WAR ON WOMEN

France urged to act as rising masculinism flagged as security threat

France must adopt a national strategy to combat masculinism – an organised ideology that promotes male supremacy and hostility to women – as it spreads online and poses a growing public security risk, the country’s gender equality watchdog has warned.

Masculinist ideas are spreading online, with a French report finding many men view feminism as a threat rather than a movement for equality. 

Issued on: 22/01/2026 - RFI

In its annual report on sexism, the High Council for Gender Equality, an advisory body attached to the office of the prime minister, on Wednesday said France was falling worryingly behind in identifying and tackling masculinism.

The council said the phenomenon should be recognised as a public security issue, warning that hatred of women can lead to violence and even terrorism. It noted that countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom have already included the issue in their strategies against violent extremism.

Masculinism emerged in the 1980s as a reaction to feminism. The ideology promotes male supremacy and blames women for what its supporters see as a decline in men’s living conditions.

Senior French civil servant accused of mass drinks spiking to humiliate women

From ideology to violence

“This is a real threat. From the moment you develop a hatred of women, there can be violence and terrorist acts,” Bérangère Couillard, president of the council, told French news agency AFP.

The report cited several cases linked to misogynist violence, going back to 1989 when a self-declared anti-feminist shot dead 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in Canada.

In France, an 18-year-old was arrested last summer in Saint-Étienne on suspicion of planning knife attacks against women. He was charged by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor, marking the first case involving someone claiming allegiance solely to the masculinist “incel” movement.

The council described that judicial decision as “a major step forward”, and said it now supports integrating what it calls “misogynist terrorism” into security doctrines.

This would involve training intelligence agents to recognise the language, recruitment methods and narratives used within the so-called manosphere.

Growing 'masculinist' culture in France slows down fight against sexism

Online influence

“If masculinist language is not understood, it gets missed,” Couillard said. She cited the British series Adolescence as an example of why familiarity with these terms matters.

The Netflix series, released in March 2025, depicts the murder of a schoolgirl by a classmate and the influence of masculinist ideas on boys. In January, French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that it will be shown in French schools.

The gender equality watchdog said such masculinist ideologies were spreading more widely in France and elsewhere, especially among young people through social media.

It called for stronger regulation and more resources for Pharos, the state platform for reporting illegal online content, and Arcom, the media regulator.

A 2024 study by Dublin City University found that young men are exposed to masculinist content within 23 minutes of browsing TikTok and YouTube, on average, regardless of whether they looked for this material.

France to show 'Adolescence' mini-series as part of school curriculum

Hostile vs. paternalistic sexism

The council's report is based on an online survey by polling company Toluna Harris Interactive of 3,061 people aged 15 and over, representative of the French population.

It found that 60 percent of men believe feminists are seeking to give women more power than men.

A quarter of men said it was normal for a woman to agree to sex to please a partner or out of duty. The same proportion said they had already doubted a partner’s consent.

From these findings, the council estimated that 17 percent of the French population adheres to “hostile” sexism, which devalues women and justifies discrimination and violence.

“The risk is that these people join and become members of masculinist networks,” said Couillard.

In addition, some 23 percent of those surveyed supported a more “paternalistic” form of sexism which promotes traditional gender roles, the council said. Often seen as benevolent by its proponents, it nonetheless contributes to inequality by confining women to stereotypical roles based on fragility or dependence.

French investigators expose failings in Dominique Pelicot mass rape case


France's General Inspectorate of Justice has exposed failings in an investigation into Dominique Pelicot, accusing authorities of not acting on DNA evidence against him for a dozen years. Pelicot's DNA was taken by police after he was first apprehended in 2010 in a suburban Paris shopping centre while filming up women's skirts .


Issued on: 19/01/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

Courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows Gisele Pelicot, and her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot during his trial in Avignon, southern France, on September 17, 2024. © Valentin Pasquier, AP

France's General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ) has exposed failings in an investigation into Dominique Pelicot, convicted in a high-profile rape case, for not acting on DNA evidence against him for a dozen years, in a report seen by AFP.

Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December 2024 in a case that shocked the country, after admitting to repeatedly drugging his then-wife Gisele Pelicot and inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious between 2011 and 2020.

During the trial, it emerged that he had been first apprehended in 2010 in a suburban Paris shopping centre while filming up women's skirts, and had his DNA taken by police.

A few months later, he was connected with an attempted rape in the Seine-et-Marne area east of the capital on May 11, 1999.

French rape victim Gisele Pelicot arrives at court for appeal trial 

AFP - CHRISTOPHE SIMON
01:51

Yet the DNA match was not acted upon by the justice system for more than 12 years.

In October 2022, he was finally placed under formal investigation by a cold case unit in Nanterre, west of Paris, for the 1999 incident as well as a 1991 rape and murder of a woman in Paris.

Last year, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin called on the IGJ to look into why the investigation did not happen sooner.

The IGJ report seen by AFP this week found that the court investigating the 1999 rape had no receipt of receiving the evidence, which was sent by regular mail.

Furthermore, the court at the time was undergoing a structural re-organisation and "loss of documents was sometimes observed", the report said.

READ MORE  France enshrines consent in sexual violence law in wake of Pelicot case

The IGJ report highlighted "vulnerabilities" and general malfunction in the handling of genetic profiles, prompting a list of recommendations to secure the receipt of reports issued by France's National Automated DNA Database (FNAEG).

