this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2025
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A growing network of online communities known collectively as the “manosphere” is emerging as a serious threat to gender equality, as toxic digital spaces increasingly influence real-world attitudes, behaviours, and policies, the UN agency dedicated to ending gender discrimination has warned.

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[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 110 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Why are they called unwomen?

Edit: ffs. I need to get off the phone and drink my coffee. United Nations Women. Third shift is killing me.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 46 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Bring back periods in initialisms. U.N.

[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 3 days ago

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time, thank you

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[–] admin@lemmy.today 49 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (30 children)

Is there even an incentive for solving men's problems? Feminism can use men to portray the ultimate evil; influencers can use that portrayal to criticize men, engage in rage bait, get attention and secure brand deals.

Capitalism can appease women to promote consumerism wrapped in feminism. Corporations can capitalize on men's loneliness and low self-worth.

I have noticed that men with low self-worth find meaning in work, which ultimately profits corporations, the money they will earn will be expanded on consumerisms/additions which again can be profited by capitalism and corporate.

The rich can have as many resources as they want, so why solve it? Other than individuals (men) taking matters in their own hands and rescuing each other I don't think there is enough incentive to help men as community or whole

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[–] anaVal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Because people are lonely and the internet is telling men it's the women’s fault.

[–] diffusive@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

And internet is telling women it’s men fault. And poor people it’s immigrants fault. And insecure people it’s trans fault.

We are the most narcissistic generation ever: it’s always someone else fault… and while we are arguing online changes go in the wrong direction (more inequality, more war, less affordable education that means less social mobility)

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[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 4 days ago (23 children)

Am I tripping, out of touch with reality? These people really don't seem to understand the problem and that makes me seriously question their methodology.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 35 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The manosphere is easy to understand. People hate doing work and taking accountability. So just blame the problems on someone else, and watch my podcast and buy my shit.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 43 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The manosphere is one symptom of a much larger problem. Look at it in isolation and you’ll miss the big picture. Authoritarianism is on the rise globally. Loneliness is reaching epidemic proportions. Society’s traditional institutions are a distant memory. All we have remaining are loose groups of people shouting at each other as the spectre of war lurks in the background.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But the manosphere doesn't need to be a symptom of those problems. That's a choice.

Another choice could be that men band together to identify the real problems and address those.

For example. In the manosphere, women are considered gold diggers. Well, because of the patriarchy, men are told that it is their job to provide, and that their value is tied to how well they provide. So you have men who think it's their job to provide money, and then are complaining when women see them as a source of money. This is stupid. Men could stop trying to be providers, and instead try being people who are interesting to talk to and nice to be around. That would solve both the golddigger problem and the loneliness problem. It would also start to address some of the capitalist problems, where people are willing to self-exploit, just to get a little more money than their neighbor.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago

Yes, it is a choice. However one of the biggest problems is that so many of the good choices are gone. I’m talking about the positive social institutions and community organizations people used to belong to. The third spaces.

Communities have fragmented. Neighbours hate each other. Both of my neighbours hate our family. One is a childless, alcoholic husband and wife who also hate each other (they used to be nice years ago) who also hate us and give us creepy looks all the time. The other is green lawn-obsessed neighbour who hates us for the pine trees we have growing on our property and refuse to cut down (at our own expense) to suit their tastes.

We’re a society of severely mentally ill, isolated, confused, and angry people. Our villages and communities are all gone. We’re all a bunch of islands unto ourselves.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 28 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This is what happens when you take a gender, destroy their ability to develop emotional regulation and meaningful connections outside of the sexual and then dump them online in a slow rolling apocalypse.

The ones who haven't found a way out have killed themselves or gravitated to mad idolatry of shysters and fools to fill the dopamine void.

We have failed our men.

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[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago (15 children)

To paraphrase Jon Lovett, they have "back of the classroom energy" while the left has "front of the classroom energy".

"Teacher teacher, he said something some people might find offensive! Send him to the principal's office"

"Thanks for narcing me out, r****d"

"Teacher teacher, he just said the r-word!"

The left just isn't equipped to deal with the manosphere. Everything the left does just makes the manosphere seem even more cool to the kids.

"The UN is worried about these guys, they must be really badass!"

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[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (16 children)

It's quite simple, gender equality should stand for equal opportunity for both genders, but it's not. I only see women being pushed into places with traditionally male majority, but not men being pushed into places with traditional female majority. And worst of all, equal opportunity should not mean we will hire a less competent woman that a more competent men, to fill out some 50/50 quota.

This is exactly the result of abusing gender equality.

[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 51 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I feel like a Cassandra since I was warning about this for years now.

