"This Ends When Men End it" : Men on Reddit Grappling with Shifting Gender Relations in the Wake of #MeToo

“This Ends When Men End it”: Men on Reddit Grappling with Shifting Gender Relations in the Wake of #MeToo

Marloes Brunsting 12291633

Sociology: Social Problems and Social Policy Under supervision of Sylvia Holla

Second Reader: Paul Mepschen Universiteit van Amsterdam

Inhoudsopgave

Results: Male Narratives on Reddit 21

Male Perceptions of #MeToo 21

Sceptics of the #MeToo movement 21

Justice 24

Public versus Private 30

Online Female Stereotypes 33

“Women Lie” 33

Breaking the Stereotype 34

“Women want Power” 37

Harassment or business agreement? 38

Online expectations of Men 41

Male Hierarchy 41

“Not All Men” 45

Conclusion 48

Summary

The purpose of this research was to gain insight into the discourse of a collection of male only online communities known as the manosphere. This was done by comparing narratives from male communities on Reddit belonging to the manosphere to discussions from male

communities that do not belong to the manosphere. These discussions were analysed with regards to gendered power dynamics. This was achieved through observing female stereotypes and male hierarchy, as mentioned by the men.

The findings from this research were that the communities that are part of the manosphere host narratives which feature more strict female stereotypes and hierarchical masculinity, compared to a more lenient attitude found on the community not part of the manosphere. The prior communities expressed more distrust towards the #MeToo movement, and justified this position by citing women breaking with their gendered expectations. On the community that was not part of the manosphere, #MeToo was generally supported, despite some concern for negative individual consequence.

These results indicate that the discourse present in the manosphere is one of strict gendered expectations. When these are not adhered to, hostility manifests.

Recommendations for further studies would be to include in-person interviews with members of the manosphere, in order to have these individuals explain their worldview first hand.

Foreword

When I started working at an insurance firm after my bachelors at a Liberal Arts college, I was shocked to hear people refer to #MeToo in a joking and derogatory manner. For instance, male co-workers joked about being ‘#MeToo-ed’ in situations of physical contact, such as kissing a female co-worker on the cheeks at her going-away party. In my social circle at college, #MeToo was seen as an important societal movement, by no means as something to be treated lightly or made fun of.

Once I had noticed this different attitude towards #MeToo, seeing it as a witch-hunt targeting all men instead of a tidal wave of justice toppling powerful predators, my eyes kept being drawn to examples of it. Most of these examples were online; as soon as I looked beyond the websites I frequent, I found dissatisfied men who found each other in online communities and apparently agreed in their vision of the effects of the #MeToo movement.

As this appears to be a widespread viewpoint, I believe it would be unwise to ignore these voices. To focus solely on my own view of #MeToo would be to turn a blind eye to a large part of society. I believe that for society to change for the better, different views should not be swept under the rug; instead of fragmenting into us-them thinking, we should aim for

understanding. This is why I decided to study the online male response to the female-led movement that is #MeToo.

Introduction

In April 2018, a man rammed his van into a crowd in Canada, in attempt to kill them. He did this after posting on Facebook about rebelling against women who refused him sex. In this post he cited the killer in the Isla Vista killings, who posted a manifesto about his hatred of women online prior to carrying out his crime (Bacon & Madhani, 2018, April 24). These examples illustrate that misogynistic men have found a community online where they feel free to express these sentiments. These communities fall under the moniker of ‘the

manosphere’.

Yet the Internet is also where the #MeToo movement started. The Internet hosts both

communities that rally for women’s rights, whilst simultaneously being host to communities that antagonize women (Banet-Weiser & Miltner, 2016). Although these communities do not appear to have much overlap in membership, they are aware of each other. The contrast in worldview between these groups can be illustrated by the way men write about the #MeToo movement. Digital technologies have enabled these men to harass women, specifically feminists, to new extents, both in severity and quantity (Mendes et al, 2018). Indeed the increase in popularity of social media has entailed a new way for men to target women, yet the root of this aggression is the same as it is in offline society: sexism (Banet-Weiser & Miltner, 2016). However, these online male communities complicate prior analysis of

gendered power relations by including notions of victimhood into their self-expression (Ging, 2017).

The aim of this research is to uncover how beliefs about gender, and their associated power dynamics, shape the narratives regarding the #MeToo movement on male-only spaces on Reddit.

This will fill a research gap as identified my Massanari:

New media scholars as well as activists would be well served in exploring these publics, however unsavoury, from this perspective, as it could provide insight into alternative designs and/or tools that may combat their spread (Massanari, 2015, p.342).

This study builds onprevious research by applying previous studies done on (online)

masculinities, gender stereotypes and sexism to the specific location of male communities on the website Reddit and examining them in the timeliness of the #MeToo movement. To

differentiate between male online spaces that do not belong to the manosphere and those that do, both will be included in the research.

In order to uncover the gendered undercurrent in the narratives, first the way the #MeToo movement is discussed will be examined, by contrasting the attitudes found in the

manosphere to those found in a non-manosphere male space. This will focus on possible scepticism regarding the #MeToo movement, questions of justice and whether the #MeToo movement is viewed as a private trouble or a public issue.

Following this, stereotypes concerning women will be focussed upon. Stereotypes that are at the focus of this chapter are the view that women lie about sexual harassment, and that

women are emotional and incompetent. Then the focus will shift to the response on the online male spaces when women do not behave in accordance to these stereotypes. Lastly, the reframing of sexual harassment as consensual acts will be discussed.

Finally, the focus will shift from female stereotypes to masculinity. This chapter is divided into two parts; first the hierarchy between different masculinities as put forward in the manosphere will be examined, then the perceived role of men in the #MeToo movement will be discussed.

This research will provide insights on the different narratives that exist in male-only online spaces and how these narratives are constructed in relation to gender stereotypes. As such it will add to the knowledge on the manosphere by examining what discourse inspires these communities. My aim for this research is not to illustrate whether the views held on Reddit are factually correct, but instead to shine light on a part of society that may not be visible to the general public. I believe attempting to understand these men is important, as it is difficult to change societal structures when there is a drought of information. That is why I think researching these men and their negative response to #MeToo could benefit the #MeToo movement, as paradoxical as that may sound.

Theoretical Framework

#MeToo

#MeToo is the name associated with a social movement that started in October 2017. The movement started after the New York Times posted an article accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting women; this inspired actress Alyssa Milano to post a tweet urging

survivors of sexual assault to post the words “Me Too”, in order to illustrate the scope of the problem. The phrase #MeToo became a trending topic on twitter, meaning that it was one of the most discussed hashtags at the time. This inspired many to publicly accuse others of sexual harassment. The phrase ‘me too’ in relation to sexual harassment was not coined by Milano, but a decade earlier, by activist Tarana Burke (Mendes et al, 2018).

