The term “masculinist” is making its way (timidly) into media discourse

It was a term rather reserved for the feminist sphere, known among activists and those who were victims of it: the word “masculinist” has been everywhere for several months, particularly in the media sphere. Especially since in the last annual report of the High Council for Equality (HCE) published a few days ago, on the inventory of sexism in France, directly pointed to this anti-feminism and its consequences online and offline. . “Masculist ‘raids’ are on the rise online to silence or discredit women. At the heart of sexist and sexual violence, online misogynistic hatred, cyberbullying and cybersexism (insults, threats of violence and death, indecent proposals, insults, persecution) have already been experienced by 73% of women in the world according to the ‘UN’ explains the report.

If the term “masculinism” enters the media discourse, it must first succeed in explaining it. Masculinist thought is an ideology bringing together a myriad of movements and communities, mainly present online, which aim to fight against the attacks that men could suffer. In what is called the “manosphere”, this galaxy of male sub-communities, we find both involuntary celibates (incels), men who no longer wish to meet women (MGTOW), coaches in seduction or activists for fathers’ rights… An ecosystem that multiplies conspiracy theories and calls for violence against women. In its latest report, Miviludes called for vigilance on these movements and their warlike courses. Yet how is it that this term has stayed out of media spheres for so long?

A term that is making its way into newsrooms, thanks to a new generation

For Chloe Thibaud, author and journalist at Simone Media, “since I started my feminist education five or six years ago, it’s a term that I first came across through social networks, but like a bunch of terms, on committed accounts. But that doesn’t come from generalist journalists,” she explains. Some time ago in the Pause Simone newsletter, she transcribed her meeting with a masculinist. Chloé Thibaud is part of this generation of journalists who grew up with social networks and feminist 2.0 movements, who experienced #MeToo as adults and saw the backlash. A few weeks ago, the journalist Alicia Mihami wrote an article for TV5 Monde on Andrew Tate, retracing the career of the masculinist influencer. “A few years ago, it would not have been possible to do this kind of subject. It is also because we enter the newsrooms, that we fight to move these things forward, ”she develops.

In its report, the HCE lists the numerous smear campaigns and cyberviolence experienced by women online, such as in the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard affair or through the violent remarks of masculinist influencer Andrew Tate. These examples, supported by the work of journalist Lucie Ronfaut and author and activist Rose Lamy, show that official bodies, such as the HCE or the general media, (finally) take into account what is happening online. Because cyberviolence (cyberharassment, gender-based and sexual violence, intimidation, etc.) is in the continuum of “real life” violence. For Alicia Mihami, the use of the term “masculinist” by the media is also a sign of a better knowledge of social networks on the part of journalists. “It’s a term that comes more from networks, from feminist accounts on Instagram. And that we have already seen in the Anglo-Saxon media for a while,” she adds.

Explain so as not to trivialize

The proliferation of the term “masculinist” is reminiscent of the course of the term “feminicide”: first stemming from militant spheres, it has become a word in everyday language. “I think it’s part of the same movement as naming things: a masculinist is not just a misogynist. It’s going even deeper into a system of radicalization,” explains Alicia Mihami. Because yes, the term masculinist designates a very specific ideology, and is not the equivalent of the word “misogyny” or of a supposed masculine equivalent of feminism. “What scares me a little is precisely the trivialization of the term, and that in people’s minds it is the masculine equivalent of feminism” underlines Chloé Thibaud. “We are still working to de-demonize feminism: it is still considered a militant word that is not neutral,” she adds.

Real journalistic work awaits the media now, according to Alicia Mihami. “I think that now that we have identified this phenomenon, we will continue to use this term, and this requires young journalists who know about it. It’s a term that needs to stay,” she explains. All the more so if the official authorities seize the term and the subject, like the HCE. “We must recognize the work of associations, of feminists more broadly, but there is still a lack of political effort. Because one of the sources of violence is precisely this masculinist thought” defends Chloé Thibaud. The latter says she is “not very optimistic” about the future and about the treatment of masculinist rhetoric: “every time words appear, they are ridiculed, and we do not report their dangerousness” sighs the journalist. But this time, will it be different? To speak of masculinism is also to explain its scope, its sub-communities, its political and ideological strategies. A new challenge for the media.


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