Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
September 15, 2024
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- Books
Manosphere, World Of Incels Exposed In Laura Bates Book 'Men Who Hate Women'
September 3, 2020
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Books
“...misogyny and violence against women are so widespread and so normalized, it is difficult for us to consider these things 'extreme' or 'radical,' because they are simply not out of the ordinary.”
On April 23, 2018, self-described incel Alek Minassian deliberately drove a rented van into a crowd of pedestrians on a busy Toronto street, killing 10 and injuring 16 others, mostly women.
Earlier this month, the "involuntary celibate" was found guilty on all counts for the murderous act, with Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy explicitly rejecting the defense team's argument that his autism made him not criminally responsible for his actions.
Other self-described incels have had no trouble defending the mass murderer, with one commenter on The Black Pill Club, and incel hangout online, remarking that Minassian's act was "a middle finger to this hostile society." Another commenter's only complaint was that Minassian hadn't killed enough people to warrant worship.
Is it too much to call what Minassian did "terrorism?" Laura Bates thinks not. The founder of the Everyday Sexism Project and author of a number of other books about misogyny spent a year immersed in what's called the "manosphere," a vast online world in which incels rub elbows with an assortment of other misogynists — from "pickup artists" with little respect for the concept of consent, to the male separatists who call themselves Men Going Their Own Way (but who can't seem to stop talking about women). The book she has extracted from this experience, Men Who Hate Women, which hit U.S. shelves this month but published earlier in the UK, is an often harrowing read; an uncompromising guide to the misogynistic backlash of the past decade or so.
“Men Who Hate Women...is an often harrowing read; an uncompromising guide to the misogynistic backlash of the past decade or so.”
The Guardian wrote "For this brilliantly fierce and eye-opening book, Bates has descended into the vast underworld sewage system of online misogyny, and brought back a persuasive and alarming thesis. But first she guides the reader through the various hellish circles of the manosphere. NPR said "Men Who Hate Women, which hit U.S. shelves this month but published earlier in the UK, is an often harrowing read; an uncompromising guide to the misogynistic backlash of the past decade or so."
