I thought to make a short guide to the strands of thought that make up the manosphere, and what to call them. Now some of these factions hate each other, as I will detail below, but they sound identical on the matter of women today (they mostly disagree about men and how women used to be) and all are close to the alt-right, even if they are left-wing on economics.
Their commonalities are: hatred of feminism; opposing women in authority or in media; thinking that there's two types of men (alpha-beta) and one type of woman, and they understand both fully; believing that men are repressed by society and women are favoured (focusing on divorce and false rape allegations); that men who defend feminism are only in it for sex; seeing sex as a commodity and bargaining currency, and marriage as a tool of social control; and being unable to form healthy relationships with men or women.
Men's Rights Activists, as represented by A Voice For Men
What defines this lot is nominally accepting equal rights, but then cherry-picking cases to make it seem like men are disadvantaged. Plenty of hypocrisy and refusing to accept that patriarchal norms (like slut-shaming) are sexist. What defines them is whining, pointing to men being harmed without doing anything about it, and falling back on weasel words when challenged. I have often asked myself what would be their ideal society, and all I can derive is "one where bad things don't happen to men". They may indeed sound like feminists out of context ("Women should not be placed on a pedestal").
Masculinists, as represented by Return of Kings
Unlike MRAs, these people have an ideology, though one filled with contradictions and baseless assumptions. They reject equality and want a patriarchy where men rule over women while having duties of their own. They emphasise that women are weak and fickle and need guardianship, while men should be self-willed and independent - which you can become by following their every instruction. Most claim to be successful with women, though none seem capable of relating to them as human.
Some reactionary masculinists do seem to care about women in some form, I will get to them later, and they stay well away from Return of Kings and its leader Roosh V.
MRAs see masculinists as going too far/giving the game away by calling for women inferior, and masculinists see MRAs as male feminists (self-interested whining). While masculinists think of the past as good, MRAs often claim men have always been disadvantaged, citing conscription and dangerous jobs.
r/TheRedPill
They have a lot in common with masculinists, but talk of personal rather than social change. Mix good advice with misogyny and an abusive view of relationships. Since the good parts are available elsewhere, they have to insist that it be taken as a packet and if it fails, it's because you didn't try hard enough. They seem to think that wanting to be manly is the only way for men to be motivated.
A curious dissonance is that masculinists often talk of the importance of monogamy (and believe our society is headed for disaster) yet the Red Pill often openly advocates promiscuity, yet this is rarely brought up. Maybe they think men can be promiscuous but not women, basic mathematics be damned.
Pick-up Artists
Also known as Game, and close to the Red Pill, these are teachers claiming to know the secret to sexual success. Most notable trait is that it talks of knowing women in every way but its social structure gives off a strong homoerotic vibe.
May be badly seen by more traditionalist masculinists; they hold the same beliefs about the sexes, but PUAs disregard any ethics in applying them.
Men Going Their Own Way
MGTOWs are even whinier than normal MRAs, and are perhaps what happens to masculinists when they are not successful in sex. They proudly proclaim that they are abandoning women and women-centred society and believe that without them it will collapse. But while I can respect disregarding society to make and follow your own ideals, this is not what they do. Their forums are obsessed with women, making snide comments about them and complaining about not being catered to. They act like scorned stalkers to all women everywhere. More than the rest they adopt "whatever women want we're against"; make-up is bad, but being slim is a duty.
MGTOWs are scorned by mcuh of the manosphere because their self-destructive insecurity is just that obvious.
r/Incels
The term "incel" has a varied history, but here I will tackle the ideology of Caamib and his legacy.
May be seen as the section that has so little sexual success they can't even claim to be MGTOWs because they have no women to leave behind. A strange mix of apathetic self-pity, ramblings on human sexuality from a very warped and ignorant perspective, and fantasising about solutions that are as impractical as they are repugnant. They believe that sexual freedom is the culprit and that the patriarchy of old would solve their situation whatever the evidence. May be anywhere politically, as they are social reactionaries but want government intervention to solve their problems.
They have a mixed relationship with other branches. They usually hate pick-up artists, accusing them of stealing the women, while teetering between idolising the Red Pill and excoriating it as a scam. Masculinists and MRAs will gladly mention them as symptoms of how men are treated, but otherwise don't care about them.
Patriarchists/Traditional Women's Rights Advocates as represented by Jesse Powell and The Radical One
The rarest and perhaps the weirdest, these believe in men ruling over women but seem to genuinely care for women, or at least an idealisation of them. They believe feminism has harmed women, women need the protection of men, and the breakdown of traditional marriage has made it easy for men to sexually exploit women. Christian "Complementarianism" is a milder version of this, though how much they care for women is up for debate.
They are suspicious of the manosphere, suspecting that they want the benefits of patriarchy but cannot take the duties. Sometimes they point to the likes of Roosh V. as men that feminism unintentionally creates.
I hope this system can cover most of the manosphere and prevent "MRA" being used as a catch-all.
ここには何もないようです