- Introduction
- Men’s rights: Miscellaneous articles
- Incels, misogyny, and incidents of violence against women
- Men’s rights activist Den Hollander’s violence, including suspected murder of men’s rights activist Marc Angelucci (July 2020)
- Further resources on male supremacist / men’s rights groups and networks
Introduction
A range of critiques and assessments of the men's rights movement have been published in recent years. While there are academic assessments and explorations of this movement and its politics and agendas and impact, here I have gathered a list of more accessible discussions. I've also gathered commentaries on particular incidents. I hope they're useful.
Men’s rights: Miscellaneous articles
Here are a variety of accessible pieces on male supremacist or "men's rights" groups and networks, in alphabetical order by author. See further below for pieces focused on 'incels'.
- Aiston, What is the manosphere and why is it a concern? (2021)
- Baker, Men’s Rights Activism — The Deceptive Gateway to Misogynist Terrorism (2021)
- Bates, Men going their own way: the rise of a toxic male separatist movement (2020)
- Blake, Mad Men: Inside the Men’s Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned (2015).
- Chevalier, Refusing to Empathize with Elliot Rodger: Taking Male Entitlement Seriously
- Copland, Australia’s manosphere: a prehistory (2021)
- Criado-Perez, Four Men's Right's Activist Myths Busted (2019)
- Dewey, Inside the ‘manosphere’ that inspired Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger
- DiBranco, Mobilizing misogyny 2017
- Fell, Let’s Call Men’s Rights Activists By Their True Names, May 14 2015
- Ford, The four predictably basic moves of men's rights activists. Daily Life, February 12 2016.
- Friedman, A Look Inside the ‘Men’s Rights’ Movement That Helped Fuel California Alleged Killer Elliot Rodger (2013) [Originally published under the title, “A Good Men’s Rights Movement Is Hard to Find”].
- Futrelle, Dismantling the Men’s Rights Movement. (2011).
- Futrelle, The Daily Beast takes on the Men’s Rights movement — and takes down A Voice for Men’s John Hembling (2015).
- Futrelle, The alt-right is fueled by toxic masculinity and vice versa, April 2 2019.
- Gilmore, Why don't men's rights activists fight for men's rights, Aug 25 2016.
- Harding, Fuck you, men’s rights activists (2012).
- Hoare, What parents need to know to talk to their children about the manosphere, April 3 2025
- Hodge, I was a men's rights activist (2016).
- Kelly, The Masculine Mystique: Inside the Men’s Rights Movement (2013).
- Kimmel, America’s angriest white men: Up close with racism, rage and Southern supremacy (2013).
- Kimmel, Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era (2013) - the entire text of Kimmel's book
- Kimmel, From men's liberation to men's rights, June 9 2014
- Lewis, Jon, and Jacob Ware, Spring Provides Timely Reminder of Incel Violence - And Clarifies How to Respond (2020)
- Mackinnon, ‘Men’s rights movement’ - A cover for violent misogyny (2018)
- Marcotte, The creepy misogynist movement that’s making conservatives even more sexist (2014)
- Marcotte, The Solution to MRA Problems? More Feminism (2011)
- Marcotte, Paul Elam's past - Buzzfeed reports on the leader of the men's rights movement (2014)
- McClouskey, Why the MRA ‘Manosphere’ Isn’t Actually Helping Men Cope with Rejection (2016)
- McDermott, Why the manosphere paints feminism as the enemy (April 1 2025)
- McKenzie-Murray, Inside men’s rights groups (Mar 21 2015)
- Morgane, Why We Should Stop Talking About Anti-Male Sexism (2018)
- Osberg, How Men's Rights Activists Swallowed the World (2020)
- Parkhill, Elliot Rodger, And The Dark Heart Of Men’s Rights Activism, May 26 2014
- Poland, B. (2016). Misogynist Movements: Men’s Rights Activists and Gamergate. In: Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online. University of Nebraska Press
- Poole, Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates – fierce and eye-opening. Sept. 2 2020
- Potok and Schlatter, Men’s Rights Movement Spreads False Claims about Women, March 1 2012
- Ross, The 8 Biggest Lies Men's Rights Activists Spread About Women (2014)
- Russell-Kraft, The Rise of Male Supremacist Groups. New Republic, April 4, 2018.
- Serwer and Baker, How Men’s Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement (2015).
