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
06:39

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
06:11

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.

The gender pay gap is back: What’s behind America’s backslide on equal pa

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. 

MISOGYNIST MASCULINITY

‘Incels’ under scrutiny: A study exposes the community of men who demand sex and hate women

University of Córdoba

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Two of the researchers who participated in the study

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Credit: University of Cordoba

In 2018, 25-year-old Canadian Alex Minassian carried out a deadly rampage that left 10 people dead and injured 16 others. Shortly before carrying out the attack, he posted a message on social media that drew widespread attention: “The Incel rebellion has begun.”

To fully understand the term incel—short for involuntarily celibate—it is necessary to go back to the 1990s, when a movement emerged to create a stigma-free environment where people struggling with maintaining sexual relationships could share their feelings. The community avoided violent rhetoric and sought to eliminate taboos, including those surrounding virginity. However, what originally began three decades ago as a harmless initiative has since evolved into a misogynistic subculture that is drawing increasing attention from both the scientific community and the media.

The Conflict and Human Security research group at the University of Córdoba has recently published one of the most comprehensive reviews to date on this phenomenon. The study, published in Aggression and Violent Behavior, synthesizes the recent scientific literature on the topic and offers an empirical analysis aimed at deepening our understanding of the movement’s causes, consequences, and social dynamics.

Although the incel phenomenon is somewhat more heterogeneous than it might initially appear, its members—mainly young heterosexual men—share several core beliefs. They view sex as a fundamental right that is denied to them as a result of female empowerment and blame women for their inability to have relationships. They also argue that only men who conform to heteronormative standards of masculinity are considered attractive and regard sex as a transactional act devoid of emotional ties. This combination of beliefs fosters a toxic environment in which incels’ frustration is transformed into a misogynistic worldview that casts women as objects of hatred.

A language of their own that dehumanizes

As the study shows, language plays a fundamental role in constructing this ideological framework, with incels relying on a distinct lexicon that dehumanizes others and reinforces their narratives. “This terminology serves as a pretext for attacking others without guilt—for provoking a moral and emotional disconnection that justifies hate speech,” explains Reyes Rodríguez, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Córdoba.

Within this linguistic framework, women are labeled as femoids (female humanoids), Stacys are women perceived as sexually successful, and Chads are physically attractive men at the top of the male hierarchy; an alpha male figure incels resent and see as part of the problem.

The study examines several derogatory terms used to refer to women, including cattle, viper, roast beef, and sperm containers. These expressions are widely used on social media and online forums, which are central to understanding this phenomenon. According to the systematic review, such forums function as echo chambers: virtual spaces that validate and reinforce incels’ collective identity. In these environments, algorithms do not mitigate the issue; rather, they amplify incels’ beliefs, mirror their worldview, and promote content that deepens their perceptions and furthers their radicalization.

A mental health problem?

The study, which reviews more than 80 scientific articles published since 2017, offers several important conclusions: beyond examining these social dynamics, it is essential to address the mental health issues that may be driving the phenomenon. Indeed, the study presents striking findings: incels report feelings of loneliness and rejection, low self-esteem, limited social support, and higher rates of psychological problems such as anxiety and depression. Notably, only 15% say they feel better after undergoing therapy.

There are several possible reasons why psychological interventions often fail with this group, notes Miguel Ángel Maldonado, co-director of the research. “When someone with such a deeply rooted ideology goes to therapy, they expect their beliefs to be validated, which doesn’t happen. Moreover, many of these individuals see the problem as residing in society rather than within themselves,” the researcher explains.

In addition to reviewing the existing research on this topic, the study seeks to identify knowledge gaps—areas requiring further investigation to advance our understanding of the phenomenon. According to the research team, several key issues require attention. Among the most pressing are the development of new approaches to psychosocial intervention, the creation of reliable methods for directly assessing incels, and the design of strategies to curb their influence in cyberspace. Although these avenues are yet to be fully explored, they all converge on a central question: How can we dismantle hatred?

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Journal

Aggression and Violent Behavior

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2025.102093 

Article Title

Deciphering the incels: A scoping review on empirical research

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM

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

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. This first article of a three-part series looks at the increase in violent rhetoric online and asks what can be done to protect the victims.


Issued on: 23/11/2025 - 
FRANCE24
By: Pauline ROUQUETTE

Over the past decade, digital violence against women has increased dramatically. © Studio graphique FMM

Deepfakes, trolling, doxing and more: New terms have been coined to describe online violence and how victims are targeted in the virtual world – much of the abuse directed against women. According to the UN, digital attacks have become one of the main vectors of gender-based violence worldwide.

