Online Hate Against Women: An Odyssey of Male Envy, From Incels to the “Men's Rights” Movement

### Incels: The "Knights of Loneliness" Who Want to Destroy Everything

Incels, for those who don’t know, are men who feel betrayed by society because women, according to them, don’t desire them. The response? Blind, unjustified hatred toward everything that has breasts and a uterus. And who’s to blame for their frustration? The women who dare express an opinion, of course! And we’re not talking about a few harmless tweets: these individuals don’t just write insults on the internet. No, they threaten, harass, and wish death upon the women who dare criticize their misogyny.

In 2014, incel Elliot Rodger decided to take his frustration seriously, killing six people in an attack he called “revenge” against the women who had rejected him. And what about Alek Minassian, who in 2018, in Toronto, chose to carry out a mass murder with a van, killing ten people and blaming the women who had never given him a chance? There you have it: the circle closes. Incels and MRAs are not just regulars in hate forums; they are potentially dangerous, and the violence is no longer just verbal – it becomes physical, tragically real.

### MRAs: "Men's Rights Movement" – Or How to Justify Misogynistic Hatred

And what about MRAs? Oh yes, they claim to be “defenders of men's rights” while, in reality, they are the champions of misogynistic hate. These men, usually equipped with an emotional fragility that would make even the shyest of teenagers blush, spend their days complaining about not being treated like the “gentler sex” (i.e., not getting the attention of women, who, naturally, are all “gold-diggers” looking for only rich and powerful men). Their mantra? “Women are the true oppressed ones, but men don’t have a voice!”

These “heroes” of men, unable to grasp the concept of equality, are ready to shut down any feminist battle by downplaying femicide, the gender pay gap, and domestic violence. And if a woman dares to contradict them? Better start a campaign of defamation, threats, and insults. It’s funny how these same people never have anything to say about the real issues men face (like male violence, a serious issue, but it doesn’t justify the gratuitous hatred of women).

### Virtual Violence: It’s Not Just an Opinion, It’s an Attack

But alas, it’s not just the sexual frustrations of incels and MRAs that create this climate of hatred. What is particularly dangerous about these groups is the way women are dehumanized and treated as legitimate targets of violence. And how do they do it? Very simply: by using social media platforms to express threats. We’re not talking about threats related to political opinions, but threats of physical and sexual violence. Thousands of women are inundated every day with sexist insults, rape threats, and messages urging them to die.

In 2018, feminist activist and video game critic Anita Sarkeesian received death and rape threats from an entire misogynistic community who didn’t like her critiques of sexist video games. Another famous example is Caroline Criado-Perez, a journalist and activist, who underwent a full-fledged campaign of harassment and threats after her successful petition to get a statue of Jane Austen erected in London. And these stories are not isolated cases: every day, hundreds of women are targeted with verbal violence on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. According to a study by Amnesty International, around 40% of women have experienced online harassment, and 25% of them have received threats of physical or sexual violence.

### But Who Are the Real “Oppressed”?

In short, incels and MRAs sell us the story of the oppressed man, completely ignoring the real injustices that afflict women. The reality? Women are not oppressed by “men’s rights”; they are oppressed by social, economic, and political inequality and the daily violence that continues to be a plague in almost every part of the world. In Italy, for example, more than 100,000 cases of violence against women were reported in 2021. The reality is that women are victims of violence both online and offline, and while these men whine about not finding a girlfriend, women continue to fight against a patriarchal system that penalizes them in every aspect of life.

### Conclusions: The War Against Women Is Not Just Online

If we think that hatred toward women is only an online phenomenon, we are gravely mistaken. It’s a deeply rooted hatred, one that has deep societal roots and, unfortunately, is gaining more space and legitimacy in the digital context. Incels and MRAs are not just sad characters from a movie, but represent a culture that dehumanizes women, seeing them as objects to possess or destroy. Their war is not just against women, but against a progress they see as a threat to their outdated view of society.

The reality is that if we do not stop fighting this radical misogyny online, the violence will extend into the physical world as well. And if we don’t want that to happen, we must stop pretending that these are just “opinions.” Misogyny is not an opinion: it’s violence.