GRSJ224/Online Backlash to Feminism: Meme Culture, the MRA, and Reddit

Online backlash to feminism refers to online movements against the feminist movement which have been present on the internet since the beginnings of social media in the early 2000s. Online backlash to feminism can be characterized as part of an anti-feminist campaign participated in mostly by heterosexual cisgendered men and is, in this context, closely associated with the alt-right movement in reaction to postfeminism, third- and fourth-wave feminism. These online backlashes are generally originating from North America in reaction to contemporary western feminism. The rise of various English language social media platforms on the internet has "enabled groups with firm anti-feminist stances to make themselves heard."

Introduction

To declare one's alignment with feminism in male-dominated online spheres, namely, websites known for proliferating sexist memes and ideologies such as 4Chan and Reddit, can be daunting. Internet culture and internet meme culture became vastly popular (in North America especially) in the 2010s, and has led to the creation of women- and feminism-exclusionary online spaces. Within these online spaces, feminism has become a taboo word, and feminists, liberals, the political left, and political correctness are often the subject of mockery, ridicule, and condemnation.

As Miltner states, "white masculinity is the constructed centrality in many participatory collectives, and as such, quite a few memes engage in problematic representations of women and people of color" and other marginalized social groups, such as the disabled, the elderly, the poor, the non-heterosexual, and non-cisgendered or gender nonconforming. The assumption of white masculinity is so deeply engrained in these various social media outlets that racism is common and accepted, with "black masculinity treated as both the object of jealousy and of hatred." Pornography, anime, and hentai is also heavily indulged in by many members of these communities, who may have leanings into geek culture.

The feminist concept of toxic masculinity is exemplified in many of these online spaces where women are treated as subpar sexual commodity, and men actively compete with one another, showing hostile attitudes towards male virgins or incels (involuntarily celibate men), the obese, and other perceived misfits.

Meme Culture

Meme culture involves the cultural community formed, both online and in real life, by the distribution, replication, modification, and creation of internet memes. As a term, the word meme comes from the work of Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist who theorized about "why certain ideas, catchphrases, trends, and other pieces of cultural information replicate through a population." Meme culture is extremely widespread on many social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and 4Chan. Due to Reddit's popularity, the site has "the ability to mobilize large groups of users." Memes on Reddit about feminism have been found to convey a negative view on feminism, associating feminism with hypocrisy, misandrists, and ugly white women.

4Chan

4Chan is notorious for memes as well as controversies with real-life consequence such as child pornography, the leaking of celebrity nude photos, murder, suicide and more. Users often use inflammatory language on this board forum site. The disappearing nature of these comments (threads get shredded after a period of time) and their anonymity enables this behaviour. 4Chan users frequently use ableist terms to namecall each other, such as "retard," "autist," etc. and post explicit images on topics ranging from suicide, self-harm, gruesome violence, to non-consensual sexual images of primarily women. Referring to 4Chan on other websites, even Reddit, is considered taboo. Some social media platforms, such as YouNow, censor the term "4Chan" as an inappropriate word.

Pepe the frog

Pepe the frog is a green frog cartoon whose history as a meme began on 4Chan. The figure originated from a comic strip by Matt Furie called Boy's Club. Pepe is sometimes seen in an outfit that makes him look like Donald Trump, holding a firearm, or reacting to various other contexts.

The MRA and Reddit

Reddit, a discussion forum founded in 2005 where users post photos, links, and comments on a variety of topics with anonymous nicknames, calls itself "the front page of the internet" and Men's Rights Activists, known online by the acronym MRA have a prominent stronghold on the website.

According to Allain's study of MRAs on Reddit, "MRAs appear to be mostly white, but beyond that, it is difficult to assess their demographic composition...[and] even within contemporary MRAs," there are different degrees of extremism regarding misogyny and gender essentialism. MRAs take an interest to a variety of topics, opposing contemporary feminists in a majority of them, from the wage gap to rape culture to violence on men by women and fathers' rights.

In male-dominated online spaces like many subreddits on Reddit, females and females' interests are made to feel othered and unwelcome. To paraphrase Workman, without moderators or someone enforcing community rules, females are intimidated through overt attacks on a person to highly sexual comments and visual pornography that dehumanize women...people exhibiting this behavior are often dubbed “trolls," trolling being an accepted way to treat women, feminists, or people with opposing views.

The Red Pill

The Red Pill is a pick-up artist subreddit on Reddit which gives advice to hetero cis men on how to seduce and subordinate women and remasculinize/regain an "alpha male" status in an age where "feminism is cancer." Its name is taken from The Matrix (1999). Once a man takes the red pill, he opens his eyes to the world as it really is, according to red pillers. The Red Pill is also known for a thread about Asian women as the ideal submissive, patriarchy-upholding woman. The subreddit is generally avoided, frowned upon, and not talked about in most of the other areas of Reddit, although Reddit is still a vastly male-dominated platform, with 69 percent of its users male as of February 2016 whereas the U.S. population is 49 percent male.

Alt-right

Pepe the frog, a popular meme figure recognizable as alt-right and/or 4Chan iconography, sometimes used as a mascot

Proponents against feminism who are part of the millennial generation constitute what is commonly called the alt-right. The alt-right movement is known stereotypically for supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election, white supremacy, and anti-feminism. Some terms alt-right participants are known for using are libtards, a combination of liberals and retards, and special snowflakes or special snowflake syndrome to describe whiny feminists and advocates for political correctness, among others with opposing viewpoints.

People in the alt-right movement are at times called neo-nazis by outsiders. Many consumers and participants in the social media avenues mentioned above can be classified as part of the alt-right, the alt-right now becoming a general and widespread term associated with anti-feminists (especially the young, white, male anti-feminists.)

Women Against Feminism

There are prominent women who have large online followings for their positions against the left and feminism or their positions in other American political hot topics such as gun control. Tomi Lahren is one such notable woman, along with National Rifle Association representative Dana Loesch who came to prominence in the aftermath of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Women such as Lahren and Loesch are self-declared anti-feminists and have become icons used by anti-feminists to further fuel their campaign.

WomenAgainstFeminism is also a hashtag used online by women who share their explanations of why they are anti-feminist. Additionally, there is a subreddit called /r/LadyMRAs.