Contacted by AFP, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, said "the work of justice had been undermined".

She also acknowledged that the rape case involving his ex-wife "could have been avoided" had police intervened earlier.

"If we take it at face value, yes, this case could obviously have been avoided," she said.

Pelicot has admitted to his involvement in the 1999 case after he was identified by his DNA, but has denied involvement in the 1991 rape and murder case.

Last week, the Nanterre cold case unit launched a broader investigation into Pelicot's "criminal trajectories" to identify other possible crimes and victims.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

AMERIKAN FEMICIDE

Renee Good, Viola Liuzzo and the Fragile Ego

of Masculinism

Phil Wilson

 January 19, 2026

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Viola Liuzzo.

There are a few new things in the US – just recycled atrocities that the media fails to recognize as sequels. In the US flash flood of bad dreams, the latest event in the drive-by-whizz of meaningless horror – the cold-blooded public execution of Renee Good – has come and gone. Good now becomes – at the moment the bullets strike – a sort of wayward example of uncertainty. Why Renee Good? At a casual glance she is none of the things that the US hates murderously – not an immigrant or a communist, not even an atheist. We learn that she has a wife and that she had been previously married twice to male partners. There is no reason to assume that the murderer, Jonathan Ross, knew any of this – and one should not speculate that he acted out of homophobic rage. Have we seen Renee Good before in the shadow play of the US news cycle? Renee Good projects a disturbing ordinariness – an old dog in the back with a grey muzzle, and a child seat next to the dog. Our bleary eyes alight for a moment on a seemingly unremarkable white woman caught in the act of briefly departing from domestic routine. Like all random murder victims, she dies in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We have a history of home-based enemies – Jews, Muslims, atheists, Unitarians, communists, Quakers, socialists – people that the FBI historically side-eyes with a measure of latent disgust, but only sporadically assaults. Fascism pulls up the mask, pulls down the pants, and reveals a fully erect gun that finally has the full blessing of the highest authorities. Renee Good is not the first upstanding White woman to be offered up at the altar of violent sacrifice – even in my own youth, we had Allison Krause (not Allison Krauss, the blue-grass fiddle savant) and Sandra Scheuer. Kent State National Guardsmen panicked and sprayed gunfire. This massacre fell well within the US tradition of mass shootings – the periodic ritual involving guns, crowds, vengeance, and paranoia. Nixon, sociopath, lia,r and war criminal that he was, understood that the optics of repression required that he tread carefully around the issue of murdering upstanding White US citizens. He called a press conference after the shooting and cleverly, in a soft, measured voice, bullshitted the public about his belief that “the protesters” wanted peace just like he did. We are really all on the same side he said. Yeah, this was the sort of flagrant dishonesty that inspired Trump. Trump figured out that racists want their bile in its most transparent form. But America’s homicidal zeal generally has tiptoed around the unique privilege of those living comfortably in the homeland. If Allison Krause and Sandra Scheuer were mere victims of paranoia and chance – catching bullets that momentarily sprayed hatred while seeking random targets – we have an obscure history of political harm toward wayward White women that has been overlooked.

Predictably, Black women are killed by police in greater numbers than White women, but researchers have compellingly argued that class, even more than race, accounts for the demographic details of police killings. One study concluded that poor White people are statistically more likely to be killed by police than middle and upper-middle-class Black people. The murder of Renee Good, however, does not fit into the typical categories of police violence that help us to place the killing of, say, Breonna Taylor into a broader context. Middle and upper-middle-class White women are among the least likely demographics to die by police violence.

However, Good was not killed by police, but by paramilitary forces (even if given official status in the current fascist system). Unlike Breonna Taylor, who was killed in a random hail of bullets by hair trigger police who had forcefully entered Taylor’s apartment in a botched effort to arrest a suspect who was not present, Good seems likely to have been targeted, at least in part, for her gender. We can’t get into the head of the murderer, Jonathan Ross, but it might not be outlandish to guess that Good’s white skin triggered the homicidal response in some way as well. If dark skinned and poor people often risk police ire as a matter of predictable institutional racism, White, educated, middleclass women have a very rare and specific way of falling afoul of violent authorities.

Good’s murder fits into a category so vanishingly small, that I can think of only one single historical incident that shares similar context – the 1965 KKK murder of civil rights volunteer, Viola Liuzzo. It may seem startling to view ICE as the linear offspring of the KKK, but the tie between Klan violence and police killings (as recognized in the famous Rage Against the Machine line, “some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses”) ought to make us aware that right wing paramilitary violence has always been an adjunct to official power structures.

Liuzzo entered America’s most terrifying fantasy when a car with four Klansmen (one being an FBI informer) pulled alongside her vehicle on an Alabama road between Selma and Montgomery. She had Michigan license plates and a 19-year-old Black male passenger next to her. She had bravely gone to Alabama to help organize Black voters, and to ferry disenfranchised people to places of registration – in and of itself, a capital offense in Jim Crow states. Thus, the psychological triggers, within the KKK hypervigilant psyche, made her fate inevitable. Her killers likely imagined her as the very symbol of “miscegenation.” A White woman with a younger Black man on a rural stretch of road might have stirred the most violent fear in the White, masculinist heart. A klansman shot her in the head. Like with Renee Good, her car veered and crashed. Her passenger, Leroy Moton, survived by pretending to be dead. In the hierarchy of masculinist rage, the murderous impulse reserves a place for White women who stray from their cultural niche.

