Sexism Is A “Gateway Drug” For The “Alt-Right”

Men’s Rights Activists “Argue That False Allegations Of Rape And Domestic Abuse Are Rampant” And “Rail Against Women For Being Independent Or Sexually Promiscuous.” Mother Jones’ Mariah Blake profiled the “men’s rights” movement, writing that it “aims to battle discrimination against men but has drawn criticism for stirring up hatred of women” and that “men’s rights forums on sites like 4chan and Reddit are awash in misogyny and anti-feminist vitriol.” She said its members “argue that false allegations of rape and domestic abuse are rampant, or that shelters for battered women are a financial scam. Others “rail against women for being independent or sexually promiscuous.” [Mother Jones, January/February 2015]

Misogyny Is The “Gateway Drug” That Brings Many Men Into The “Alt-Right.” As Aja Romano wrote for Vox, “extreme misogyny evolving from male bonding gone haywire” is often a “gateway drug” that leads people into the “alt-right.” In addition, the “alt-right” has embraced certain cultural issues in order to marginalize women, such as boycotts of the female-led reboot of the movie Ghostbusters. New York magazine’s Claire Landsbaum wrote that the ideology of men’s rights activists is “leaking into the teachings of … the alt-right.” [Vox, 12/14/16; New York magazine, 12/14/16; Media Matters, 12/27/16; Reddit, accessed 1/18/17]

These Men’s Rights/“Alt-Right” Activists Have Long Espoused Deeply Misogynistic Views

Mike Cernovich

Cernovich: “Date Rape Does Not Exist.” In August 2012, Mike Cernovich, founder of the website Danger & Play and an “alt-right” social media personality who recently helped push the “Pizzagate” myth, suggested in a since-deleted tweet that men “try” to rape “a girl without using force,” claiming that “it’s basically impossible” and adding, “Date rape does not exist.” [The Daily Beast, 8/9/16; Media Matters, 12/19/16]

Cernovich: “If You Love Black Women, Slut Shame Them” To Keep Them From Getting AIDS. In February 2016, Cernovich wrote in a since-deleted tweet, “Not being a slut is the only proven way to avoid AIDS,” adding, “If you love black women, slut shame them.” [The Daily Beast, 8/9/16]

Cernovich: “Misogyny Gets You Laid.” In a 2011 post on his website Danger & Play titled “Misogyny Gets You Laid,” Cernovich wrote that “sex with fussy womenchild is boring” and “I am not so in need of sex that tolerating bullshit is worth the payoff.” [Danger & Play, 8/24/11]

Cernovich Was A Leader Behind “GamerGate.” In 2014, Cernovich was a “champion” of GamerGate, which The New Yorker characterized as “a vicious campaign against feminists in the video-game industry.” [The New Yorker, 10/31/16]

Cernovich Was “Among The First” To Claim That Hillary Clinton “Had A Grave Neurological Condition.” According to an October 31 New Yorker profile, “Cernovich was among the first to insinuate publicly that Clinton had a grave neurological condition, and that the media was covering it up.” [The New Yorker, 10/31/16]

Milo Yiannopoulos

Yiannopoulos: “An Army Of Sociopathic Feminist” Gamers Are “Terrorising” The Gamer Community. Breitbart editor and “alt-right figure” Milo Yiannopoulos, another leading voice behind the 2014 GamerGate harassment campaign , wrote in a September 1, 2014, post that “an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers, are terrorising the entire community – lying, bullying and manipulating their way around the internet for profit and attention.” [Breitbart, 9/1/14; Politico, 12/29/16]

Yiannopoulos: “There Ought To Be A Cap On The Number Of Women Enrolling In The Sciences, Maths, Philosophy, Engineering … And Perhaps Medicine And The Law.” In a June 15, 2015, column for Breitbart, Yiannopoulos suggested that “there ought to be a cap on the number of women enrolling in the sciences, maths, philosophy, engineering… and perhaps medicine and the law, too” because women “either can’t cut it in highly competitive environments or they simply change their minds about what they want from life.” [Breitbart, 6/15/15]

Yiannopoulos: “Feminism Kills Women” Because It “Pushes For Women In Combat.” In an October 2016 appearance at Auburn University, according to Breitbart, Yiannopoulos asserted that “‘feminism pushes for women in combat, because to feminists, woman can do everything men do, better.’” Yiannopoulos added, “‘This is of course a lie,’” adding that sending women into combat “kills” them. [Breitbart, 10/7/16]

Yiannopoulos: Does Feminism Make Women “Uglier?” In a July 26, 2015 column, Yiannopoulos asked if feminism makes women “uglier.” He claimed, “Everyone knows that becoming a feminist makes a woman less marriageable, more crass and generally just unpleasant to be around.” [Breitbart, 7/26/15]

Yiannopoulos Was Banned From Twitter After Leading A Harassment Campaign Against Leslie Jones. In July, Twitter permanently suspended Yiannopoulos’ account after he launched a harassment campaign against actress Leslie Jones. As BuzzFeed noted, many of his tweets “decried Jones for being both black and a woman.” [BuzzFeed, 7/20/16]

Yiannopoulos Claimed That Rape Culture And Harry Potter Are “Both Fantasy.” According to Inside Higher Ed, Yiannopoulos was “removed from a protest march against rape culture … which he attended while holding a sign that read, ‘Rape Culture and Harry Potter: Both Fantasy.’” [Inside Higher Ed, 2/19/16]

Yiannopoulos Harassed A Transgender Student. During a December 2016 appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yiannopoulos, according to a New York magazine article, “used his platform to mock a transgender student, displaying her name and photo prominently onscreen.” The article went on to note that Yiannopoulos said that the transgender woman was not “passing” as a woman, adding, “‘The way that you know he’s failing is I’d almost still bang him.’” [New York, 12/15/16]

