TL;DR Hypothesis; MGTOW is a genetic mutation coinciding with advanced abstract thinking ability.

Why MGTOW? How do MGTOW fit within the biological constraints of evolution? How is it that self-selecting men can feel contentment?

Sex is dangerous; getting naked, laying down, making noise, being incapacitated for a few seconds during peristaltic contractions in a spasmodic release - sex is dangerous in the moment. Sex can have residual danger; sexually transmitted diseases, inopportune pregnancies (and associated reprisals, e.g. child support, shotgun weddings, protective males, etc.), and violent women (NEVER STICK YOUR DICK IN CRAZY!).

The cost of sex is "balanced" with the pleasure of having it and the displeasure of not having it (the blue-balls of swollen epididymides bursting with sperm and acrosomal enzymes).

Hell, some insects will eat the male after sex as a source of protein to aid the pregnancy, and yet, they still have sex.

So many men are like a pray-mantis getting its head bitten off - sacrificing themselves for women and children.

(hmm... "Women and children first" - isn't that a cultural meme?)

So, why MGTOW? Why not "go back to the plantation"? Get eaten? Metaphorically.

Evolution is often subtle and clumsy. It's an elegant system if you ignore the time and multitude and magnitude of failures throughout history, but, ultimately, it is a subtle and clumsy system. And MGTOW are perhaps necessary for the advancement of the species.

That is a bold claim, so let me repeat it; MGTOW are perhaps necessary for the advancement of the species.

We are perhaps a mutation.

I don't think that it is too controversial to say, "Thought arises from the brain; the brain is an organ with anatomical features developed from a genetic blueprint; subtle differences in the genetic blueprint can drastically affect the quality and content of the emergent property (thought); thus, a genetic element can result in proclivities toward thoughts. Without, say, the anatomy supporting, say, language - a person would lack the ability to think linguistically."

Of course one could argue the cultural/technological angle, like TFM, Sandman, and other MGTOW content producers. That thesis is not my thesis here, and I'm not arguing the "nurture" side... tentatively.

Humans have experienced an exponential population explosion. It's possible that it is only the log phase of a sigmoidal curve, preceding a plateau (and perhaps eventual decline, e.g. The Mouse Utopia Experiment). Regardless, the genetic diversity of humanity has increased drastically in the past thousand years (despite the destruction of New World peoples, the Black Death of Europe, and the Mongol genocide of Asia, among other limiting factors). With fits and starts, humanity's numbers have ballooned rapidly, and, consequently, humans diversity has increased. Some humans who are now unfit for wilderness survival have found a new ecological niche within the confines society. Mutants are abounding. Many mutant strains of Homo sapiens have arisen... some mutant strains carry genetic diseases, some carry adaptations, and some carry mere random changes.

What if MGTOW tend toward a mutation?

What if you tweeked the biological imperative?

There is an excellent book about infidelity (don't trust women) titled Sperm Wars by Dr. Robin Baker; he makes it accessible to the layman reader and I highly recommend it. In one small section of the book he talks about homosexuality and how it can have evolutionary advantages (aside from the ones of familial support - after all, having extra workers without the same sexual drives can be a net benefit for the species)... And therein is a theoretical justification for my thesis; even if a man isn't having sex he can still advance the species.

The biological imperative has an activation threshold; some men avoid sex under stress, others seek sex. Faced with high death rates, warriors throughout history have had sex before, during or after battle. Examples that come to mind are the mongol hordes raping and pillaging, RAF pilots having swinger sex, the baby boomers existence, among other examples.

Yet other men seek chastity and "channel their sexual energy" (e.g. the warrior-monk)... Or, in the face of a litigious society of divorce-rape and such - Go Their Own Way.

Why?

What if (in the extreme case), by not having children, Epicurus, Pyrrho (preeminent philosopher of the skeptic school of thought, laying the groundwork for future scientific methods), Sir Isaac Newton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nicola Tesla, Friar Monk Gregory Mendel (preeminent geneticist), Alan Turing, and countless other men foregoing some lower degree of sexual gratification - have advanced human thought. And thus, humanity has grown.

In the randomness of human evolution the dormant trait of a transcendent man could have matured. Perhaps FOXP2, and the genes responsible for brain development which made abstract thought possible, have allowed for both science AND the abstraction of sexual gratification. That is; to think about thinking, and, in so doing, analyze the baser thoughts such as sex - and to step back.

What are we MGTOW but those who've stepped back?

And from our vantage, we see patterns, make abstractions, devise new ways of progressing... find our own ways, respectively.

FOXP2 (and its peripherals) is a good genetic candidate for the MGTOW mutation.

Perhaps there is a scientist gene, so to speak.

Human FOXP2, for instance, has been shown to be necessary for language acquisition, and abstract thinking... The advent of abstract thinking allowed for things such as art (or tekhne - the Greek word for "art", from which we get the words technology and technique), the acquisition of technology, language (and other symbolic logic, such as computing and mathematics), science and hypothesis.

Don't you think it's weird that we MGTOW have so many scientists (TheDarkKnight was studying to be a doctor of biochemistry, BarBarossa was in chemical engineering, I'm also a biochemist, Stardusk studied language and might as well be a scientist or philologist at the least), computer programmers (Marcus at TheGroundWorkForTheMetaphysicsofMGTOW, TurdFlingingMonkey I think, many of the men on the MGTOW subreddit), tradesmen (Vention1MGTOW is a diesel mechanic), and artists (Gregory Becker was a painter, and Sandman is a professional photographer)...? Doesn't that seem odd? So many MGTOW with the spirit of tekhne? This command of abstract thinking - a kind of art (or technique of methodological thinking)? And what about our forefathers mentioned above? Epicurus, Pyrrho, Sir Isaac Newton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nicola Tesla, Friar Monk Gregory Mendel, Alan Turing, or Socrates disrespecting his own marriage, and the countless others? Why not an over-representation of other kinds of men (bankers, managers, farmers, and less abstract-thinking-oriented professionals)?

To use a trick of rhetoric, MGTOW is a species of thought.

An interesting theory, which could be fleshed-out further in the future.

Closing thoughts and wild speculations:

I must say that there is a kind of satisfaction to think of myself as a kind of (advantageous?) mutation, separate from the rest of the gene pool. The Superman is an alien, so to speak - not quite human - better, transcendent. Perhaps this phenomenon is the first step in a speciation event - we are progenitors of genetic diversion. (In a sense, we are already diverted from reproducing with modern woman. Eventually, the Australopithecus fought among themselves, genetically diverging even before speciation into Homo habilis before Homo sapiens - an entirely new genus with all the individual species in the Homo branch... species - meaning they cannot breed outside of their group. If this theory holds, then it is very portentous, and I'd like to be on the right side of the future history of human evolution... It's generally the technologically superior force that wins... so long as they are also the superior strategists).

"The wonderful thing about man is that he is a bridge." -Nietzsche