But death was not enough retribution – FBI head, J Edgar Hoover, launched a smear campaign against Liuzzo, accusing her of being an adulterer and a heroin addict. The Klan publicly exulted in her murder, posting pictures of her dead body, and “bragging about the murder.” The masculinist, racist mindset mobilized against Viola Liuzzo’s legacy – in death, she might have become the first White, female martyr in the struggle for racial equality. J Edgar Hoover and his allies in the Klan made every effort to erase Viola Liuzzo from historical consciousness. They succeeded in spectacular fashion. We recall John Brown, Medgar Evans, Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney and Rev. James Reeb with due reverence, but Viola Liuzzo remains as an obscure footnote.

An undergraduate research paper by Alyssa Ness observed:

“When comparing Liuzzo’s murder to other murders during the civil rights movement, it is evident that she not only received less recognition for her heroic dedication in the movement than others but was also heavily scrutinized by the government and the public through the media for defying traditional white gender roles for women of her time. Louis B. Nichols was hired by the FBI in order to manage the bureau’s interactions with news and media. Nichol’s main role in the bureau was to prevent the bureau from gaining negative attention through media and entertainment by promoting its preferred image, and any media outlet that opposed the FBI would be attacked by supporting media outlets. The FBI and press distorted the reason Liuzzo had participated in the march and what the march was about in order to gain public support. Along with Hoover and the press, traditional middle class white women tormented the legacy of Liuzzo with accusations of her being mentally ill because she was not solely fulfilled by the role of a homemaker and mother. The public and media also heavily criticized Jim Liuzzo due to his inability to keep his wife under control. The New York Times published an article calling out Liuzzo for failing to deter his wife from her fate.”

Carolyn Bryant acted out the prescribed role for southern women in the Jim Crow era. Bryant, you may recall, accused Emmet Till of making advances on her as she clerked in her family-owned grocery store in Drew, Mississippi. Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was abducted, tortured, and murdered by Bryant’s husband and another KKK-affiliated accomplice 11 years prior to Liuzzo’s murder. Perhaps Liuzzo’s killing sheds light on the psychology of Carolyn Bryant. Women like Bryant knew all too well that vigilant male paranoia circumscribed White female sexuality. Miscegenation was a crime on the books in Jim Crow states, and, as Viola Liuzzo’s fate showed, it took little evidence to provoke the paramilitary institutions that enforced antiquated laws with brutal informality.

The lynching of Emmet Till and the murder of Viola Liuzzo are linked directly to current expressions of hyper-masculine self-doubt. Renee Good, like Liuzzo, violated the unwritten rules of racial propriety that racist White men demand. Female moral fortitude in a racist society will often be conflated with sexual abandonment. In a right-wing ecosystem featuring men who obsessively ruminate about rejection (consider the widespread “Incel” movement), acts of White female resistance to racist violence serve as symbols of sexual rejection.

As White women commit themselves to the battle against ICE, the right-wing pundit sphere will indulge in ever more flamboyant methods to label activism as sexual deviance. My point is well illustrated by the lunatic writer, Naomi Wolf, in this post on X:

“Okay, I’ll just say it. I’ve seen enough videos of the faces of liberal white women in conflict with @ICE, to know what is up. Liberal men at this point (sorry) are disproportionately estrogenized, physically passive, submissive due to woke gender hectoring, or porn-addicted. White liberal women are disproportionately sexually frustrated. Policing others as in the pandemic was an outlet for them, but it was not nearly enough. The smiles you see on their faces now say it all: white women long for all out combat with ICE – who tend to be strong, physically confident, masculine men – because the conflict is a form of physical release for them. They long for actual kinetic battle and it will get even uglier.”

The right-wing politicians and pundits now engage in a desperate struggle to tarnish the memory of Renee Good and to prevent her from becoming a martyr. They will alternately insist that she engaged in domestic terrorism or that she channeled her sexual frustrations into a vicarious rendezvous with the “real men” who work for ICE. When Ross murdered Good, he sneered, “fucking bitch,” as her dead body lay in the moving car. How many men have murdered women who rejected them? Now this inchoate rage against rejection becomes a subconscious theme affixed to a new wave of political violence. While Viola Liuzzo stands out as a historical anomaly, violence toward middle-class White women who confront the brutal treatment of dark-skinned targets of the fascist state will almost certainly occur again.

I don’t believe that Renee Good’s legacy will be destroyed as authorities sullied the memory of Viola Liuzzo. We have the video for Good as we did not for Liuzzo. But isn’t it long overdue that Viola Liuzzo be recognized as one of the great heroes of the civil rights era? After all, Liuzzo’s heroism helps us to understand the tragedy of Renee Good.

Phil Wilson is a retired mental health worker who has written for Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Resilience, Current Affairs, The Future Fire and The Hampshire Gazette. Phil’s writings are posted regularly at Nobody’s Voice.

UK

Woke-Bashing of the Week: From Christmas

to cardigans – the latest ‘anti-men’ panic

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

18 January, 2026
Right-Wing Watch


Quite what constitutes “the very worst left-wing feminist” remains unclear, beyond, perhaps, a woman who doesn’t particularly enjoy being corrected by men.

With Christmas out of the way and the annual ritual of declaring everything “cancelled” complete, the anti-woke brigade has its sights on the next cultural event – Valentine’s Day.