The two catalysts for the trending MeToo hashtag, the Harvey Weinstein expose and Milano’s call for a public display of the widespread structural issue of sexual abuse, illustrate the movement’s main focus, which is giving a platform for survivors of sexual harassment to share their experiences, whilst simultaneously showing how common these experiences are (Ohlheiser, 2017). Despite the focus of the #MeToo movement being on the accuser dealing with an experience, the public accusations have an effect on the accused too. Actors were removed from projects, reputations were damaged, and Weinstein, whose accusations kick started the #MeToo movement has been arrested (Kettrey, 2019).

Although this was seen as a triumph by those who supported the #MeToo movement (Kettrey, 2019), this cause and effect was not universally celebrated. The lack of validity necessary in order to accuse someone of sexual assault, in combination with the effect that a #MeToo accusation can have on the life of the accused, raised questions (Bennhold, 2019).

Discussions surrounding the #MeToo movement often go beyond the consequences for those directly involved, such as the accuser and the accused; they focus on the societal impact, whether positively or negatively (Ohlheiser, 2017), (Kettrey,2019), (Bennhold, 2019). This focus on the society-wide cause and effect of the #MeToo movement instead of on the individual level shows the #MeToo movement is regarded as a public issue instead of a private trouble.

C. Wright Mills discussed the difference between private troubles and public issues in his influential book ‘The Sociological Imagination’. This difference boils down to private troubles being an individual’s problem, whereas public issues being society-wide problems that affect a group of individuals. Mills illustrates this difference using the example of

however, employing the sociological imagination, one can transcend this view and understand this private trouble as a manifestation of a society-wide problem with unemployment, which is an example of a public issue (Mills, 1959).

In the context of #MeToo, this entails not treating an individual sexual harassment case as one bad apple, but instead viewing sexual harassment as a social issue which structurally affects people in positions of lesser power than their harasser.

Although the #MeToo movement is focussed on the issue of sexual harassment, there are underlying issues of gender. Both men and women can be victims or perpetrators of sexual harassment. However, both in societal imagination and in crime statistics, perpetrators are predominantly male and victims are predominantly female (Black et al, 2011). Even Alyssa Milano’s original tweet, calling for victims to speak up, spoke of victims as women. This is a stereotypical view on gender, and can be linked to the rape myth that men cannot be sexually harassed (Edwards et al, 2011).

As the majority of literature surrounding #MeToo and the manosphere discusses gender as a binary, male and female being the only options, that terminology will be used in this study, as opposed to the view that gender is a spectrum, with more than two possibilities.

Manosphere

Active resistance against the view that sexual harassment is a gendered issue, and that the perpetrators are overwhelmingly male, comes from the manosphere. This is an umbrella term for online communities of men, where issues surrounding masculinity are discussed. These communities are anti-feminist (Dutton & Gottell, 2016). The manosphere is increasingly associated with the alt-right and white supremacy (Sonnad & Squirrell, 2017), however, as this research focuses on the gendered views of the manosphere, the factor of race is not included. As the manosphere actively resists the framing of sexual harassment as perpetrated by men, and disagrees with feminism (Dutton & Gottell), backlash to the #MeToo movement can be found on these platforms (Tomassi, 2019), (Atria, 2018). The manosphere has a history of being violent and hateful towards women; this categorical discrimination based on gender can be categorized as sexism. Sexism is not homogenous, as explained by Connor and Fiske’s (2019) theory on ambivalent sexism. This theory states that two different types of sexism together uphold the system of male dominance over women in society.

The first of these two sexisms is benevolent sexism, which emphasizes men and women’s compatibility in terms of strengths and weaknesses, whilst emphasizing women’s lower status. This portrays women as pure and in need of protection.

The second type of sexism mentioned is hostile sexism. This consists of explicitly antagonistic attitudes towards women, who are viewed eager to use their sexuality and feminist ideology to take men’s spot at the top of the gender hierarchy, and as incapable of doing so. Benevolent sexism rewards women for adhering to their gender stereotypes, whilst hostile sexism punishes women for diverting from their stereotypes (Connor & Fiske, 2019).

Stereotypes

Much of the way sexual harassment is spoken of in the manosphere corresponds to stereotypes on how women do and should behave(Dutton & Gotell, 2016). Hoffman and Hurst describe gender stereotypes as “explanatory fictions” (1990, p.199); they argue that stereotypes are not based on observed differences between the sexes, but instead are created to rationalize and justify the division of social roles. This justification happens in two ways. Firstly, instead of acknowledging structural societal inequality, differences between the sexes are blamed on internal and controllable causes (Connor & Fiske, 2019). An example of this would be to blame the lack of women in CEO functions on a lacking work ethic, instead of the structural bias against women known as the glass ceiling.

The second mode of justification is to claim that the current division is compatible with the two genders’ nature (Hoffman & Hurst, 1990). These two modes of stereotyping can co-construe justifications, in the sense that the internal and controllable cause can be attributed to going against the nature of an individual’s gender. Staying with the example of women failing to become CEOs, this would be justified by claiming that the hard work and tough decisions that are part of the job do not work with women’s kind and gentle nature.

In this division of social roles, women are subordinate to men; men benefit from this division, this creates incentive for men to ensure that women do not break the societal mould that shapes them (Rudman & Glick, 2001). Having this unequal societal standing acknowledged or challenged can make men act in a hostile manner towards women (Ellemers, 2018). When an individual goes against their gender’s stereotypical expectations, this person will be viewed as an individual outlier who does not represent their gender, instead of stereotypical expectations being altered (Ellemers, 2018).

people of a gender should behave. This entails that when people divert from their gender stereotype, they are devalued and disliked by other members of society (Ellemers, 2018). Gender stereotypes are constant; research shows that there had been no significant change in gender stereotypical attitudes between the 1980’s and 2014, despite social changes in this time period, for example women’s prevalence on the workforce (Haines, Deaux & Lofaro, 2016). Studies have shown that endorsing traditional gender stereotypes predicts acceptance of rape myths (Klement, Sagarin & Skowronski, 2018).

Rape Myths

The #MeToo movement explicitly discusses sexual harassment on a global scale. In

discussions of unwanted sexual acts, rape myths can occur (Edwards et al, 2011), (Barnett et al, 2017).

Rape myths are “a set of largely false cultural beliefs that were thought to underlie sexual aggression perpetrated against women” (Edwards et al, 2011, p.761). Sexual violence is upheld by patriarchal structures of male dominance over women (Edwards et al, 2011). As stated previously, acknowledging the power imbalance in society is uncomfortable for both men and women (Ellemers, 2018).

To justify the structural violence that women face at the hands of men, as is the case in the majority of reported sexual violence (Quick & McFadyen, 2017), blame is shifted away from a structural power imbalance onto the individual victim; this is done using rape myths

(Edwards et al, 2011). There are many rape myths, following is a summary of three myths that come forward in discussions surrounding #MeToo.