A 2021 study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 45 countries revealed that 85 percent of women have been victims of, or witnesses to, online violence – or violence facilitated by technology – including 74 percent of women in Europe, 91 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 90 percent in Africa. Cyberviolence also affects nine out of 10 women who are already victims of domestic violence, according to a study by the Hubertine Auclert Centre, a French group that works to promote gender equality and combat violence against women.

This explosion of cyberviolence goes hand in hand with advances in digital technologies. With the spread of generative AI, attacks are now more extreme, more coordinated and more sexualised – including a proliferation of deepfakes used to violate women's privacy.

Cyberbullying led to a 'deterioration' in Brigitte Macron's health, daughter says

But the dramatic increase in online abuse cannot be explained solely by new technologies. It also follows a rise of masculinist – a reaction to feminism, advocating male interests – narratives that have redefined digital culture and led to uninhibited aggression towards women.

Forums for incels (“involuntary celibates”), videos by misogynistic influencers and anti-feminist or “anti-woke” communities pervade online platforms. According to a report by the French think tank Iris, it takes “less than 30 minutes” for algorithms to recommend such content to young male internet users.

As a result, masculinist discourse is reaching a wider audience and spawning digital aggression that is also politicised – and increasingly socially accepted. This further fuels the types of digital abuse that have long targeted women and gender minorities.
From sexism to a structured ideology

“Cyberviolence is not a private issue but an integral part of the continuum of violence against women and girls,” the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) said in a 2022 report documenting the extent of gender-based digital violence.

The type of violence that already exists offline is amplified in the digital space.

Masculinist propaganda then gives fresh meaning and direction to this entrenched violence, transforming it into a structured mobilisation against women.

The tens of thousands of men who have shared real or fake pornographic images of women – sometimes members of their own families – on Facebook groups, WhatsApp or Telegram are taking part in “systemic violence against women”, says Alice Apostoly, co-director of the Gender in Geopolitics Institute in Paris.

Apostoly says the “explosion of masculinist discourse” spreads misleading information based on misogynist and sexist stereotypes, “which gives weight to sexist and sexual violence targeting feminist activists, female politicians, journalists and artists”.

It is precisely this ideological dimension – the transformation of impulsive male anger into a political narrative – that distinguishes “traditional” digital violence from its more recent manifestation: the mobilisation of radicalised groups of men seeking to punish, intimidate or silence women who are in the public sphere.

This phenomenon, widespread on digital platforms, goes far beyond the idea of lone “incels” spouting vitriol from behind the safety of their screens.

While media coverage of the once obscure masculinist movement has focused in recent years on incels – highlighted in the Netflix series “Adolescence” and implicated in terrorist attacks that have left dozens dead since 2014 – it often overlooks many other openly misogynistic groups.

These groups share the same fixations: hatred of feminism, nostalgia for a patriarchal order and the belief that men are now victims.

Their huge online presence plays a central role in spreading and normalising digital violence.

Should France’s incel threat be treated like terrorism?

Organised violence

The attention given to British influencer Andrew Tate, a leading light in the masculinist movement, obscures the collective dimension of masculinism, which Stéphanie Lamy, researcher and author of La Terreur masculiniste (Masculinist Terror), prefers to refer to in the plural.

“'Masculinisms' are an ideological offering developed in radical milieus, characterised by a diversity of ideologies, the collectivisation of resources and the glorification of violence in all its forms,” she says. What differentiates masculinist discourse from misogyny and sexism is therefore this “collective and organised dimension”.

The only known killing in France motivated by a masculinist ideology, the murder of Mélanie Ghione by Mickaël Philétas in 2020 – was not legally classified as an ideological attack.

But Lamy notes that “there was indeed collaboration with other members of the same anti-feminist circle” that Philétas claimed he belonged to, the MGTOW group, for Men Going Their Own Way. “So it was indeed organised,” she says.

In Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux and Annecy, three men were arrested between 2021 and 2023 while planning attacks against women and gathering weapons for this purpose.

In the case of Timothy G., suspected of planning to attack women in Saint-Étienne, witnesses said he had been encouraged to take action within the incel forums he frequented. “There are no lone wolves,” Lamy says.