This time, the outrage is directed at retailer Target, over the release of two colourful sweaters released ahead of February 14. According to the Daily Mail, one is pink and emblazoned with “Dump Him” in bold red lettering, and the other is light blue, with “Emotionally Unavailable” written in black.

Despite what the paper describes as “seemingly harmless messaging,” the Mail reports how the designs were swiftly seized upon by social media users, who accused Target of promoting “anti-men” sentiment. The article quotes a so-called men’s rights activist who posted a photo of the display on X:

“I saw this sweater promoted at Target today. Could you imagine if, in the month leading up to Valentine’s Day, Target was spotlighting a “Dump Her” sweater in the men’s section?” they said.

Others followed suit. “More women hating men propaganda. Gee, shocker,” wrote one user.

“Target is woke,” declared another. “Anti-male garbage. I stopped shopping at Target a long time ago,” snarked a third.

To give the impression of a pattern, the Mail reminded readers of Target’s previous brush with controversy over its Pride collection, specifically, its failure to remove placeholder ‘lorem ipsum’ text from some product tags, as though a design oversight and a pair of tongue-in-cheek sweaters belong to the same moral crisis.

This fixation with an alleged ‘anti-men’ movement has become a recurring theme in the right-wing press. Last month, Telegraph columnist Celia Walden asked: “Are you a woman who hates men? Then the Greens are the perfect party for you.”

Her column cited a leaked 53-page Green Party report which, she claimed, showed party leaders considering an expanded definition of misogyny. Among the supposed horrors was a proposal to include “men who correct women” within that definition. Walden warned that such a move would appeal only to “the very worst left-wing feminist”.

Quite what constitutes “the very worst left-wing feminist” remains unclear, beyond, perhaps, a woman who doesn’t particularly enjoy being corrected by men.

'Psychological projection': MAGA’s 'very weird about sex' — and it’s hurting them

The community of “involuntary celibate" men that trend toward President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have had a difficult year.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump walks by Elon Musk during the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Sarah K. Burris

December 31, 2025 

ALTERNET

The community of “involuntary celibate" men that trend toward President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have had a difficult year.

Salon columnist Amanda Marcotte noted Wednesday that the biggest loser of 2025 appears to be the incel movement, which seems to have reached its peak.

Marcotte began with popular MAGA influencer Sólionath, who "[defended] white supremacist murderers, [tried] to get people fired for not mourning Charlie Kirk ... and [concocted] lies about the [Jeffrey] Epstein files."

Sólionath ended his year by bashing the 99 percent of the world that has had sex at some point in their life, claiming that few people have actually ever done it.

Mocking "Nazi apologist" Nick Fuentes, Marcotte recalled the Piers Morgan interview asking if he's ever had sex.

“No, absolutely not,” Fuentes said. He then admitted he finds it "very difficult to be around” women. Any man who does manage to score will end up “henpecked.”

"You think you’re an expert on women, given you never got laid?" Morgan asked.

After a year in office, Trump's MAGA movement is faltering, young white men are bailing in droves and the "incel" world has stumbled into a marketing problem, Marcotte wrote.

“Trumpist leaders love pointing the finger at LGBTQ+ people and liberals, calling them ‘groomers’ and suggesting they’re violent perverts," she continued. "But in 2025, the nation really saw how much that behavior is old-fashioned psychological projection.”

The best example of that comes from the investigation files around sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to Marcotte. Trump has spent the past six months frantically trying to stop the release of the "the 5.2 million pages of documents" the government has on the federal investigation into Epstein

"The nation got a glimpse of the sexual world the president apparently inhabited, or at least stood in close proximity to, one which wasn’t glamorous but simply gross," said Marcotte.

“In 2025, ‘Mar-a-Lago face’ entered the lexicon, a term used to describe the combination of plastered-on makeup and aggressive plastic surgery that makes women look like inflatable sex dolls, as Trump’s apparent sexual tastes have morphed MAGA aesthetics into something inhuman," Marcotte continued.

Allthewhile, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and self-appointed "First Buddy," was exposed for having "a fetish for impregnating women."

"It may not initially seem obvious why Mar-a-Lago face, incels, Elon's pregnancy fetish or the Epstein files are linked," wrote Salon's Amanda Marcotte. "But this is a year in which MAGA showed they are very weird about sex. And it's hurting them."

Ultimately, the right wing populates the internet with "sexually dysfunctional straight men who argue that their romantic woes aren’t due to their own failures, but because feminism has ‘ruined’ women," Marcotte closed. “Either way, there’s one thing I can predict with confidence: We’ll get another round of articles handwringing about why it’s so hard for Republicans to find a date, which will show no understanding that the answer was always obvious.”

Read the full column here.

Fleurmach.comfleurmach.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wilhelm-reich-the-emotional-plague-1945.pdf

THE EMOTIONAL PLAGUE | fleurmach

The term "emotional plague" is not a derogatory phrase. It does not connote conscious malevolence, moral or biological degener acy, immorality, etc.

Archive.orgarchive.org/details/themurderofchrist

The murder of Christ : the emotional plague of mankind

Apr 7, 2020 ... The murder of Christ : the emotional plague of mankind. by: Wilhelm Reich. Publication date: 1953; Usage: Public Domain Mark 1.0 Creative ...