The first of these myths is that men cannot be sexually harassed. Although the #MeToo movement has enabled men to come forward with accusations of sexual harassment, most notably Terry Crews and Anthony Rapp (Bradley, 2018), discussions on sexual harassment still portray victims as women (Klement et al, 2018). This erasure of male victimhood is cited by the manosphere as a reason to discredit the #MeToo movement (PettyJohn et al, 2018). The second myth is that women lie about sexual assault. In this myth, women lie about being raped to punish men, or they regret having had consensual sex, and then lie about rape to cover up their own sexual behaviour (Edwards et al, 2011).

The third myth is that whatever occurred was not unconsensual (Rollero & Tartaglia, 2018). This myth can be found in stories that claim that women had sex with their accuser as part of a business transaction, for example to secure a movie role. A different motivation given for

What shapes the discussion around an allegation of sexual harassment is where the onus of innocence is placed (Klement et al, 2018). According to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 11, individuals accused of a crime are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty (UN General Assembly, 1948). However, this can be read to imply that unless the accused is found guilty of harassment by a court of law, the accuser is presumed to be lying.

Within the context of #MeToo, the threshold to publicly accusing someone is low; with one tweet an accusation can be published for the general public to view. Although there is no third-party validation needed to come public with accusations, the addition of the MeToo hashtag could lend the accusations a platform (Mendes et al, 2018).

Despite sexual harassment being illegal in many parts of the world, as exemplified by the United Nations’ Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993), sexual harassment still has the reputation of being difficult to prove, as is visible in this quote, which was read in court proceedings for sexual crimes in the United States until the 20th century (Klement et al, 2018),which claims that rape, and by extension sexual harassment, is “an accusation easily made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the accused, tho (sic) never so innocent (Hale, as cited from Klement et al, 2018, p.17). This quote illustrates how the possibility and likelihood of an innocent individual being accused of sexual assault is ingrained in the judicial system. This makes sexual harassment differs from other crimes, in the sense that it is not just the accused who is scrutinized for blame, but the accuser too (Klement et al, 2018).

Views on Men

Masculinity can be defined as a particular society’s beliefs on what it means to be a man (Gennrich, 2013). Connell’s theory argues that there is not one fixed masculinity, but that there are different masculinities that relate to one another on a spectrum (Connell, 2005). The first spectrum is that of hegemony and subordination. Hegemonic masculinity is not a

category with fixed characteristics; it is the type of masculinity that occupies the hegemonic position in society.

Hegemony is a term coined by Gramsci, which refers to the way one group maintains a leading position in a culture’s social life. There is not one defined way to outline what hegemonic masculinity consists of; it can shift as culture changes. Additionally, a type of masculinity can only become hegemonic if there is a correspondence between cultural ideals

of masculinity and institutional power. This successful claim to authority is what elevates certain masculinity to become hegemonic (Connell, 2005).

Connell applies this term to argue that this is the most dominant type of masculinity; men adhering to it are viewed as the archetype of masculinity in that particular society. Hegemonic masculinity is the answer of a specific culture in a specific time to the question “How to be a man?” This hegemonic masculinity is how men’s domination over women is legitimized (Connell, 2005).

Not all men belong to the hegemonic group, those unable or unwilling to practice hegemonic masculinity can be categorized as practicing subordinate masculinity. This masculinity can be defined as men who are oppressed by the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Connell’s example of masculine subordination is gay men being subordinate to heterosexual men, who have hegemonic dominance in contemporary Western society (Connell, 2005).

In the hierarchical structure of masculinities, hegemonic masculinity takes up the top spot and subordinate masculinity is at the bottom. In between these two masculinities ranks

cooperative masculinity. This masculinity is made up of men who do not practice ‘complete’ hegemonic masculinity, yet reap the benefits of this structure of domination, which places these men above other men, and men above women (Connell, 2005). These men tend to live lives of “extensive compromise with women” (Connell, 2005, p. 79), yet accept and

reproduce societal domination by men over women (Connell, 2005).

This relationship between domination, complacency and subordination is the first part of Connell’s framework. The second part is the relationship between marginalization and authorization. This relationship is characterized by its interplay with societal structures outside of the gender order, meaning that men are powerful in gender, yet a minority in some other way, such as race or class (Connell, 2005).

An example of marginalized masculinity is that of black athletic excellence; famous black athletes may become symbols of hegemonic masculinity, yet this does not elevate the status of black men in general. The interaction of class or race hierarchy with masculine hierarchy create a masculinity which is partly dominant and partly subordinate; this is what Connell calls marginalized masculinity (Connell, 2005).

An additional masculinity was introduced by Bridges and Pascoe (2014); their addition is hybrid masculinity. These “hybrid masculinities (i) symbolically distance men from

hegemonic masculinity; (ii) situate the masculinities available to young, White, heterosexual men as somehow less meaningful than the masculinities associated with various marginalized

and subordinated Others; and (iii) fortify existing social and symbolic boundaries in ways that often work to conceal systems of power and inequality in historically new ways.”

By denying their privileges as men, these men distance themselves of existing power relations. This is done whilst profiting from and fortifying these very power relations. This entails that men practicing hybrid masculinity deny structural issues that women face (Bridges & Pascoe, 2014), going as far as to say women are oppressing men (Dutton & Gotell, 2016). Simultaneously, these men reap societal benefits associated with masculinity, thus upholding traditional power structures (Bridges & Pascoe, 2014).

This denial of gendered power structures that disadvantage women have long been denied in websites associated with the manosphere (Dutton & Gotell); this is the case in the #MeToo movement too (Mendes et al, 2018).

Methodological Approach

The philosophical underpinning of this research is feminist sociology; this approach lays bare the power relations associated with gender, which underlie larger social structures. Feminist sociology shines light on forces that create or support inequality (Abbott & Wallace, 1990). Although this study does not directly focuses on women, as it is focussed on the narratives of men, the study relates to the way these men view women and gender roles. The aim of this study is to view how the meanings abstracted from male narratives relate to gendered power relations; this topic suits feminist sociology, as this philosophy is concerned with gendered power relations (Abbott & Wallace, 1990).

This study takes on an inductive approach; instead of testing a prior hypothesis, the study starts with the observation of the data. From findings in the data, connections to theory are sought. The aim of the study is to be able to generalize the findings from this study to wider society, instead of having the findings be limited to this specific sample.

The strategy of data collection takes the shape of non-participatory participant observation; this type of data collection entails no involvement or contact between the study population and researcher, whilst observation occurs (Bernard & Gravlee, 2014).

The communities that are observed are four male-only spaces on Reddit; three of these belong to the manosphere, one does not. This subreddit outside of the manosphere acts as a yardstick by which to compare the subreddits belonging to the manosphere.

As communities belonging to the manosphere have in the past been aggressive to women (Salter, 2018), safety concerns were a motivation to remain as anonymous as possible and to minimize interaction with the communities.

Reddit as a Research Context

The context for this study is the website Reddit, specifically four of its subreddits: /r/AskMen, /r/MensRights, /r/PurplePillDebate and /r/MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way).

These platforms were selected based on their significance in mobilizing men online in the past (Salter, 2018), or their reputation as an “overwhelmingly negative and toxic space for

women” (Mendes et al, 2018, p.244).

