With the arrival of social networking, it has become easier than ever for social groups to organize, form, and unite. Because so many can so easily connect, this has ironically led to a fracturing of old groups into many, many smaller ones. If you’re not careful, it’s extremely easy to fall into a bubble of like-minded people and fail to see the wider world.
Sort of like how Hollywood stars truly can’t comprehend what the average person is like these days- if you unknowingly close yourself off to a vast population of the internet, you could end up not understanding how a growing section of society functions, what they’re thoughts are, and why they believe what they believe.
It’s true for politics, it’s true for online blackjack, and it’s true for a new, strong, undercurrent that’s dividing the sexes.
Incel
Let me introduce you to the most sympathetic movement on this list. Incels, a term that is short for “Involuntarily Celibate”, is a new group for men that just have absolutely no luck with women. Perhaps they lack in personality, looks, or status. Whatever the cause, women just refuse to go out with them.
And it’s not that these men are all hunchback, unbathed, trolls. They are regular guys who can’t land a date. The incel movement is more like a support group for men who feel lonely.
It doesn’t help that this group has gotten a lot of bad press too. After the release of the movie, “Joker,” starring Joaquin Pheonix, the mainstream media was running story after story about how “Joker” was an incel movie that would inspire violence across the country. It was an unfair and completely unjustified attack on the movement that fizzled out to nothing when the attacks didn’t happen.
One member of the group, when asked, said that his experience regarding the dating scene was, “…like death by a thousand cuts. It isn’t one specific thing [that made me an incel]” (Quote is from the channel Jubilee in a video titled, “I’m an incel. Ask me anything.”)
By the way, there was more violence during a showing of Frozen 2 than any of the “Joker” showings.
MGTOW
On the flipside is MGTOW. MGTOW is an acronym for “Men Going Their Own Way.” Unlike their incel counterparts, most MGTOW members were once part of relationships that went sour and ended with the man unfairly disadvantaged (although this is not a requirement). The basic idea is that MGTOW men forsake women and relationships altogether because they’re simply not worth the effort.
From the perspective of MGTOW, women date UP the social ladder, demanding that men be taller, smarter, wealthier, etc., leaving the rest of the men behind. What is left for most men are the shorter, uglier, unlikeable, women. Since these women, therefore, can only offer sex, relationships aren’t worth it when porn and prostitutes are available.
MGTOW also acts as a sort of men’s rights awareness movement, pointing out laws and societal expectations that favor women. Divorce proceedings, male-rape statistics (as in, men BEING raped), and, the organization argues, the lack of equality between the responsibility expected from men and women. MGTOW argues that far more responsibility is placed on men than women in society, despite the push for equality. Men do more dangerous work/jobs; they pay the bills, etc.
While personally, I think it’s a bit extreme to forsake all women because of these issues, it’s important to recognize that MGTOW represents real issues that underlie society at the moment.
Intersectional Feminism
If you thought that MGTOW was extreme, than Intersectional Feminism will horrify you – just in the complete opposite direction.
The ideology of Intersectional Feminism is a union between Identity Politics and the Feminist Movement. Rather than just being a movement to promote the rights of women, Intersectional Feminism pushes the rights for, ahem, “different kinds of women.” And by different, this includes Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation, and other minority groups that are “oppressed.” In fact, the intersectional part almost eclipses the feminist part in its entirety.
Intersectional Feminism treats people differently based on their immutable characteristics. White women are more privileged than black women, and therefore more music awards need to go to black artists, regardless of merit. That’s how the philosophy works. These immutable characteristics define one’s character. If you change one’s race, and nothing else, such a person is now ranked differently on the social hierarchy.
The fact that I, as a white male, am writing about this instead of a woman, a black person, or a disabled person, makes my opinion invalid (or less valid than it could be) according to Intersectional Feminism. All because of my skin color and chromosomes.
Intersectional Feminism is the worst parts of Identity Politics and far-leftist-Feminism rolled into one, having gone so far around that movement, ironically, is both racist AND sexist in the name of Social Justice.