Dr Lisa Sugiura – Incels and the Manosphere: Realities and Responses

‘The Manosphere’ is a cluster of online groups who oppose feminism and believe that men are the true victims of gender inequality. There has long been backlash towards feminism, but its influence has grown in recent years, facilitated by the internet. Such groups include Men’s Rights and Father’s Rights Activists, Pick Up Artists (who instruct men on how to manipulate women for sex), and Men Going their Own Way (who avoid all relations with women). Incels, or ‘Involuntary Celibates’, have drawn most attention, not least because of a number of mass killings being ascribed to individuals associated with them. So what are Incel communities, why are they a cause of concern, and how should we respond to them? These are some of the issues we explore with expert Dr Lisa Sugiura.

Lisa is a Reader in Cybercrime and Gender in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. She is the Chair of Hampshire Constabulary's Force Strategic Independent Advisory Group.

• In 2021 she wrote a book called ‘The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women’. It is available to buy or read open access as an e-book here: https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/9781839822544
• Find out more about Lisa’s work: https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/our-people/our-staff/lisa-sugiura
• Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisa_sugiura
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-sugiura-a5214431/
• Lisa has been working with Tooled Up to develop resources for parents and educators: https://www.tooledupeducation.com
• She is a Fellow of the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism: https://theirms.org
• Read their recommendations for media reporting on Incels: https://theirms.org/forjournalists
• In this episode we also discuss an article by Alessia Tranchese and Lisa on ‘How Incels and mainstream pornography speak the same extreme language of misogyny’: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801221996453
• And the book by Laura Bates, ‘Men Who Hate Women’: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Men-Who-Hate-Women/Laura-Bates/9781398504653
• Lisa also mentioned the work of Prof Rachel Pain on 'everyday terrorism': https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132513512231

We cover the following topics in this episode:

• What the Manosphere is and why we should be concerned about it (01:00 - 05:21)
• The ideas and terminology used by Incels (05:21 - 08:28)
• How women are viewed within Incel communities (08:28 - 09:58)
• What led Lisa to carry out research in this area (09:58 - 14:02)
• How she went about conducting her research (14:02 - 15:59)
• Interviewing men in the Incel community (15:59 - 21:01)
• The impact of doing this work on her wellbeing (21:01 - 23:39)
• What happens when men leave Incel communities (23:39 - 27:01)
• The harms of the Manosphere (27:01 - 29:25)
• The threats online misogyny poses to democracy (29:25 - 31:06)
• The variety of men involved in Incel communities (31:06 - 33:28)
• The damage Incel communities do to men themselves (33:28 - 37:31)
• Official responses to the Manosphere and what needs to change (37:31 - 40:26)
• The responsibilities of social media companies (40:26 - 42:52)
• Possibilities for deradicalising or preventing men from becoming involved in the first place (42:52 - 45:21)
• Overlaps in discourses used by Incels and those in pornography (45:21 - 49:07)
• How to avoid giving these groups a bigger platform (49:07 - 53:27)