Additionally, these subreddits can be accessed without needing to be officially registered, thus making it possible to gather data anonymously.

Reddit is not the only website that has played a key role in shaping the discourse beyond its site (Massanari, 2015); however, other sites where these discourses can be found do not save the content posted on the site, making it difficult to gather data.

As ‘the front page of the internet’ as its tagline reads, Reddit hosts content about all subjects that are popular on the Internet, as long as they adhere to a set of rules, including not posting another’s personal information or sexual images without consent of the subject (Reddit Content Policy, 2019). Reddit describes itself as a ‘neutral’ host for all sorts of discussions (Massanari, 2015), meaning that all sorts of voices can find an audience, amongst which, members of the manosphere (Wiseman, 2014)

Registered members, known as ‘redditors’ can submit posts, these can be images, texts or links. These posts are often reposts of material from other websites; these are then aggregated on Reddit. These posts are hierarchized as other members either vote them up or down. Other members can comment on the original posts, thus discussions can take place. Posts are categorized in member-created boards called ‘subreddits’ (Massanari, 2015). Reddit was founded in 2005; in the 14 years since it has grown to be the 6th most visited website worldwide (Alexa Internet, 2019).

Research Strategy

In order to research the narratives on male spaces on Reddit, first these narratives have to be located. This entails that first male spaces need to be localized, then the specific narratives concerning the #MeToo movement.

The first step of this process is orientation: browsing Reddit to get familiar with the website’s functions, different communities and the slang used. Additionally, this orientation phase includes consulting previous literature done on Reddit’s male spaces.

The second phase of the data collection process is selecting specific subreddits (indicated by ‘/r/’ in front of the name of the group) to gather data from, followed by collecting specific narratives on the #MeToo movement from these subreddits.

A male-only subreddit prevalent in both literature and on Reddit is /r/TheRedPill.

However, this subreddit has to be excluded from the data set, as it has been quarantined by Reddit, meaning that its content cannot be located using the search function. As this function is crucial in the mode of data gathering, /r/TheRedPill cannot be included, which could provide difficulty in connecting this research to other studies.

However, from the preliminary orientation on Reddit a different subreddit comes forward, which resembles /r/TheRedPill, entitled ‘Purple Pill Debate’. This subreddit aims to be a neutral platform for discussion, yet appears to have a large overlap in content and users with /r/TheRedPill. This can be illustrated by the example of the verb ‘to redpill’; Redditors on /r/PurplePillDebate often describe themselves as being ‘redpilled’, meaning they adhere to the thought patterns common on /r/TheRedPill. This subreddit is not quarantined and thus more accessible, both for researcher purposes and for potential visitors on Reddit.

/r/PurplePillDebate should not be equated to /r/TheRedPill, as the two are distinct to the extent that /r/PurplePillDebate is not quarantined. However, the two are similar enough for the former to act as a surrogate for the latter, for the purpose of maintaining external validity in regards to other studies concerning the manosphere.

Following a snowball-based approach that starts with /r/TheRedPill lead to three other subreddits, these are /r/MensRights, /r/MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way), and the previously mentioned /r/PurplePillDebate. The last subreddit, /r/AskMen, is found trough Reddit’s homepage. An overview of the subreddits in the dataset can be found in the table on the following page.

Subreddit Name Number of Followers Description of Subreddit

Posts in Dataset

/r/AskMen 1.200.000 “The premier place to ask random strangers for terrible dating advice, but preferably from the male

perspective.”(AskMen, Retrieved 2019).

“What are your thoughts about all this harassment stuff?”

“What do you consider inappropriate touches?”

/r/MensRights 224.000 “Any issue that pertains to men's relationship to society is a topic suitable for this subreddit. The forces that oppose men's rights are also a topic for discussion.”

(MensRights, Retrieved 2019).

“France’s Actress Catherine Deneuve and 99 other French women denounce the #MeToo campaign”

/r/PurplePillDebate 23.800 “PurplePillDebate is a neutral community to discuss sex and gender issues, specifically those pertaining to

/r/TheBluePill and /r/TheRedPill” (PurplePillDebate, Retrieved 2019).

“CMV: For all our talk about clear consent and dudes being creepy”

/r/MGTOW 112.000 “This subreddit is for

men going their own way, forging their own identities and paths to self-defined success” (MGTOW, Retrieved 2019). “The #MeToo Movements in a nutshell” “Which one” “Women in STEM be like” “The #MeToo

movement’s effects are rebounding hard”

These subreddits are selected on the basis of being male-only spaces, where societal issues are discussed. These spaces are confirmed as hosting discussions between men either through the explicit declaration, for example in the subreddit’s name, or by observing the narratives on the subreddit, as in the case of /r/PurplePillDebate.

After the selection of subreddits comes the selection of specific posts from these groups. As the objective is to only include posts that discuss the #MeToo movement in the dataset, the search function is used. This facilitates localizing posts which featured narratives that contained mention of #MeToo.

As this results in uneven quantities of posts across the subreddits, a selection is made from all posts that came up in the search. The posts which host substantial discussion of #MeToo are selected, filtering out those which only contained a passing mention. The quantity of selected posts differs per subreddit; this ensures that the amount of data would be spread fairly evenly, as some subreddits feature shorter discussions than others.

A concern surrounding the ethics of this study is the fact that these men did not write their comments with the intention of them being used in a study; the researcher is not the intended audience. However, these comments were posted on a platform, which the users knew was visible to the general public. To protect the identity of the users who posted, their comments are presented without their usernames.

A limitation to this study is the self-identification of Reddit users; there is no third party validation of the identity of the users. This means that despite the forums presenting as male-only, this may not be the case. For the purpose of this research, the online gender

Method of Analysis

After collection, the data is entered into the Atlas.ti software; this is software, which facilitates qualitative analysis. Codes were created both inductively, based on preliminary research and theoretical framework, and deductively, based on findings in the data.

These codes were then grouped into thematic families; Atlas.ti enables codes being grouped into tables and charts, which facilitates categorizing the data before analysis.

The process of collection, coding, grouping and altering themes is not linear; extra data is collected after coding and grouping the previous data, themes are altered and data recoded multiple times.

Once gathered, the data is analysed using narrative analysis; the study focuses on the stories as told by the men, in their own words. The specific subtype of narrative analysis that is used is thematic narrative analysis. Thematic analysis is used to identify thematic patterns within data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Thematic narrative analysis is thus the identification of thematic patterns in a data set, which is comprised of narratives as told by the population that is

studied.

The aim of this research is to bridge the gap between the micro level, being the narratives as shared by the men, and the macro level, being the discourse of male dominance (van Dijk, 1998). An understanding of frameworks of meaning prevalent in the subreddits is attempted through analysing specific narratives posted to these subreddits; these frameworks of meaning may fit into discourses present in offline society.

