Early feminist warnings about the manosphere were dismissed, enabling its political mainstreaming
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/laurie-penny. "Feminists began raising the alarm about the manosphere decades ago – and we were ignored | Laurie Penny | The Guardian." April 13, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author argues that feminists warned about dangerous online misogyny years ago but were told to ignore it or that it wasn't real. Now those same groups have real political power, and this could have been prevented if people had listened to the early warnings.
Conclusion
The manosphere's current political influence could have been prevented if early feminist warnings about online misogyny had been taken seriously instead of dismissed
Premises
- Feminists and early targets identified the manosphere as a serious threat in the early 2000s when it was dismissed as 'not real life'
- The manosphere evolved from scattered online harassment into a coherent ideology that influenced major political movements
- Gamergate in 2014 served as a proving ground for alt-right propagandists who later helped elect Trump
- The same dismissive tactics used against feminists were later used to normalize far-right extremism
- The manosphere has now achieved mainstream political power, with figures like Trump openly courting these groups
Assumptions
- Online harassment and threats constitute real harm that should be taken seriously by authorities
- There is a direct causal link between early online misogyny and current far-right political movements
- Early intervention could have prevented or reduced the manosphere's political influence
- Mainstream dismissal of feminist concerns enabled the growth of these movements