Roosh V

Roosh V Proposed Making “Rape Legal If Done On Private Property.” Roosh V is a blogger, “pickup artist” (someone who relentlessly practices the ‘art’ of seduction) and “hero of the ‘alternative right’ movement” who uses “Roosh V” as a pseudonym for his real name, Daryush Valizadeh. In a February 16, 2015, blog post, he proposed that the “solution” to rape is to “make rape legal if done on private property” and “make the violent taking of a woman not punishable by law when done off public grounds.” Roosh later wrote on his blog that the post was “a satirical thought experiment” whose “conclusion is not to be take literally.” At a 2016 press conference, Vox reported, Roosh “defended the post's victim-blaming analysis about women's ‘personal responsibility.’” [Roosh V, 2/16/15; Vox, 2/8/16; Newsweek, 10/13/16]

Roosh Admitted To Raping A Woman In Iceland. According to a Change.org petition to urge Amazon to stop selling Roosh’s books, he wrote in his book Bang Iceland that he raped a woman: “While walking to my place, I realized how drunk she was. In America, having sex with her would have been rape, since she legally couldn’t give her consent. It didn’t help matters that I was sober, but I can’t say I cared or even hesitated. I won’t rationalize my actions, but having sex is what I do." [Change.org, accessed 1/18/17]

Roosh: “I’m In A State Of Elation” That Trump “Rates Women On A 1-10 Scale In The Same Way We Do.” Roosh celebrated President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, writing in a November 11 blog post that he was “in a state of exuberance that we now have a President who rates women on a 1-10 scale in the same way that we do and evaluates women by their appearance and feminine attitude.” Roosh also praised Trump, predicting that he would “not encourage anti-male propaganda, rape culture, and female victimhood.” [Return of Kings, 11/11/16]

Vox Day/Theodore Beale

Beale: Trump’s Boasts About Sexually Assaulting Women Were Merely “Alpha Talk About Women.” According to an October 8 post on We Hunted the Mammoth, Theodore Beale, aka blogger and self-proclaimed “Alt Right nationalist” Vox Day, defended the Trump comments captured in a 2005 Access Hollywood in which the president-elect boasted about sexually assaulting women. Baele suggested that Trump’s comments were merely “Alpha talk about women.” [We Hunted The Mammoth, 10/8/16; Media Matters, 11/7/16; Twitter, 5/19/16]

Beale: “Feminism Is A Satanic, Anti-Christian, Anti-Reason, Anti-Science Ideology That Destroys Literally Everything It Touches.” In a January 3, 2015, blog post, Beale claimed, “Feminism is a Satanic, anti-Christian, anti-reason, anti-science ideology that destroys literally everything it touches and everyone who embraces it.” Beale asserted that “to accept” feminism “is to begin to die a slow and painful death.” [Alpha Game, 1/3/15]

Beale: “Marital Sex Is Never Rape.” In a May 14, 2014, blog post titled “Marital sex is never rape,” Beale asserted, “The concept of marital rape is not merely an oxymoron, it is an attack on the institution of marriage, on the concept of objective law, and indeed, on the core foundation of human civilization itself.” [Vox Popoli, 5/14/14]

Beale: The Taliban’s Attempted Assault On Malala Yousafzai Was “Scientifically Justifiable” Due To “The Strong Correlation Between Female Education And Demographic Decline.” Beale suggested that the Taliban’s attempted assault on Nobel Peace Prize winner and female education advocate Malala Yousafzai was “perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable” due to “the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline.” [Men’s Rights Activism, 10/23/13]

Beale: “Widespread Female Employment Makes A Society Demographically Unsustainable.” In a February 21, 2013, blog post, Beale wrote that while “Widespread rape makes a society uncivilized,” “widespread female employment makes a society demographically unsustainable.” He added, “History demonstrates that incivility can be survived and surmounted. Unsustainability, on the other hand, cannot.” [Vox Popoli, 2/21/13]

Heartiste/James Weidmann

Weidmann: Trump’s Brags About Sexually Assaulting Women Were “Normal Healthy Heterosexual Male Banter.” “Alt-Right pickup artist” and blogger James Weidmann, aka Heartiste, defended Trump’s comments about grabbing women “by the pussy” (captured in a 2005 Access Hollywood video), calling them “normal healthy heterosexual male banter,” according to We Hunted the Mammoth. Heartiste asserted that “Trump is right” in that the “Fame Game is the most powerful aphrodisiac a man can unleash in the world of women. I’ve no doubt actresses on that soap opera eagerly welcomed Trump’s inquisitive probings.” Weidmann also chastised House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for refusing to defend Trump amid the outrage, calling him the “world’s most craven, gutless, cuck f***ot piece of quisling shit.” [We Hunted The Mammoth, 10/8/16; 12/21/16]

Weidmann: “Don’t Marry A Woman Over 30” Because They Are “Rapidly Depreciating Pleasure Provider[s].” In an October 29, 2014, blog post, Weidmann urged men not to “marry a woman over 30.” Besides the “obvious reasons” (including that “the over-30 woman has likely amassed an impressive knob count” and “the over-30 woman is bitter from a wasted prime spent on failed relationships she hoped would lead to marriage”), Weidmann wrote that “a man marrying an over-30 woman is investing everything he has in a rapidly depreciating pleasure provider that has already lost a lot of its aesthetic value.” [Chateau Heartiste, 10/29/14]

Weidmann: Trump Embodies One Of The “Timeless Truths” That “Every Girl Loves A Jerkboy Fascist.” In a March 15 blog post praising Trump, Weidmann called him a “maestro of the muff” who has “internalized one of the Chateau’s timeless truths: Every girl loves a jerkboy fascist.” [Chateau Heartiste, 3/15/16]