“Propaganda, whatever form it takes, shapes perceptions and reflexes. When we see hateful comments under a feminist post, it may have been posted in a forum with a call to carry out an attack,” notes Lamy, or a targeted harassment campaign against women. “But it may also be that some men act on their own initiative, because they have already been conditioned to react in this way.”
Normalisation of misogyny, a ‘major blind spot’ in legislation

Masculinism provides a common language, with its own justifications and targets. And the more this framework becomes normalised, the more digital violence proliferates.

If cyberviolence against women and gender minorities – otherwise known as “technology facilitated gender-based violence" (TFGBV) – has exploded in recent years, it is indeed “because digital technology is becoming increasingly politicised”, says Lamy. "The more visible women are in the public sphere, the more they become targets."

And if they are increasingly targeted, it is because there are increasingly motivated groups of men who are organising themselves to attack them.

Lamy says such misogynistic attacks offer “rituals” that allow individuals “to unite, take joint action to feel part of a group and rally”.

READ MOREFour men convicted of cyberbullying French DJ Olympics performer

For Apostoly, these are acts of political violence, which have “a very clear objective: to make women invisible and silence them in the digital public sphere and in the public sphere in general”.

The normalisation of this type of violence is all the more problematic as it thrives in the absence of almost any legal sanctions.

In its 2022 report, the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Grevio) noted: “While many countries have adopted new laws to criminalise certain forms of technology-facilitated online abuse, many provisions are limited in scope, as is their practical implementation.”

“The moderation of hate speech is linked to a complex web of European and national legislation and regulations that stem from the fight against terrorism,” explains Lamy. "The first European standards were driven by this, focusing on racial hatred and completely overlooking misogyny. It's a huge blind spot.”

Yet the same mechanisms of radicalisation, expression of hatred and “hierarchisation of humans” are at work, she says.

As a result, various online community platforms are becoming the main incubators for misogynistic and masculinist violence, with no real regulation, while generative AI is multiplying the tools used for harassment.

“At the European level, we are fortunate to have a Digital Services Act (DSA) and a General Data Protection Regulation, but it is essential that these two bodies of law be strengthened and that American platforms have no say in what they want to do or not do within the EU,” says Apostoly.

She laments that the AI Act, adopted in 2023, makes no mention of gender issues, despite calls from associations to regulate image-generating AI so that it does not reproduce gender stereotypes and encourage gender-based and sexual violence.

"We have gone so far beyond the point of no return in terms of platform regulation that we now need drastic measures that no longer even concern digital technology,” says Lamy. “This is a political issue, and we are not going to solve it with technology.”

Lamy stresses the importance of funding, “putting money on the table” to sustain the work of associations that fight violence against women that remain underfunded despite being on the front line.

The budget for France’s programme 137, seeking Equality between women and men in 2024, increased from €36.5 million to €101.1 million (up 176 percent compared to 2020). Last July, a report by the French Senate Finance Committee highlighted the gap between these appropriations and the estimated real cost of gender-based and sexual violence – estimated at between €2.5 billion and €70 billion per year – calling for stronger leadership and greater mobilisation of local authorities and European funds.

For her part, Apostoly emphasises the importance of prevention: education about human sexual and emotional life to “foster gender equality from an early age”, support for feminist and digital rights associations, and awareness campaigns about misinformation and online harassment.

Lamy warns that “focusing solely on digital technology is pointless if we don't take a holistic approach”.

Indeed, while digital violence targeting women flourished well before the advent of masculinist propaganda, the latter has given it coherence – a rationale and new targets, including shared narratives and tools for mobilisation.

Masculinism today is structured, transnational and deeply political. It is not confined to online platforms, but has become part of the public debate, shaping perceptions and paving the way for very real attacks on women and their rights.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

MISOGYNIST INCEL SLANDER

'Centuries of patriarchal history': why trans rumours are wielded against women

Emmanuel Macron's wife Brigitte has frequently been the target of rumours that she is transgender, with 10 people currently on trial in France for spreading such stories online. France's first lady is far from the only victim of this type of attack, says feminist historian Christine Bard, who explains that it aims to undermine women in positions of power.

Issued on: 09/11/2025 - RFI

Brigitte Macron, pictured on 21 May, 2025. © AP - Christophe Petit Tesson

RFI: Before Brigitte Macron, former United States First Lady Michelle Obama and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, as well as numerous female athletes, have been the target of rumours questioning their "true femininity" and claiming they are in fact transgender. Why do these types of allegations come up again and again in relation to women with a certain amount of power?

Christine Bard: We have inherited centuries of patriarchal history. Women who have attained a certain degree of power, however relative, have always been portrayed as unnatural, masculine women – masculinised by the power that they desired or that was attributed to them.