Discourse is the system of meanings that shapes the way individuals view the world; it

impacts the way people see and speak about reality. Narrative is this view of reality recounted by an individual. Discourse is an overarching paradigm, whereas narratives are invoked by an individual (Holstein & Gubrium, 2011).

Results: Male Narratives on Reddit

The following section discusses the findings from the data analysis. These findings are organised according to the sub questions.

First, the narratives on #MeToo that are located in the separate subreddits are detailed. Following this, these narratives are related to stereotypes surrounding women and their corresponding rape myths.

Lastly, male stereotypes and views on masculinity found in the narratives are subject of scrutiny.

Male Perceptions of #MeToo

An overarching view across the four subreddits is that #MeToo has become as widespread as it has, as a result of a societal situation that preceded the #MeToo movement. Users on /r/AskMen recall hearing about sexual harassment “all the time” (“What do you guys think”, Retrieved 2019), as “people have been making these claims for years” (“What do you guys think”, Retrieved 2019). On /r/MensRights, a different situation is thought to have preceded the #MeToo movement; one user claims that #MeToo is a continuation of a culture where “women have been law suit lightning rods for a while” (“France’s Actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019).

This example shows that despite the overarching view that the #MeToo movement is borne from societal trends, the different subreddits disagree on which trends these are, and whether #MeToo is a symptom of an illness, or the medicine.

Sceptics of the #MeToo movement

In all subreddits, there are narratives that incorporate a degree of scepticism of the #MeToo movement. However, this scepticism concerns different aspects of the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo movement was discussed most favourable in the AskMen subreddit, compared to the other three subreddits I looked at. Here, scepticism focussed on the degree of lasting impact #MeToo would have.

Consensus amongst many users of /r/AskMen was that the underlying problem of sexual harassment is the supposedly inherent corrupting effect that power has on individuals and that positions of power naturally attract predators. Many narratives echoed the following

Positions of power and influence naturally attract predators, a lot of this stuff hasn’t exactly been hidden but society ignores it. Hopefully this time people won’t forget it once the media agenda has moved on. (“What do you guys think”, Retrieved 2019). In this quote the view is visible that it is no coincidence that people of power are being accused of sexually predatory behaviour; this user claims that predators are “naturally” attracted to these positions. Other users do not believe positions of power attract predators, but instead create them, such as the following user:

The vast, vast, almost entire majority of people will do fucked up things if given the relevant power. Milgram proved this a long time ago. Wherever there is power, there will be some kind of corruption (“What do you guys think”, Retrieved 2019).

As these processes are presented as given, or natural, it makes it difficult to view them as changeable; this could explain the reluctance of some /r/AskMen users to believe in society’s capacity to be different.

Other users do not view these power structures as human nature, yet doubt the capability of the #MeToo movement to change these structures.

These worries are often based on the media’s supposed short attention span.

A group of /r/AskMen users expresses doubt that #MeToo will last long enough in the public’s collective consciousness to make a meaningful and lasting change in society. One user accused society of having “a scarily short attention span and awful memory” (“What do you guys think”, Retrieved 2019). This low attention span, according to some /r/AskMen users, will move on to the next fad soon, meaning that #MeToo will only affect the surface of society by holding a few sexual harassers accountable, without altering the structural roots that have allowed sexual harassment to occur on the scale that the #MeToo movement

indicates it has. They view #MeToo as a temporal purge which will not alter power structures or the corrupting effect that power has on individuals.

Although these narratives express scepticism of #MeToo, they acknowledge that sexual harassment by those in superior positions of power is a societal issue, and that the purpose of accusations in the context of #MeToo is to solve this issue. This position is widespread in /r/Askmen, yet not present in the other subreddits.

In /r/MensRights, /r/MGTOW and /r/PurplePillDebate, discussion on the topic of #MeToo’s efficiency in ending structural sexual harassment was limited, and overshadowed by

discussion of #MeToo’s potential negative aftermath; the scepticism focussed on the #MeToo movement potentially giving all women an untrustworthy reputation. This potential scenario is primarily localized in work.

The users on these subreddits claim that through the #MeToo movement, women have an instrument to do damage to their employers or co-workers, by accusing them of sexual

harassment. Yet these users claim that it is women themselves who will become the victims of this power, as it will make them appear dangerous and thus avoided.

The story that is reiterated throughout these subreddits is that although an accusation may benefit the woman who claims it, through being rewarded money or having the accused removed from his position, it will ultimately do damage, not just to the woman who accused, but to all women in the workplace.

Users refer to the concept of “shadowbanning”, meaning to ban an individual without their knowledge (“France’s Actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019), being blacklisted, or simply avoided. These concepts all indicate that through accusing someone in the workplace of sexual harassment, women will be excluded from opportunities in their field of

employment (“France’s Actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019), (“Which one”, Retrieved 2019), (“CMV: For all our talk”, Retrieved 2019).

The negative impact of workplace accusations in the spirit of the #MeToo movement is not limited to the accusers, according to users in /r/MGTOW, /r/MensRights and

/r/PurplePillDebate; the actions of a few women are believed to cast a light on all women in the workplace, as put as one /r/MensRights user:

The metoo movement makes it hazardous for men to work with women. This makes women less hire-able (“France’s Actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019). These users did not view the #MeToo movement as intending to topple an unjust power system, instead, they viewed it as a select group of women putting the reputation of women in general in jeopardy, thus ruining women’s opportunities in the workplace.

These examples show that all four subreddits hosted narratives which were sceptical of the #MeToo movement. However, the focus of this scepticism differed between /r/AskMen and

changed, whilst being supportive of the #Metoo movement’s focus. The latter hosts the view that the women bringing workplace sexual harassment to light are only harming women in the long term, whilst being dismissive of the #MeToo movement’s intent of removing sexual predators from positions of power.

Justice

A theme that comes forward in varying degrees from the narratives of all 4 subreddits was a concern with justice; this concern can be grouped into three topics, as captured in the following comment on /r/AskMen:

Metoo have (sic) two major flaws that turns it into the crazy witch hunt it is today. Kangaroo court mentality (listen and believe) and the broken definition of sexual harassment.

That’s two major components of any out-of-control lynch mob (“What do you guys think”, Retrieved 2019).

Although the user claims to have two issues with the #MeToo movement, three topics come forward from his comment: a concern with baseless accusations making anyone at risk of being accused, a confusion about the definition of sexual assault, and a clamour for the accused to get a fair trial, instead of a trial by media.

False Accusations

The first concern, about possible false accusations, was a topic of concern in all subreddits, although it was discussed in different manners, depending on the subreddit. Following is an excerpt of a PurplePillDebate conversation, where the subreddit achieves its goal of hosting conversation between different viewpoints and experiences. The first user expresses anxiety from the perspective of the (falsely) accused, whereas the second user brings forth the perspective of the accuser or victim of sexual assault:

As someone who was falsely accused before, it is a legitimate fear to have. I think it’s wrong for either side to neglect the other, but I’ve seen way more men falsely accused than actually assaulting someone in my experience. Your experience might be

To this, a different user responds:

Maybe because by default you aren’t aware of the repeated harassment that women experience. You might also be seeking out material to confirm your own beliefs. such as the posts on reddit about false accusations.

You are also probably not aware of how much sexual assault and rape is never reported and the victim never talks about it.

It’s easier said than done to just tell someone to report such a thing. Especially since she will be judged a slut by many men which ever way it goes. (“CMV: For all our talk”, Retrieved 2019).

This interaction shows that male Reddit users in the manosphere are not homogenous in their views surrounding the #MeToo movement. The first Redditor uses his own experience of witnessing more false accusations than instances of sexual harassment to legitimize his fear of future false accusations; in this view, more false accusations occur than actual instances of sexual harassment. Viewing sexual harassment accusations in this light makes the #MeToo movement seem dangerous.

The second Redditor places this lack of experience in bearing witness to sexual harassment in the context of women not reporting, instead of sexual harassment not occurring; in this view, the number of false allegations is dwarfed by that of unreported occurrences of sexual harassment. This stance on sexual harassment justifies the #MeToo accusations. In

/r/PurplePillDebate, the latter view is in the minority, the fear and experience expressed in the prior view is reproduced in separate narratives on the subreddit.

This fear of being falsely accused is an echo across time of Hale’s sentiment that rape is a crime of which an accusation is easily made (Hale, as cited in Klement, 2018). This belief that accusers of sexual harassment lie about what happened is widespread in contemporary society (Rollero & Tartaglia, 2018); an in-depth examination of this belief is given in chapter 2. Individuals can publicly accuse someone using the hashtag MeToo, this bypasses traditional gatekeepers of information, such as newspapers; these accusations do not need to be validated by a third party. Simultaneously, forcing people to redact their statements through local law enforcement is difficult when the accusations are published on a global scale (Bennhold, 2019).

In summary, this fear of being falsely accused, intertwined with the belief that false accusations are a common occurrence, is cited by the manosphere as the fuel behind the distrust of the #MeToo movement.

This distrust is visible on all four subreddits, to different extends; it is relatively rare on /r/AskMen, yet dominates the narratives on the three manosphere subreddits. These views on false accusations are not unique to the online manosphere; they have been widely reported in offline culture for centuries (Edwards et al, 2011), (Klement et al, 2018).

Definition of Sexual Harassment

The fear that #MeToo may foster a culture where being accused becomes equal to being found guilty is present in all subreddits, as illustrated in the following excerpt, from an /r/AskMen post:

Like with everything in hashtag culture there’s way too much overreach. Obviously the super powerful guys who use their power to harass are wrong. But it seems like now every unwanted proposition equals sexual harassment. And worse if a man is accused he’s automatically guilty. (“What are your thoughts”, Retrieved 2019).

This fear was in part based on insecurity about the definition of sexual harassment. The desire for nuance when discussing #MeToo allegations is expressed by an /r/AskMen user in the following comment:

I wouldn’t call the Bill Cosby accusations “sexual harassment” I’d call them “rape.” If the accusations are true, he drugged women into a stupor then loved up like a horny-toad.

Meanwhile, Weinstein is walking out of his bedroom sporting an erection and likely propositioning a quickie or some such.

Both are gross and wildly inappropriate, and Weinstein richly deserves the firing he got. But not the same thing. Maybe more Weinstein stuff will come to light and he’ll actually be charged with rape, I dunno. I wouldn’t be shocked if it happens. But so far as I know it’s not there yet. (“What are your thoughts”, Retrieved 2019).

sexual behaviour are subjective, there is no clear border of what counts as an offense ‘worthy’ of a #MeToo accusation and what does not (Pipyrou, 2018). Many narratives, across all subreddits, cite a lack of definition of sexual harassment as a source of fear. This lack of definition or threshold on what counts as harassment is a source of fear and ridicule. Firstly, men express feeling insecure on how to govern their behaviour in a manner that avoids being accused of an offence in the context of #MeToo.

Secondly, men ridicule a movement that they view as giving equal gravitas to accusations that differ, such as rape and inappropriate flirtations.

This lack of definition is cited by many men across subreddits as a reason not to take the #MeToo movement seriously.

Doubts on the justness of the #MeToo movement were present in all subreddits. Similar to the fear that women outright lie about harassment that did not occur, men on Reddit fear that #MeToo enables women to shift the narrative surrounding minor occurrences to appear as more severe. The fear that #MeToo casts a net that will catch people who are innocent in the eyes of the men on Reddit is related to the fear that when men are caught in this net, the mode of punishment is not just.

Fair Trial

The third concern surrounding justice that comes forward in many of the narratives is that the #MeToo movement interferes with the right to a fair trial for the accused. According to men on all four subreddits, accusing someone in the context of #MeToo can have different

outcomes than reporting harassment to the police or a superior in a work context; the response or punishment between these differs.

These narratives often cite fear that the #MeToo movement can do damage to the life and reputation of the accused. This potential damage as a source of anxiety is expressed in the following quote from an /r/AskMen user:

Scares me how a group of 50 women with no other evidence could potentially collaborate, and condemn an innocent man with no evidence other than their

testimonies if they don’t like him. Even if declared innocent by law, 50 false cases of sexual assault will still completely destroy someone’s life forever.

I’m not saying that’s happening with any of the active cases, but I consider it a worrying possibility. (“What are your thoughts”, Retrieved 2019).

This user claims that accusations in the context of the #MeToo movement hold such power that even if an accused individual is declared innocent by a court of law, the #MeToo accusations can have tremendous negative impact on the life of the accused.

Whilst a fair judicial system is bound by regulations meant to ensure a fair trial (UN General Assembly, 1948), the #MeToo movement is not bound by these regulations. The informality of the #MeToo movement entails that people accused do not enjoy the protections they would get in an official trial. Despite these lacking protections, the #MeToo movement is viewed as capable of having negative effects on the life of the accused.

An example of this is what happened in the wake of the accusations towards Harvey

Weinstein. After the New York Times (Kantor & Twohey, 2017) published the article, which claimed Weinstein had a history of abusing his power to sexually harass women, there were immediate consequences for the film producer. Although his case was not yet brought before a judge, he has faced negative effects as a result of the accusations against him, as he was fired from his company, ousted from the Film Academy, and his wife divorced him (Batty et al, 2017). These consequences were not the result of an official order handed out by a judge; these changes were the result of a newspaper article, which changed Weinstein’s reputation (Kantor & Twohey, 2017).

The men in the subreddits cite cases, often from their own social circle, of innocent men harmed through accusations whilst not being found guilty, or not being charged, by a court of law, for example the following user, who posted on /r/MGTOW:

A male colleague was just dismissed for debating with a female over metoo, in which she filed harassment.

This comment illustrates the fear present in many narrative across all 4 subreddits: that women will be able to inflict negative consequences, through #MeToo, on men who did not sexually harass them.