The gender equality narrative got too focused on excluding men specifically, instead of including the less represented gender in each profession. Somehow the idea was that men are privileged in the system and women oppressed, while the truth is that both men and women are oppressed.

Divide and conquer was a small step away from that point.

[–] orbular@lemmy.today 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think there is nuance here. My understanding is that there is a very small but loud percentage of women that want to exclude men. When DEI (inclusion of less represented individuals) is encouraged, it's often cut down by "only the most qualified should be hired", detracting from the core topic which is bias. Most of the discourse around privilege was to help understand that men aren't actively oppressive, but many are blind to the ways in which they contribute to the oppressive issues due to cultural programming. In parallel to what we're seeing with protests - inaction is not helpful. Those that are privileged are more likely to be able to change the minds of those that are actively oppressive. TL;DR privilege is just the ability to apply peer pressure.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

The gender equality narrative got too focused on excluding men

As a man, I've never been made to feel excluded by gender equality in any way whatsoever.

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 16 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Every once in a while my uni has some interesting events (at least based on the description), public announcement sent to everyone, and the last sentence has almost always been some form of "women only". There is usually no gender neutral equivalents to these events and they're done in the name of gener equality. So I very much feel excluded by gender equality.

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[–] dhork@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

As a man, I've never been made to feel excluded by gender equality in any way whatsoever.

Same here. However, I suspect you and I are not zero-sum thinkers, and can conceive of a future in which both men and women can apply themselves to their full potential.

But it seems like a key part of the counter-movement to gender equality is based on the notion that every time a woman gets a job, they are taking it away from a more qualified man. It seems to be built on a mountain of insecurity more than anything else.

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[–] FloMo@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I only see women being pushed into places with traditionally male majority, but not men being pushed into places with traditional female majority

Genuinely curious, got any examples of “traditional female majority places” that masculine individuals cannot enter/participate in?

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 43 points 4 days ago (17 children)

Not OP, but positions like nurses or teachers are very female dominated. It's not like males cannot reach those positions, but there are social obstacles to that. To make an example from my country, in Italy primary school teachers are > 90% female. I believe in kindergarten they reach 97 or 98%. This is also partially the result of strict gender roles than discriminate both men and women in terms of caring for children (I.e., women are de facto forced to do that, men are pushed away), which then reinforces the social practice of women doing all the caring jobs.

This is IMHO a problem for both men and women, but probably it's not from the same perspective as what OP meant...

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[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 36 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Daycare, men who work with children in general. It feels like taboo, and I assume it's because the general opinion seems to be that men that want to be around children are most likely pedophiles. I never heard of a program to include more men in daycare.

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[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 17 points 4 days ago

And it started from that valid criticism and then takes the viewer on a tour by various faces and influencers to pull them into more and more into right-wing territory to radicalize them. Once in that box, they're not getting out again. It's a right-wing conveyor belt.

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[–] Breezy@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (14 children)

Bill maher touched on this last night on his show, and i cant believe im seeing more of it.

He argued men are shat on far to often in todays media with female leads taking more lead roles.

He also brought up countless movies starting in the 80s that pushed the dumb dad/male narrative that persists today.

Does he have a point? Yeah idk really.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 37 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (29 children)

I think it's far more fundamental than that.

You've got a generation of young men who did what they were supposed to culturally: went to school, got good grades, went to college, never broke any laws, and their choices in life are permanent debt and struggling to afford a roach-infested studio apartment, living with their parents, or joining the military to survive. Here in the United States minimum wage won't even buy you a cup of coffee in large swaths of the country. (And 2/3 of the states still use that as their standard.)

The social contract has been broken, and for the first time, you've got a generation who are not going to live more fulfilled and enriched lives than their parents largely by no fault of their own.

Of course they're pissed. Governments should be addressing this, but it's more fashionable to blame young men instead, and the right-wingers are the only ones willing to admit there are fundamental economic crises for men.

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[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 23 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The dumb dad is fucking disgusting, it's in pretty much every animated show for kids.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Fuck the gender division, let's all be misanthropes together.

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[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

I haven't heard men say shit this stupid my whole life. This isn't 'tradition' it's a growing hate movement.

[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

the manosphere continuing to build power is all from capitalism, which has removed upward growth and community spaces for young white men. I say white because men from minority groups already have those problems but they don't have the inherent privileges that allow angry white men to make their problems into everyone's problems. also parents and schools dont have any resources to deal with children who are already sucked into the manosphere, short of cutting off access to the Internet

[–] gcheliotis@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

FYI, the manosphere is replete with non-white males, and that is not even including the inherent male chauvinism in other cultures. I’m sorry but the critique on whiteness is a little lazy intellectually.

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