This is a way of reminding everyone at all times that in a patriarchal system, the roles assigned to each sex must be respected and that any deviation will be punished by public condemnation.

The beginning of the 21st century is no exception to this historical burden, and the conservative camp has stuck with this view. Despite progress in equal rights, we are still far from effective equality.

Judges adjourn Brigitte Macron cyberbullying case until January

If, even today, questioning "femininity" remains such an effective way of disempowering women in public life, what does this reveal about society's relationship with the female body?

The devaluation of women who are perceived as powerful takes the form of attacks targeting their bodies. People look for signs of masculinity in them and if they cannot find any, they invent them.

In addition, the masculinity that people believe they can see in these women in turn diminishes the masculinity of their partners. Isn't this the aim of the attacks on Brigitte Macron? They are targeting a woman, but also a couple – and not just any couple, the head of state and his partner.

What does this type of attack tell us about sexism and transphobia? Why is the mere suggestion that a woman is transgender enough to discredit her?

The rumour that Brigitte Macron is a transgender person comes at a time when transphobia is on the rise. The attack is sexist, transphobic and homophobic.

It is sexist because it uses a woman to target a man and calls into question the criteria for assessing "true femininity" through physical characteristics, gestures and dress. It reinforces a normative definition of femininity.

In the logic of transphobia, trans identity does not exist, cannot exist – for transphobes, "Brigitte" will always be "Jean-Michel" [Macron's brother, who American YouTubers Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy accused of having changed gender and assumed the identity "Brigitte"].

Thousands rally for trans rights in France over bill on gender transition

This is a way of insinuating that the president of France is married to a man and is therefore homosexual – and therefore, by the logic of homophobia, cannot offer the same guarantee of virility.

The fact that people are receptive to this fake news provides a measure of the persistence, and even intensification, of sexist, homophobic and transphobic hate speech – which is a real cause for concern.

Deus sex machina: What are the consequences of turning ChatGPT into a sex-line?

Analysis


OpenAI founder Sam Altman has announced that ChatGPT will from December be able to engage in erotic conversations with its users. It’s a decision with barely-disguised commercial motives – and one that poses worrying questions about the ethics of sexualising generative AI.


Issued on: 19/10/2025 - FRANCE24
By: Sébastian SEIBT

Starting in December, OpenAI will allow its chatbot to generate sexually explicit content for adult users. © Studio Graphique France Médias Monde


Would you use ChatGPT as a sex-line? The AI chatbot created by Sam Altman and the team at OpenAI is about to grow up and experience its first flush of erotic temptation.

Citing what he described as the company’s “treat adults like adults” principle, the OpenAI founder said on social media Tuesday that one of the coming changes to the chatbot would be allowing it to produce erotic content as of December – though only, he stressed, to verified adults.
The next goose that laid the golden egg?

“It’s pretty minimalist as an announcement, but it seems that this will only apply to written text,” said Sven Nyholm, a specialist in AI-related ethics. To put it another way, OpenAI doesn’t seem ready – yet – to ask its star chatbot to generate risqué images or videos.


Even restricted to written erotica, ChatGPT will be the first major chatbot to dip its digital toe into sexualised content. The other large-language models – Perplexity, Claude and Google’s Gemini – refuse for the moment to take the plunge.

“That’s not allowed,” Perplexity said in response to FRANCE 24’s attempt to take the conversation in a more adult direction. “On the other hand, it is entirely possible to approach the subject of eroticism or sexuality from an educational or psychological perspective.”

But ChatGPT won’t be the only player in this fledgling field. A number of niche chatbots have already set foot on this slippery terrain, such as the paid version of Replika, an AI-based service that creates artificial companions for users.

Read more Will sexually explicit AI girlfriends take over our love lives? Papers on love and AI

For a number of experts approached by FRANCE 24, the arrival of sexual content in generative AI had always been just a matter of time.

“There’s this mentality in Silicon Valley that every problem has a technological solution,” Nyholm said. “And Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, had suggested that one way to respond to the world’s ‘loneliness epidemic’ was to create emotional chatbots.”

And doesn’t the internet’s infamous Rule 34 – a cultural reference spawned in the depths of 4Chan’s forums – decree that if something exists, there is porn of it?

“There are two driving forces for the development of new technology,” Nyholm said. “Military applications, and pornography.”

Ever the businessman, Altman seems to have decided that the best thing to do is to be the first one out of the gate.

“It’s clearly marketing above all,” said British computer scientist Kate Devlin, a specialist in human-machine interactions at King’s College London and the author of the book “Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots”.