Theanarchistlibrary.orgtheanarchistlibrary.org/library/patrick-dunn-a-radicalization-of-reich

A Radicalization of Reich | The Anarchist Library

Fifth Estate #383. plain PDF A4 imposed PDF Letter imposed PDF EPUB (for ... Reich obscures his own radical insight into the nature of the emotional plague.

Courtenay-young.co.ukwww.courtenay-young.co.uk/courtenay/articles/An_Essay_On_The_Emotional_Plague.pdf

an essay on the emotional plague & its relevance today: especially ...

Wilhelm Reich coined the phrase, 'The Emotional Plague' (Cpt. 16, Character ... www.orgonomy.org/articles/Science_Links/TJOG_42_2_extract_crist.pdf.

The rise of masculinism: From obscure online forums to ballot boxes (2/3)

LONG READ


For the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, FRANCE 24 examines a sharp rise in masculinist discourse that seeks to normalise and legitimise misogyny. This second article in a three-part series explores how masculinism has moved from the dark corners of the internet to become a central political tool. From the United States to South Korea, populist parties and authoritarian leaders are increasingly adopting the discourse and rolling back women’s rights.


Issued on: 25/11/2025 
By: Pauline ROUQUETTE

Maculinism, which was initially confined to obscure online forums, has become an important political tool. © Studio graphique FMM


Masculinist discourse is no longer just a muted background noise online. What once belonged to obscure subcultures on the internet is now being echoed, amplified and instrumentalised by political actors who are helping push the misogynistic ideology into the mainstream.

In the US, South Korea and parts of Europe, the anti-feminist rhetoric has become an effective electoral tool – a shared language that mobilises supporters and helps undermine democratic institutions.

“Although the masculinity ideology emerged in the Anglosphere, it has now taken off in many other countries too, from South Korea to Germany, including in France, where – for the first time – a man has been put under formal investigation for plotting a terror attack motivated by the incel [involuntary celibate, eds. note] movement,” a report published by the Gender and Geopolitics Observatory of the French geopolitical think-tank IRIS noted in October.

READ MOREShould France’s incel threat be treated like terrorism?

“Several factors have turned masculinism into an expanding political force,” the report continued, stating that platform algorithms were bringing like-minded users together and enabling masculinist networks and influencers to organise, spread and monetise their ideas through large-scale anti-feminist campaigns.

The online movement then quickly found its way into politics, where populist players stood ready to channel the male anger into electoral capital.
‘Bloke things’

“It’s the whole galaxy gravitating around [Donald] Trump – and especially Steve Bannon – that has set the strategic blueprint for uniting disparate masculinist groups and exploiting men’s grievances,” Stéphanie Lamy, researcher and author of the book “La Terreur Masculiniste” (The masculinist terror), explained.

“It costs less for a candidate to promise middle- and working-class men that they will regain control over ‘their women’, than to actually improve their material conditions,” she said.

In 2014, the US was the scene of the so-called Gamergate controversy – a sexist, anti-feminist harassment campaign that targeted female journalists and researchers.

“It was a large anti-feminist masculinist mobilisation that brought together fairly disparate groups under the one and same umbrella,” she said.

Many of the men who participated in Gamergate all shared the same core values: an hostility towards feminism, the anti-racist Black Lives Matter movement, so-called Social Justice Warriors (SJW), along with a contempt for both journalists and researchers.

Gamergate became a showcase for the American alt-right movement which strongly backed Trump during his first campaign to win the White House. According to IRIS, the anonymous administrator of the “The Red Pill” – a masculinist subgroup on Reddit – played “a key role in rallying young. anti-feminist men to vote for Trump”.

Lamy described it as “a fairly young voter base that had hardly voted at all before”.

In his 2024 re-election campaign, Trump sought to mobilise the fringe group again and appeared on masculinist podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience” – one of the most popular podcasts in the world, which in October drew 16 million listeners and averages at 200 million monthly downloads – to appeal to them. Nearly 90 percent of the show’s guests – and 80 percent of its audience – are male, with half of listeners aged between 18 and 34.

In February, 2024, Nigel Farage, the head of Britain’s far-right ReformUK party, appeared on the “Strike It Big” podcast where he described masculinist influencer Andrew Tate as “an important voice” for men. In the interview, Farage explained that young men’s masculinity was being looked down upon and that they were being told “you can’t be blokes, you can’t do laddish, fun, bloke things”.

The rise of masculinism: Violence and misogyny online (1/3)

According to Alice Apostoly, co-director of France’s Gender in Geopolitics Institute (GGI), said that even though few politicians, even conservative ones, are ready to openly align themselves with Tate’s rhetoric, they use it as a “symptom” of a broader malaise, claiming to “take young men’s mental health and their supposed ‘masculinity crisis’ into account”.

Trumpism was the first to grasp the mobilising force behind this type of rhetoric, which has since been used by other leaders around the world on their route to power. “Autocrats learn from one another,” Lamy remarked.

In Argentina, large mobilisations for women’s rights – including pro-choice and anti-femicide protest – actually ended up paving the way for Javier Milei’s rise to power. “They sparked a backlash from Christian nationalists and libertarians,” Lamy said. “And Milei knew how to unite these groups.”

Similarly, South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol, successfully courted the so-called Idaenam community, which Lamy described as “young men in their 20s frustrated by their lack of (sexual) opportunities”, to win the 2022 elections.

Researchers say that most of these young men are radicalised online, where they are exposed to misogynistic discourse and fed a masculinist propaganda pushed to them through platform algorithms.

