How the ‘Manosphere’ Misuses Science to Brainwash Men Into Hating Women

Science has been used and misused throughout history to justify prejudice, social inequality and some of the worst things human beings have done to each other.

From phrenology, the 19th-century study of skull shapes and sizes as an indicator of mental abilities, the misinterpretation of Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ idea and the eugenics movements of the 20th century, there’s plenty of proof for that even in our not-so-distant past.

But today, it might be tempting to dismiss this phenomenon of ‘scientifically justified’ hatred as the product of a bygone era. Surely, we know better than that now, don’t we?

Well, no — not really.

In recent years, evolutionary approaches to human behaviour have been, once again, appropriated for a variety of ideological purposes.

And they seem to have garnered particularly substantial attention from the ‘manosphere’, a network of misogynistic men’s communities composed of incels — short for ‘involuntary celibates’ — Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) and Pickup-Artists (PUAs) among a couple of others.