Conspiracist Elements in Manosphere Discourses: an Exploratory Study

This contribution explores conspiracist elements within anti-feminist online communities by focusing on the discourses they produce. These communities form a network known as the manosphere, which is centred around male identity and the promotion of misogynist and hateful ideologies, and has been raising concerns in recent years (Sugiura 2021), for fostering verbal as well as, in some cases, physical violence (Barcellona 2022). It has been argued that the success of manosphere-related ideologies, often spread by influencers who have been able to reach extremely wide audiences online, taps into some men’s vulnerabilities and frustrations, as they promise compensation while at the same time fuelling feelings of dissatisfaction, resentment and hate (Rich and Bukalka 2023). One of the main tenets of this system of beliefs is the so-called Red Pill, which represents the awakening of men realising the harsh truth of life, namely that society is governed by gender roles that favour women and disproportionately hinder boys and men, especially those who may not conform to specific physical, financial and social standards deemed to attract women (Ging 2019). Discourse research carried out on content produced within the manosphere has highlighted several linguistic features which seem to characterise such content: among them, the use of sexist an misogynist language, the dehumanizing and objectifying representation of women (Krendel 2020), the victimizing representation of men, the references to sexual violence, with their mobilising power (Gotell and Dutton 2016) and the relatively new combination between notions of hegemonic masculinity and male victimhood (Ging 2019). The present research addresses manosphere discourses from a conspiracy-theory perspective, drawing on the inherently conspiracist aspects of the Red Pill philosophy, central among these anti-feminist groups, which sees most men as victims of wide-ranging oppression, hidden through brainwashing and propaganda: these are allegedly orchestrated by feminist movements and their supporters (e.g. governments, academic institutions). Feminism is thus understood as a powerful force dominating society (Dickel and Evolvi 2023). This contribution focuses on conspiracist traits in a dataset of posts published in influential blogs within Red Pill communities. Drawing on Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (Partington et al. 2013), it retrieves and describes the linguistic patterns which create and reflect conspiracist elements in the dataset, based on widely acknowledged accounts and definitions of conspiracy theories (Douglas et al. 2019). From an in-depth exploration of these linguistic patterns, the research aims at establishing: (1) whether or not the conspiracist elements retrieved reflect the existence of actual conspiracist beliefs, or rather of a conspiracist mindset (see Nera 2024); (2) what narratives and identities emerge as involved in the alleged conspiratorial practices; (3) how the conspiracist beliefs or mindset are normalised, legitimised and made acceptable through discourse; (4) what the function of conspiracist elements might be within the communities catered for by the analysed blogs.