“Masculinism is being used politically and is being offered as a societal project that incorporates not only masculinist proposals but also far-right ideas,” Apostoly said. “Young men are becoming a pool of valuable voters for these political players,” she said.

Last year, the Financial Times published an investigation which analysed recent election results from several countries. The findings showed that men under 30 are now turning out to vote in greater numbers than ever before – and most of them are voting for far-right parties.

Conservative think-tanks have picked up on this trend, and are trying to capitalise on it by rolling back legislation related to equality. Trump, for example, has signed dozens of executive orders that are in line with “Project 2025” – a societal blueprint created by the ultra-conservative American think-tank The Heritage Foundation.
Eroding rights

Apostoly said that for years now, a “coalition” of associations, academic websites and politicians has taken form in a bid to push back against feminist societal gains. This became particularly evident in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, she said, where some started accusing feminist movements of going “too far” and “taking up way too much space”.

As masculinity networks have grown in both popularity and influence, landmark US legislation protecting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights have been rolled back in recent years.

This push has been driven by a combination of fathers’ rights groups (one of the first masculinist movements, which emerged in the 1960s-1970s), parents’ associations, medical organisations, and last but not least, influential Christian fundamentalist groups, Lamy said, citing a recent report from the European Parliamentary Forum.

“Their victories reinforce each other, more or less explicitly,” she said.

In the US, Trump has surrounded himself with political masculinist influencers, and attacks on gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights have become clear priorities on his agenda.

In South Korea, which is currently experiencing a strong anti-feminist backlash, one of Yoon’s 2022 election promises was to shutter the ministry for gender equality and family – the only public body supporting women who were affected by violence in a nation where the wage gaps and femicide rates are among the highest in the OECD.

“We’re dealing with pure and simple propaganda which is being instrumentalised by the hatred of women and which works at the ballot boxes,” she said, adding that “the radicalisation of young men towards reactionary parties and political projects” is happening on platforms “run by leaders [Marc Zuckerberg and Elon Musk] who have effectively sworn allegiance with Donald Trump, who support his ultra-liberal socio-economic agenda and openly align themselves with certain masculinist values.”

Just a few days ago, the French womens’ rights group La Fondation des Femmes sounded the alarm on Facebook’s parent group Meta, saying it was making certain content published by rights groups in Europe invisible after the company stopped all advertisement about politics, elections and social issues.

“The voices defending womens’ rights are being silenced even more,” the foundation wrote in a post on Instagram. “As if this wasn’t enough, the algorithm isn’t working in our favour, our content is made invisible and our messages are fading away.”

Once this propaganda has been legitimised politically, it no longer seeks to just appeal to those – it starts attacking those opposing it.
Political opponents, feminists and journalists in the visor

“This type of violence has very clear goals: to silence women and make them disappear from both the digital public space and the public space,” Apostoly said.

In India for instance, misogynistic online campaigns were targeting female politicians and journalists critical of Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s ruling party, IRIS said in its report.

Rana Ayyub, a prominent journalist, and Kavita Krishnan, an activist, have both been targeted. Lamy said that in Krishnan’s case – where the online harassment included daily rape and torture threats – “we finally realised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was encouraging these acts and followed the accounts that were harassing her”.

Diane Shima Rwigara, the main opponent challenging Rwanda’s Paul Kagame in the 2017 presidential race, was subject to similar tactics.

A few days after announcing her candidacy, fake nude photos began to circulate online. “The goal was to accuse her of sexual immorality, to attack her sexuality, her person. Pro-government commentators and news outlets shared the photos to mock her without questioning whether the photos were real, making fun of her as a depraved woman,” Apostoly said.

The national electoral commission ended up rejecting Rwigara’s candidacy on administrative grounds, and Kagame was re-elected with 98.8 percent of the vote.

“Misogyny is an extremely powerful unifying force, and goes beyond partisan lines,” Lamy said, noting that while masculine supremacy is a gateway to the far right, radical masculinist circles can be found across the political spectrum.

“We are in a reactionary, fascist societal project,” Apostoly concluded. “This backlash against gender equality is symptomatic of a democracy that is sick. A democracy that’s in danger.”

This article was adapted from the original in French by Louise Nordstrom.

The rise of masculinism (3/3): Nine misogynistic propaganda arguments debunked

ANALYSIS


For the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, FRANCE 24 examines a sharp rise in masculinist discourse that seeks to normalise and legitimise misogyny. In this third and final part of the series, we look at some of the main arguments pushed by masculinist propaganda – and the facts and figures that debunk them.


Issued on: 25/11/2025 
By: Pauline ROUQUETTE

For the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, FRANCE 24 examines a sharp rise in masculinist discourse that seeks to normalise and legitimise misogyny. © Studio Graphique France Médias Monde

Claiming to rely on science, statistics or just first-hand stories presented as proof, masculinist propaganda spreads many ideas that might seem plausible at first glance. But this glib mix of distorted figures, poorly analysed studies and patchy rhetoric collapses in the face of hard evidence.

Studies and statistics in hand, FRANCE 24 dismantles some of the main arguments commonly pushed by masculinist movements.

• Argument 1: 'Just as many men as women are victims of intimate partner violence'

What the propaganda says:

This argument paints intimate partner violence as “symmetrical” or “reciprocal” – that is to say, that just as many men as women experience it in their lives. If this is the case, the argument made by masculinist movements goes, pointing the finger at men as the sole perpetrators of this kind of violence is blatant “misandry” – a prejudice or hatred/hostility towards men.

What the facts say:

Almost one in three women across the world – some 840 million people – are subjected to violence at the hands of their current or former partner, or face other forms of sexual violence from someone other than their partner, over the course of their life.

Within the European Union, 17.7 percent of women experience the threat or reality of physical and/or sexual violence throughout their lives at the hand of an intimate partner. This number grows if we take psychological violence into account, reaching 31.8 percent of women, according to figures published by the Fundamental Rights Agency in November 2024.

In France, 84 percent of people experiencing intimate partner violence in 2024 were women, placing the number of male victims in a clear minority. Women also represented 98 percent of those who had experienced sexual violence.

Violence against women: What is masculinism?

ENTRE NOUS © FRANCE 24
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And while men also experience intimate partner violence, the structure of that violence is far from symmetrical. Intimate partner violence against women tends to be repeated more than that against men, and the broader context of male domination within society often means that the long-term consequences of that violence fall heavier on women.

“The structural inequalities that still persist in society and the learning of a culture of stereotypes contribute to the foundation on which intimate partner violence is built,” the Citizens and Justice Federation said.

The Canadian NGO SOS Violence Conjugale, which offers shelter as well as information, outreach and reference services to people who have experienced intimate partner violence, wrote in an article that it is also important to draw a difference between the violence of the aggressor – in most cases, a man – from the violence of someone defending themselves, sometimes called “reactive violence” or “violent resistance”.

What we need to understand:

Speaking about gendered violence doesn’t mean “forgetting” men who experience intimate partner violence. It just means accurately describing a massive phenomenon in which women remain far and away the main targets.

By claiming that intimate partner violence is largely “symmetrical”, this argument turns the balance of power on its head and erases the systematic nature of violence against women, instead framing it as a straightforward conflict between individuals.

“This argument of the symmetry of violence allows people to trivialise or even deny violence against women … and ultimately to deny the very existence of a heteropatriarchal system, a hierarchical system that gives privileges to men and oppresses women,” wrote Quebecois sociologist Louise Brossard.

• Argument 2: 'Women lie about violence to destroy men’s lives'
Variations: By accusing men of violence, women “are looking for fame” or “want to tear down men’s careers”

What the propaganda says:

Accusations of rape, assault or intimate partner violence are largely built on lies and used as a weapon to make money, gain legal advantage or destroy a man’s reputation or career.

What the facts say:

Most research on the subject agrees that the false rape allegations are rare, ranging from two to eight percent of charges filed depending on how the study is conducted.

Roughly three to five percent of rape or sexual assault charges are dismissed as false or misleading after investigation, the French ACI criminal law firm said.

According to the UK’s Channel4 fact-checking services, a British man is 230-times more likely to be raped than to be falsely accused of rape

In fact, the problem is largely the opposite than that described by masculinists – a massive percentage of violence against women never gets reported. According to the French justice ministry, “four out of five women impacted by violence don’t file charges”.

Meanwhile, the many controversies around male celebrities accused of sexual violence these past few years somewhat undercuts the idea that men accused of rape or other forms of sexual assault would see their career fall apart as a result.

“In general, the careers of wealthy or powerful men who are accused or even convicted of violence are not impacted that much,” said researcher Stéphanie Lamy, the author of “The Masculinist Terror”. “Especially if they are white.”

What we need to understand:

Spinning a few highly publicised cases into a general rule is a disinformation strategy.

False accusations exist, and they should be dealt with and punished. But they remain an incredibly small minority, dwarfed by the scale of very real violence that women are subjected to every day, whether it’s reported or not.
• Argument 3: 'The justice system is biased against men and fathers'
What the propaganda says:

Judges are biased towards mothers, and fathers are systematically robbed of custody of their children.

What the facts say:

It’s true that in France, after a couple is separated, the child’s primary residence is still largely that of their mother (around 70 to 80 percent of cases). But in most cases, this is the result of an amicable agreement between both parties (around 80 to 85 percent of cases), not a decision handed down against the father after a bitter fight in front of a judge.

Gender-based violence in Pakistan: Female influencers targeted

FOCUS © FRANCE 24
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What’s more, cases of shared custody have been rising steadily for more than 20 years. If a father asks for shared custody, the request is granted in 86 percent of cases, as podcaster Cédric Rostein pointed out on social media.

Several studies have shown that most custody decisions favour the person who had already been most responsible for the child’s care before the separation rather than open favouritism towards one gender over another.
What we need to understand:

Masculinist narratives distort reality to conceal very real problems that mothers face in the French justice system: unpaid child support (in 25 to 35 percent of cases), mothers who bear the mental and material burden of raising a child alone, the struggle to have family violence recognised by a court of law.

These movements paint family courts as “pro-women”, neglecting to mention the fact that women are left disproportionately poorer after a separation and remain over-represented among those most vulnerable to violence.

• Argument 4: 'Feminism is destroying society, the family and even desire'
What the propaganda says:

Feminism is responsible for the “crisis of the family”, declining birth rates, celibacy and male sexual frustration.
What the facts say:

As for the family, the data shows above all that the rise of feminism coincides with a decrease in forced marriages and child marriages, as well as a decline in intimate partner violence in countries that invest heavily in pro-equality policies.

And when it comes to desire, investigations into marital satisfaction show that the most stable couples are often those in which the domestic division of labour and manner of communicating are shared in the most equal way.

What we need to understand:

The argument that a given movement is “destroying society” has long been a staple of counter-revolutions: it was used to argue against the abolition of slavery, the right of women to vote and the expansion of civil rights.

Enduring inequalities are presented as necessary for “the survival of civilisation”, despite the fact that data show that the most equal societies are also the most stable and prosperous.
• Argument 5: 'A woman who has already had multiple sexual partners can no longer become attached to just one man'
What the propaganda says:

A “good” woman is supposed to have little or no previous sexual experience.

The “bodycount” theory is based on a pseudo-scientific argument built around oxytocin, a hormone linked to emotional attachment. With each sexual encounter, the theory claims, a woman will “release” a certain amount of oxytocin that will “bond” her to her sexual partner. A woman who has had “too many” sexual encounters will exhaust her stockpiles of oxytocin, leaving her unable to form further bonds or become securely attached to a future partner.
What the facts say:

The body synthesises oxytocin continuously throughout a person’s life. There is no serious scientific study that suggests that having a higher number of sexual partners has any negative impact on the production of oxytocin for women, or its effect on them.

'Manosphere' influencers prey on the insecurities of young men, expert says

© France 24
10:25

What we need to understand:

This argument is built on a double standard: male sexuality is considered neutral or praise-worthy while female sexuality is considered degrading for women.

This pseudo-scientific theory also justifies the control of both the body and private life of women, as well as pathologising women who have an independent sexual life.
• Argument 6: 'Women have too many privileges'
Variations: “Feminism has gone too far – women now have more rights than men do”
What the propaganda says:

Feminists have gained “too many” rights: protective laws, hiring quotas, public policies based on gender – men are now at a glaring disadvantage.
What the facts say:

Economically speaking, it’s a hard case to make. According to figures published by Equal Measures 2030, more than 2.4 billion women and girls live in countries scoring “bad” or “very bad” in terms of gender equality.

At this rate, the report reads, “no country [of the 139 examined] is on path to reach gender equality by 2030.”

In France, women still make less than men – even in the same job – and their annual income is on average 22 percent lower, often due to interruptions to their career caused by having and raising children.

Despite this, women still shoulder the lion’s share of unpaid domestic and care work, are less represented in positions of political and economic power and continue to be the main victims of sexist and sexual violence.
What we need to understand:

The “privileges” denounced by masculinist movements are really efforts to correct a massive imbalance between men and women, not an attempt to put women in a dominant position over men.

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51 PERCENT © FRANCE 24
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• Argument 7: 'Laws around consent have gone too far, you can’t even ask women out anymore'

What the propaganda says:

Trying to build a “culture of consent” will make “everything” punishable under the law: coming on too strong, giving someone a kiss, a harmless misunderstanding – we’ll all become crippled by paranoia.
What the facts say:

Recent laws related to consent do not criminalise flirting, but sexual acts without free and informed consent. They replace the logic of “Did she try to fight?” with “Did she clearly say ‘yes’?”

Studies show that what is being targeted by these laws is not one-off misunderstandings, but persistent patterns of harassment, pressure and duress, whether explicit or implicit – all things described by those subjected to them as clearly unwanted.

Several investigations into the sexual lives of young people show that teaching consent improves the quality of relationships while reducing the risk of violence – none of which stops people from flirting.
What we need to understand:

The refrain that “you can’t even ask women out anymore” only serves to delegitimise the basic idea that a woman’s desire counts just as much as a man’s.
• Argument 8: 'Men are the real victims'
What the propaganda says:

Men will be crushed by feminism, abandoned to suffer alone with their own burdens (higher rates of suicide, increased risk of struggling at school and experiencing unemployment) while all the money goes to women.
What the facts say:

While there are very real mental health problems that impact men more than women – including higher rates of suicide, addiction and violence against other men, research suggests that these are strongly connected to norms traditionally considered masculine such as an unwillingness to ask for help or higher readiness to take risks.

Masculinist narratives use these very real struggles to attack feminism rather than questioning the worldview that underpins them.
What we need to understand:

Masculinism weaponises real distress by turning it against women rather than challenging its structural causes such as precarity, toxic masculinity and a lack of appropriate public policy measures.
• Argument 9: 'Femicides are just individual crimes rather than a systematic problem'
What the propaganda says:

The murders of women are tragic individual events, but there’s no connecting line between them. To frame them as “femicides” is just ideological.
What the facts say:

In 2024, 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed across the world, including roughly 50,000 who were killed by their intimate partner or a family member, according to UN Women. To put it another way, 137 women and girls lose their lives every day at the hands of their companion or their kin – murders that are “often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence”.

Every year in France, almost 120 women are killed by their current or former partner. On November 20 alone, four women were killed by their former partners. Official reports show the same factors repeating over and over: past instances of violence, a recent separation or a refusal to respect judicial protection orders.

These figures call for a structural interpretation: to view these murders not as individual outbreaks of violence, but as the tip of an iceberg of gender-based and intimate partner violence.
What we need to understand:

Reducing femicides to simple isolated tragedies allows masculinist movements to deny the systematic character of male-perpetrated violence and ignore the collective responsibility of aggressors.

By depoliticising these crimes, this argument blocks any kind of ambitious political response and perpetuates the myth that “feminists are exaggerating” and that “men are the real victims”.

This article has been adapted from the original in French.