Although discussion on the lack of a fair trial in the #MeToo movement is present on all four subreddits, the manner in which this topic is discussed differs between /r/AskMen and the manosphere. To illustrate this difference is a quote from a user in the MGTOW subreddit, also concerned with the concepts of reputation and justice:

But nope, guilty until proven innocent as always. Fuck #metoo it’s the closest thing in all my years I’ve seen to literal internet cancer. (“The #MeToo movement in a

nutshell”, Retrieved 2019).

By examining two comments that cover the same topic, we can contrast them to see where they differ in their description of this topic.

The /r/AskMen comment imagines a hypothetical situation where as many as 50 women conspire in order for a fake accusation to work. In contrast, the MGTOW comment claims that fake accusations can easily have effects.

Another difference is the attitude towards #MeToo. The first comment can be read as careful not to offend, by ending with the notion that he is not claiming that any of the current

accusers are lying. The second comment, however, blatantly condemns #MeToo, describing it as “internet cancer” (“The #MeToo movement in a nutshell”, Retrieved 2019).

As much as these comments differ, they are similar in the way they highlight the fact that #MeToo holds the potential power to do damage to the lives of the accused, without them having had a fair trial in a court of law; they fear that as this power is unofficial, it goes unchecked.

In summary, the trifecta of concerns surrounding a lack of justice in the #MeToo movement entails that men fear they are accused according to an unclear definition, that women are always believed when they accuse someone, and that even if a court of law declares the accused innocent, the #MeToo movement can take measures into its own hands and wreak havoc on the reputation and life of the accused. These fears can be interpreted as a fear of the power that women hold through the #MeToo movement, that these men feel they hold no influence over. They hold no influence over #MeToo’s outcomes through their own behaviour, as they feel that women can either twist non-harassment behaviour into being viewed as harassment, or women can outright lie about harassment that never occurred. Additionally, the justice system is viewed to hold no power over the #MeToo movement, as people who are not found guilty in court can still experience tremendously negative effects after an accusation.

Public versus Private

The #MeToo movement has influence on two levels; on the individual level it aims to elevate the voices of people speaking out against sexual harassment, whilst aiming to alter a societal structure, which allows for sexual harassment to occur, on a societal level.

This interplay between individual and societal is also present in how men in the different subreddits viewed negative aspects of the #MeToo movement.

The men who posted on the subreddits often relate the effects of the #MeToo movement to their own individual lives and to society at large. The degree to which they did this differs between the subreddits.

On average, men who visit /r/AskMen see #MeToo as having a positive effect on society, whilst harbouring fears and doubts about their personal life and reputation. These narratives view the potential downsides of #MeToo as a private problem, instead of a public issue. This is illustrated in the following excerpt, which is a response to the question “What do you think about all this harassment stuff?” This question was posted in the AskMen subreddit:

It’s awesome that it’s coming to light and could go a long ways to send serious messages to those men in power who could do such violent acts. It’s a crime already that so many people turned a cheek on it or made jokes. Hopefully no longer will a woman have to be subjected to some creepy powerful man just because she wants a job.

On a smaller scale I hope that ordinary men in every day life are not scrutinised to the point where removing themselves from certain social parts of society. I’m reading a lot of “men are bad” etc… stuff around the inter webs. I get it though in the immediate light of the incredible criminal behaviour of Weinstein. (“What do you think”, Retrieved 2019).

This excerpt illustrates how the two emotions can operate on different levels. On a societal level, the writer expresses happiness, whilst expressing concern on a private level; he voices a desire for differentiatingbetween perpetrators of harassment and “ordinary men”.

Where the user describes these two levels as scales, Mills (1959) would describe them as private troubles and public issues. The user zooms in to the individual level do describe his fear of a private trouble, namely being scrutinised as a man, whilst transcending it to speak of the public issue of sexual harassment. This sentiment is widespread in /r/AskMen.

The difference in tone between subreddits becomes clear when comparing the previous excerpt to the following, which was posted in the MGTOW subreddit.

It’s sad that metoo started to raise awareness of (actual, legitimate) sexual assault victims and support their emotional well-being. Now it’s become an excuse for women to acuse any man they want with baseless claims to either get money, tarnish

someone’s reputation, or blackmail them (“Which one”, Retrieved 2019).

This narrative is similar to the previous in the sense that it acknowledges support to sexual assault victims and praises the #MeToo movement for it, before expressing concern. However, this comment explicitly lays the blame for #MeToo’s potential downsides with women, where the previous comment was ambiguous about who would generalize men. This comment also specifies women’s motivation for misconstruing men; which is greed.

Additionally, this comment from /r/MGTOW differs from /r/AskMen in the scope of the worries that are expressed. Where the previous comment was concerned with “ordinary men” (“What do you think”, Retrieved 2019) being scrutinized, the latter comment is concerned with women tarnishing the reputation of “any man they want” (“Which one”, Retrieved 2019).

The narratives found in the manosphere subreddits paint potential downsides of #MeToo as public issues, instead of private troubles. Where /r/AskMen users focus on their own experiences when discussing potential negative effects of the #MeToo movement, the other three subreddits utilize their own experiences to frame the #MeToo movement as a societal problem. This is visible in the following quote:

The top guys you saw getting fucked over in the past several years were the tip of the ice-berg. Ten percent above the water, the rest below. The unheard cases like the one above are examples of the mass extermination that’s taking place across this country, spreading to other countries as well. It’s a power grab, and these cunts don’t play fair (“The #MeToo movement in a nutshell”, Retrieved 2019).

This comment diverts from the previous narratives in multiple ways. Firstly, the writer views the loss of status, jobs and reputation that were a result of #MeToo accusations not as justice being served, but as a worldwide attempt by women to take over powerful positions that

Secondly, there is no mention of the question of guilt on the part of the accused, or acknowledgment of sexual harassment as a public issue. Absent in this narrative is the weighing of good and bad parts of #MeToo. The previous comments discussed the “coming to light” (“What do you think”, Retrieved 2019) of serious accusations towards “creepy powerful men” (“What do you think”, Retrieved 2019), before contrasting this with possible downsides to the #MeToo movement. In contrast, this comment does not list any possible societal benefits from #MeToo.

Lastly, this comment does not view these apparent consequences to the #MeToo movement as unrelated troubles that individuals are facing, using the iceberg metaphor, he views all those experiencing negative effects as a result of accusations of sexual harassment as symptoms of the same public issue.

In summary, many male narratives on Reddit express fear in regards to the #MeToo movement, as they view it as unjust. This lack of justice is experienced as a result of the vague threshold for sexual harassment, the view that accusations are often false, and the lack of regulation on the negative consequences that one can face after an accusation in the context of #MeToo.

Men on /r/AskMen express having these anxieties on an individual level, whilst celebrating #MeToo as a remedy to a public issue. Men in the manosphere view the perceived lack of justice in the #MeToo movement as a societal issue that men face.