- Sharma, Working with Paradoxes A critical feminist engagement with men's rights groups India (2017)
- Theriault, Why the men’s rights movement is garbage (2014).
- Thomsen, Men on the internet are becoming more extreme toxic and abusive according to study (2020)
- UN Women, What is the manosphere and why should we care?, May 15 2025
- US Prevention Practitioners Network, The Threat Landscape - Incel and Misogynist Violent Extremism (2021)
- Valeii, Men’s Rights Activism: A Malevolent World Of Make-Believe. (Original URL: https://theestablishment.co/2016/02/05/mens-rights-activists-are-like-k…) (2016).
- West, No I will not take the men’s rights movement seriously (2014).
- Whalen, Boy problems. Mother Jones magazine (2023)
Incels, misogyny, and incidents of violence against women
- Aamir, INCELS - Why Extremism Based on Misogyny Needs to Be Taken More Seriously (2020);
- Baker, In the midst of racism and violence why is the incel community still so appealing (2019);
- Beauchamp, Incel, the misogynist ideology that inspired the deadly Toronto attack, explained (2018);
- Bennett, Violent misogyny is unfortunately not confined to the internet’s ‘incels’ (2018);
- Chokshi, What Is an Incel? A Term Used by the Toronto Van Attack Suspect, Explained (2018);
- Cross, The Media Must Stop Taking Incel Agitprop Seriously (2018);
- Deadly attack at Toronto erotic spa was incel terrorism, police allege. May 19, 2020
- Doyle, The Deadly Incel Movement's Absurd Pop Culture Roots (2018);
- Dr Nerdlove, The trouble with incels (2018);
- Duong, Incel culture is not mental illness. It runs much deeper, May 21 2020: Incel-inspired violence is just one part of a larger culture that permits and celebrates sexual violence against women.Fournier, NYT asks Feministing answers: Will sex robots save us from incels? (2018);
- Haenfler, How a masculine culture that favors sexual conquests gave us today's 'incels' (2018);
- Hoffman, Incels - America's Newest Domestic Terrorism Threat (2020);
- Kane, The “Incel Rebellion” Is Misogynist Terrorism. So Why Do So Many People Still Put the Blame on Women? (2018);
- Kates, What the media gets wrong about incels (2021)
- Lewis, Jon, and Jacob Ware, Spring Provides Timely Reminder of Incel Violence - And Clarifies How to Respond (2020)
- Norris, Incels: The Radicalised Extremist Community of White Male Supremacists (2021)
- O'Toole, If incels’ violent misogyny had a role in Toronto, we mustn’t downplay it (2018);
- Robertson, Should we treat incels as terrorists, October 5 (2019);
- Smith, Incels are the new shock troops (2022);
- Sparrow, From misery to misogyny: incels and the far right (2018);
- Srinivasan, Does anyone have the right to sex? (2018);
- Tolentino, The Rage of the Incels (2018);
- Tomkinson, 'Incel' violence is a form of extremism. It's time we treated it as a security threat (2020);
- Vassolo, Another 'incel' shooter: yoga studio killer wanted to crucify 'American whores' (2018)
- Williams, ‘Raw hatred’: why the 'incel' movement targets and terrorises women (2018);
- Yang and Gillis, Shadowy online subculture in spotlight after Toronto van attack (2018).
- Incels: America’s Newest Domestic Terrorism Threat. January 12, 2020
On the August 2021 shooting in Plymouth, UK, see:
- Griffin, Plymouth shooting: Inside the dark world of 'incels' (2021)
- Topping, Plymouth shootings may be a sign ‘incel’ culture is spreading (2021)
- Weaver and Morris, Plymouth gunman: a hate-filled misogynist and ‘incel’ (2021)
Men’s rights activist Den Hollander’s violence, including suspected murder of men’s rights activist Marc Angelucci (July 2020)
- Baker, Misogyny, Murder and the Men’s Rights Movement (2020)
- Bote, Shooting suspect Roy Den Hollander was a men's rights activist. What does that mean? (2020)
- Garber, Before the Media Treated Him as a Threat They Treated Him as a Joke (2020)
- Watson, MRA Murders the Son of a Woman He Hated, but Conspiracy Theorists Blame Jeffrey Epstein (2020)
- Wehuntedthemammoth, A Voice for Men tries to distance itself from Roy Den Hollander’s violence … by citing an article they published by him threatening violence (2020)
Further resources
For further materials, including academic critiques, see the following materials: