Men Who Hate Women
From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How it Affects Us All
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4.2 • 48 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The first comprehensive undercover look at the terrorist movement no one is talking about.
Men Who Hate Women examines the rise of secretive extremist communities who despise women and traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spider web of groups. It includes eye-opening interviews with former members of these communities, the academics studying this movement, and the men fighting back.
Women's rights activist Laura Bates wrote this book as someone who has been the target of many hate-fueled misogynistic attacks online. At first, the vitriol seemed to be the work of a small handful of individual men... but over time, the volume and consistency of the attacks hinted at something bigger and more ominous. As Bates went undercover into the corners of the internet, she found an unseen, organized movement of thousands of anonymous men wishing violence (and worse) upon women.
In the book, Bates explores:
• Extreme communities like incels, pick-up artists, MGTOW, Men's Rights Activists and more
• The hateful, toxic rhetoric used by these groups
• How this movement connects to other extremist movements like white supremacy
• How young boys are targeted and slowly drawn in
• Where this ideology shows up in our everyday lives in mainstream media, our playgrounds, and our government
By turns fascinating and horrifying, Men Who Hate Women is a broad, unflinching account of the deep current of loathing toward women and anti-feminism that underpins our society and is a must-read for parents, educators, and anyone who believes in equality for women.
Praise for Men Who Hate Women:
"Laura Bates is showing us the path to both intimate and global survival."—Gloria Steinem
"Well-researched and meticulously documented, Bates's book on the power and danger of masculinity should be required reading for us all."—Library Journal
"Men Who Hate Women has the power to spark social change."—Sunday Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bates (The Burning), founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, examines "women-hating" online communities and their impact on real-world sexism and sexual violence in this distressing yet familiar expos . According to Bates, the "manosphere" includes "incels" (members of online "involuntary celibate" communities), pickup artists, men who avoid women in order to prevent themselves from being manipulated by them, and men's rights activists who believe that men are the truly oppressed gender. Their ideologies are linked, she contends, by the belief that "all women are the same." Bates infiltrates misogynistic forums to reveal how they foster a sense of belonging in order to indoctrinate alienated young men, and discusses recent examples of how the manosphere manifests itself in the real world, including the Gamergate controversy, which "introduced the idea of troll armies to the mainstream"; Elliot Rodger's 2014 killing spree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which has inspired other acts of incel violence; and characterizations of the #MeToo movement as a witch hunt. Though Bates offers little new information about who these groups are and how they operate, her argument that extreme misogynistic ideas are entering the mainstream is well-documented and persuasive. Readers will come away from this viewing the manosphere as a more serious threat.
Customer Reviews
Wow!
What a very eye opening and informative book! At first, I was depressed reading this book, but the ending gave me hope that change can happen.
Well Researched but Too Political
The chapters about incels, MGTOWs, and PUAs are as amazingly well-written and well-researched as they are bone-chillingly disturbing. Those would deserve five stars.
After such glowing start, however, the book becomes increasingly wordy and political, to the point that it portrays any mildly conservative man as a rabid misogynist. Even mild-mannered, harmless figures like Petersen and Rubin are presented as some sorts of incel “entry drugs” or presentable parlor-incels. To put it mildly, ridiculous. Two stars to these sections for some interesting and thought-provoking quotes.
The final section (solutions) is very vague and even more verbose, but it does offer some actionable suggestion. Three stars.
Bonus points for the courage and painstaking precision displayed by the author.