“He knows how to say what he thinks the public wants to hear. Sam Altman saw that people were trying to get around the restrictions on Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa to have these kinds of conversations, and he figured there might be money to be made.”

“It’s very likely an attempt to capture this public and bring more users to their platform,” said Simon Thorne, an AI specialist at the University of Cardiff. “It remains to be seen how OpenAI plans to monetise this erotic option. The most obvious approach, of course, would be to charge users for the ability to engage in such conversations.”

A paid “premium” version would indeed be tempting for OpenAI, considering the fact that pornography has been proven to be potentially addictive, Devlin said. Another option could be a tiered system, with low-cost access to the chatbot’s tamest version and higher fees demanded from users wanting to take their conversations to more sexually explicit heights.

A series of scandals

Altman has already been on the receiving end of a cascade of criticism following his announcement.

“We are not the elected moral police of the world,” he wrote in an X post defending his decision. “In the same way that society differentiates other appropriate boundaries (R-rated movies, for example) we want to do a similar thing here.”

Altman’s push to take his chatbot in a steamier direction comes during a period of mounting controversies around the at-times toxic “relationships” between AIs and their users.

The parents of a teenager who took his own life earlier this year sued OpenAI in August, saying that ChatGPT had openly encouraged their son’s suicidal urges.

Another user, a 47-year-old from Canada, apparently became convinced that he was a mathematical genius sent to save humanity after just three weeks of exchanges with the chatbot.

“This is the main problem with these sex-bots,” Devlin said. “What are the impacts on people who are already vulnerable?”

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arts24 © FRANCE 24
12:40

OpenAI has pledged to put guardrails in place to avoid these abuses. For Thorne, these promised protections appear meagre in the face of widely used “jailbreaking” practices, where users are able to trick chatbots into generating responses normally prohibited by their programming.

“We know that it is often possible to circumvent the limits set by these chatbots’ creators,” Thorne said. “When it comes to erotic discussions, this can lead to the creation of problematic or even illegal content.”

Experts told FRANCE 24 that they were also not convinced that a private corporation being made the arbiter of what constitutes sexual content was acceptable.

"Given that laws on what is and is not permitted often vary from country to country, it will be very difficult for OpenAI to lay down general rules,” Thorne said.

Devlin warned that the US-based startup could be tempted to play it safe by limiting ChatGPT’s definition of acceptable erotic content as much as possible.

“In the US, for example, there is currently a very strong conservative shift that is rolling back women’s rights and seeking to limit the LGBT community’s visibility,” she said. “What will happen if ChatGPT incorporates these biases?”

Sexbots + incels = trouble

And while sexualised content would remain – in theory – restricted to adults, the impact of generative AI on a new generation growing up alongside the technology could still be severe.

“A recent UK study showed that young people are more and more likely to consider chatbots as real people whose statements are credible,” Thorne said.

A generation that, once grown up, could be led to believe ChatGPT if it tells them, for example, that it’s not acceptable to have a same-sex erotic exchange.

Another risk could come from chatbots’ famously sycophantic approach to their users.

“They’re often configured based on the model of client service call centres that offer very friendly and cooperative interactions,” Thorne said. “Besides this, the creators of these AIs want to make their users happy so that they continue to use their product.”
How AI is reinventing misogyny

THE 51 PERCENT © FRANCE 24
12:33

Nyholm said that it was a worrying approach when it comes to sexual matters.

“Let’s take for example the ‘incel’ movement, these young men who are sexually frustrated and complain about women,” he said. “If a chatbot always goes along with them to keep them satisfied, it risks reinforcing their belief that women should act the same way.”

But even though Devlin recognises a “major risk”, she argues that this supportive side of sex-bots could be a boon for heterosexual women alienated by an online world that can feel more and more hostile.

“In an increasingly toxic digital environment, it could be more sexually fulfilling to have an erotic interaction with an AI instead of real people who could harass you online,” she said.

But even if these chats could have positive effects, do we really want to deliver our most intimate erotic fantasies into the hands of an AI controlled by an American multinational?

“Many people don’t realise that the data that they enter into ChatGPT is sent to OpenAI,” Devlin said.

If Altman succeeds in taking over this growing industry, OpenAI would possess “without doubt the largest amount of data on people’s erotic preferences”, Thorne said.

It’s a question that users should probably keep in mind before launching into a lascivious back-and-forth with their ever-submissive sex-bot.

This article has been adapted from the original in French.