We know all about the edgy 'manosphere' bullshit that teenage males basically get shoved down their throats these days and gladly suck up since they don't see any alternatives, but what about women?

  • rootsbreadandmakka [he/him]
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    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Especially when I hear some of the advice that women give each other concerning men

    Okay yeah I agree this is one thing I absolutely think represents extremely toxic attitudes for women. I see this stuff online and have absolutely encountered it irl. I'm unsure of what to call it, I don't think there's any term that embodies the attitude like the "manosphere" for men. It absolutely plays into girlboss attitudes too, but I don't think I'd consider it the same thing. That sort of "men are useless" boomer "I hate my wife" attitudes for women. I don't know how else to characterize it. I absolutely know what you're talking about but I think the phenomenon is a little fuzzier than the manosphere.

    I'm not sure it's quite fair to paint it as equivalent to the manosphere. The manosphere has extremely regressive politics associated with it, you seem to start out a libertarian and end up some sort of weird esoteric carnivore fascist, whereas women with these attitudes usually just embrace normie politics, albeit with this weird caricature of what a right-winger imagines feminism is like tacked on. It also imo doesn't seem to translate into "I hate men" the same way the manosphere translates into this seething, visceral hatred of women. Even those women who do say "I hate men," it always more comes off to me as a rhetorical, emotional statement rather than an expression of some deep-seated belief about the opposite gender. It also more often seems like a reaction to very real issues facing women. Not saying men don't also face real issues which can often push them to the manosphere, but diving into the manosphere also seems to be just as often a reaction to women asking for basic respect. So it has similarities but imo it's not as concrete a phenomenon and doesn't have the same social and political causes nor consequences, or at least the consequences are not as extreme, it's mostly similar in that it's toxic attitudes based on gender. However if we're just talking toxic attitudes prevalent among young women I think whatever we can call this attitude has a very strong case, it really has seeped into a lot of diverse spaces similar to the manosphere.

    I suppose it could be considered the girlboss attitudes, but idk. Girlboss attitudes also are very tied to work, like the image of the female CEO with a bunch of male underlings, or maybe Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton controlling the levers of power. Work and career seem less essential to this other attitude, and it's more just concerned with relations with men regardless of career or even status. Often, yeah, it's the housewife/homemaker with a rich husband that is held up as the ideal rather than the girlboss CEO. Idk, sort of just talking based on vibes now, I think I'm out of my element a bit, but I do absolutely know what you're referring to here.