not consist of a simple social media prescription. Devaluing women is so embedded in our social norms, proverbs, daily conversations, and behaviors that the issue of how to raise the position of women in the community remains a luxury dream alongside our realities involving violence and bullying. Because among our priority issues, at the very top of the list are femicides, rapes, child brides, and child mothers.

Where will we start?

With which people, on which platforms, will we talk about human rights that include women, men, and children? When will we accept with natural ease that universal human values are above tradition, culture, and belief and are indisputable?

In any case, there is one truth we know: the long-term solutions pass through changing the system we live in through education. Especially and primarily, it passes through family education, school education, mosques, public houses, the behavior of celebrities, newspapers, television series, and social media channels like TikTok and YouTube.

But above all, it is necessary to ensure that women, young girls, and female children clearly understand what they are facing when they encounter this rage. Therefore, it is very important to identify in which forms this hostility appears before us.

The goal of misogynists is, of course, to reduce the woman to a position where she cannot defend herself and force her to stay there. However, although the instruments they use on the way to the result are tradition, religion, and cultural codes, the method they resort to while using these instruments is not always violence. Therefore, analyzing the methods of misogyny is as important as defining it, so that it is possible to diagnose it where we encounter it and develop a counter-behavior.

For this reason, in our next article, we will talk about the types of misogyny...