Online Female Stereotypes

In writing about #MeToo, the men on these subreddits often, either explicitly or latently, expressed views about women. The views that were expressed differed quite significantly between subreddits; although the subreddits often touch upon the same subject, their approach to these subjects can differ. One of the roots to these differences can be found in the

prevailing stereotypes on women that exist in the subreddits. One such stereotype is present in the question of validity of sexual harassment accusations, which was touched upon in chapter one; this is the stereotype that women are prone to lying.

“Women Lie”

Across all four subreddits, narratives can be found which discuss baseless accusations of sexual harassment, albeit in different quantities. An example of this is the following quote, from a response in /r/PurplePillDebate:

That’s because you haven’t witnessed the utter hipocracy (sic) of some of the attention seeking girls that do it. Sometimes it literally may be a guy talking or asking a

question to the wrong girl on the wrong day then he gets hit with a charge. Because for people who were falsely accused, it usually is a “Came out of nowhere” unbelievable type situation. (“CMV: For all our talk”, Retrieved 2019).

This comment portrays the gendered roles at play in a case that leads up to a sexual

harassment charge. It positions men charged with sexual harassment as innocent actors; they are positioned as not intending to interact with women in a sexually charged manner. Women are called hypocritical and their motives for lying are painted as “attention seeking” (“CMV: For all our talk”, Retrieved 2019). The argument that #MeToo accusations are a way for women to get attention is also visible in the following excerpt, from /r/MGTOW:

For women, though, #metoo is a chance for them to concort a fake assault story and play the victim so that they feel special and desirable. They believe that if they do not have a #metoo story that means they are too ugly to be desired by men. (“The #MeToo movement in a nutshell”, Retrieved 2019).

motivations, “attention seeking” vague in comparison. The MGTOW user goes into more detail, claiming that having an assault story will make women feel desired by men. Here is another excerpt from the same subreddit, which summarizes the writer’s belief of women’s motivations for lying about harassment:

It’s sad that metoo started to raise awareness of (actual, legitimate) sexual assault victims and support their emotional well-being. Now it’s become an excuse for women to accuse any man they want with baseless claims to either get money, tarnish

someone’s reputation, or blackmail them. (“Which one”, Retrieved 2019). Where the previous MGTOW post connected false accusations to women’s desire to be attractive to men, the second MGTOW post views their motivations as unrelated to heterosexual desire and solely related to selfish reasons.

These comments show that beyond claiming that women lie, men attribute certain motivations to women for lying; these motivations are personal gain. For the following user, the belief that women lie for personal gain has made him distrustful of the entire #MeToo movement, he illustrates this by talking about one of the women originating the MeToo hashtag:

I was never under the impression that #MeToo had good intentions, the woman who came up with it in the first place has no problem with any of the crazy shit happening and is milking it to benefit herself, and is a hypocrite. (“France’s actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019).

Where the comment from /r/MGTOW claims to respect the starting point of the #MeToo movement, this user distrusts the movement down to its founder; one woman’s supposed hypocrisy is used to illustrate the state of the entire #MeToo movement.

The intentions of the women accusing through #MeToo movement are not viewed as altruistic by the manosphere; instead they are portrayed as lying for a variety of reasons.

This portrayal shows distaste for women upsetting the status quo in society.

Breaking the Stereotype

Women who speak up against sexual harassment are described in a negative fashion in the majority of the narratives on the manosphere subreddits, and in a minority of narratives on

/r/AskMen. In the following quote from /r/MensRights, the extremely negative attitude towards the actresses who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment is explicit:

If anything Harvey etc enabled a bunch of rather bland average looking women with very little talent to become major stars merely because they were vaguely his type and would suck his dick. Deneuve was legitimately gorgeous and talented. It must piss her off to no end that far lesser women have careers based on cock snorkelling. (“France’s actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019).

This user’s attitude towards Deneuve can be described as benevolent sexism; this is a

chivalrous attitude that perceives women who adhere to their gender role as pure and in need of protection (Glick & Fiske, 2001), (Ramos et al, 2018).

In comparison, the attitude of many users in /r/MensRights, /r/PurplePillDebate and /r/MGTOW towards the women who came forward with accusations can be categorized as hostile sexism; this is a hostile attitude towards women who break with their gender’s

expectations and are considered to be “usurping men’s power” (Glick & Fiske, 2001, p.109). This relation between praising women who reject #MeToo and antagonising women who embrace it can be described as the Madonna – whore dichotomy, where women are either put on a pedestal, or vilified. Although the treatment of women differs between benevolent and hostile sexism, they both have their roots in the same worldview where men are in a position of dominance over women (Glick & Fiske, 2001), (Ramos et al, 2018). These two sexisms prescribe how women ought to behave, for example decline offers of movie roles in return for sexual favours. One such prescribed feature is that women ought to be less competent than men and warmer in their affections (Ramos et al, 2018).

This stereotype is present in many of the narratives in the manosphere; it is cited as a reason that the #MeToo movement will not succeed (“The #MeToo movement in a nutshell”, Retrieved 2019), or as an explanation for male dominance in the workplace (“France’s Actress Catharine Deneuve”, Retrieved 2019).

Many of the narratives that speak negatively about women in relation to the #MeToo movement relate to the breaking of this stereotype, such as in the following post from /r/MGTOW:

This user perceives society’s current state, with the #MeToo movement, as negative. He relates this to women not adhering to their prescribed role, namely that of housewife.

This negative response to women breaking with their stereotypical roles aligns with Ellemers’ (2018) claims that the response to individuals not adhering to gendered stereotypes is often negative; this response can take the shape of aggression. Men who strongly believe in stereotypes react in a hostile manner when male dominance is threatened.

As previously mentioned, hostile sexism depends on the view that women are less competent than men, since women were described as incompetent (Connor & Fiske, 2018). This view was found in more narratives posted to /r/MGTOW than in all other subreddits combined. To protect the worldview of male dominance and competence against the reality of #MeToo’s societal presence (Mendes et al, 2018) the men in the manosphere utilize the stereotype of female incompetence, such as in the following quote discussing the #MeToo movement, posted to /r/MGTOW:

Because women are too fucking dumb to think long term. This shit will eventually bite them in the ass, but all they see is the short term benefits. And the ONLY reason they’re benefiting is because of fucking simps and cucks that allow them to. (“The #MeToo movement’s effects”, Retrieved 2019).

This user includes ‘lesser’ men in his narrative, as being accomplices to the success of a women’s movement. This is logical in the context of hostile sexism, as women are viewed as incompetent. As incompetent women reaping success with the #MeToo movement is

incongruent with this view, an explanation is needed as to how this success is possible; this could explain the need to include lesser men into this narrative.

In the case of the #MeToo movement, the stereotype that women are warm and emotional, in contrast to male competence and logic is not adhered to. The movement started with very famous women behaving in a manner that threatens the male position of dominance, for example by publicly demanding a man be removed from a position of power. This behaviour can be interpreted as women not practicing their gendered role, and thus stepping of their pedestal; this may trigger the manifestation of hostile sexism.

This breaking with stereotypes and gendered expectation could explain the reaction of intense negative emotion by the men on the subreddits, excluding /r/AskMen. Women breaking with