The Right's Misogyny Is Worse Than You Think And It's Killing Women

Republicans are openly, and eagerly, talking about forcing women to die from pregnancy.

by Justin Rosario

Last week, while millions were reeling from the leaked Supreme Court decision to strip women of their rights, I couldn’t help but be surprised at the surprise. Yes, people were understandably shocked that there was a leak but they were just as shocked at the contents of the leak. 

But why? Because Justice Samuel Alito quoted a 17th-century judge who is, it could be seriously argued, the origin of American rape culture? Because the entire draft opinion was dripping with misogyny disguised as concern for the unborn? None of this is even slightly out of character for the right who have been screaming their hate for decades. Yet, somehow, the utter loathing and contempt the right has for women still has not penetrated the public consciousness. 

This makes it all but impossible to understand the motivations of the deeply overlapping circles of Republicans, MAGA, and violent white nationalist extremists that make up the American right-wing. Coincidentally, I stumbled across an event on Facebook that served as a perfect guide to illustrate how far this sickness runs and how twisted it has become. The 21 Convention: Patriarch Edition (no, I am not making that up) is a celebration of hate and toxic masculinity aimed directly at making women “submissive.”

The Republican hacks on the Supreme Court are not about to overturn Roe in a vacuum or on a whim. This is about power and its abuse, yes, but it’s also about pure, undiluted hatred of women and a desperate need to put them back in their place, even if it costs them their lives. 

Welcome to the Manosphere

The 21 Convention is firmly rooted in the Manosphere. If you’re unfamiliar with it, the Manosphere is where all of the very worst of American toxic masculinity have gathered to bemoan their victimhood and rage against the shadowy forces of feminism. Even as they openly talk about how to reduce women to little more than sexual slaves, the drumbeat of victimhood is nonstop.

Inside the Manosphere, you will find Incels, Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs), and wannabe “patriarchs” who feel emasculated by their non-submissive wives. You’ll also find an astonishing number of white nationalists since misogyny has turned out to be the perfect gateway drug to white nationalism.

The backlash to feminism has been raging since, well, feminism. The Manosphere, though, dates back to roughly 2009 as social media allowed various flavors of misogynists to really connect and amplify their hatred of women.

On the light end of the spectrum, you’ll find men who whine about Captain Marvel and Black Widow having their own MCU films. Two female-centered films out of almost thirty is a clear imposition on the dominance of men. 

In the middle of the pack, you’ll find Incels who rail against attractive women who, for unclear reasons, owe these men sex on demand. You’ll also find MRAs who insist that women are the reason most prisons are filled with men. I wrote about a deeply unpleasant conversation I had with one MRA that lasted days on how women are behind child pornography laws explicitly to put men in jail. These are not good people.

At the far end of the cesspool, you’ll find the pro-rape contingent. Not just those who make constant rape jokes and send rape threats to every woman they come across. I mean actual men who actually say that rape should be legal. Women are, after all, there to be used as they see fit. If you dive into the really nasty parts, it’s not just rape, it’s rape and murder but you had to know that was coming, right?

So what does that look like in the real world when the hate moves offline and into a convention hall?

Buckle up, it gets ugly

So now that you have a cursory introduction to the putrid swamp of hate that is the Manosphere, let’s take a look at the nightmare fuel that is The 21 Convention. Originally conceived as a gathering for men under 21, hence the name, The 21 Convention exists for the dual purposes of malforming the minds of young and impressionable men and lining the pockets of cynical and vile grifters. You may be familiar with this business model? Jordan Peterson. Joe Rogan. Yeah, that kind of thing but far less subtle. 

How less subtle? Here’s how they’re advertising the event:

Nothing says you’re the good guy like taking on the aspect of a genocidal madman who killed 50% of the population. And he’s a pastor, ostensibly a man of God. Presumably, the Old Testament kill your enemies without mercy version.

Oh? Did you forget about “cuck”, the once-ubiquitous insult from the right? They certainly have not. It’s still a core principle not to be one. How core? See that Jack Murphy guy who is 100% unfamiliar to you? He was one of the leading stars of the Manosphere until, I kid you not, his followers found out that Murphy had written about having his girlfriend have sex with other men as a kink. He was into being a cuck and that was the end of his story. The professed opponents of cancel culture, ahem, canceled one of their own.

Just one more and we’ll move on:

Yup. Do not even need to comment on that, do I? 

Here’s the gift shop. I apologize in advance for your rise in blood pressure:

Take a few minutes. Deep breaths. Count backwards from 50. 

The page for the convention is broken up into several parts, each with a different focus on how to be a super awesome patriarch. Each reads like it was written by a sexually-frustrated 14-year-old who has watched too many 80s action films. 

It starts with the same phrase announcing Elliott Hulse and his adoring servant/wife “Dominate Your Wife Dominate Life”:

You were told "Happy wife, happy life" by everything from movies, to TV, books, therapists, church leaders, and more. How's that working out for you? Looking at divorce statistics and the dismal state of the American family, not so well for you and millions of American fathers.

Turns out that empty slogan was all a lie. The complete opposite of how reality, relationships, and female nature work, not to mention your own.

Women want, need, and crave patriarchal dominance. Healthy, authentic, positive dominance from you. Leadership, authority, vision, and passion. Nothing else and nothing less will cut it. A happy woman is a submissive woman who trusts, respects, and obeys your authority as the leader and king of your family.

At The Patriarch Convention our expert patriarch speakers will teach you the secrets of alpha male dominance in the context of leading your relationship, your marriage, and your family. Our speakers will help you unplug from the woke feminist garbage that's been shoved down your throat for years if not decades.

Anyone telling you that they know what women want, need, and crave is either lying to you or selling chocolate. But seriously, the thing about the Manosphere is that they constantly tell on themselves. Their wives and girlfriends are always unhappy and unsatisfied, both in and out of the bedroom. But it’s not the fault of these future alpha males, no. The real cause must be feminists and their feminizing feminism!

Next, there’s a section, “Your Future Is Patriarchy”, which is some chest-pounding whining about how most establishment conservatives aren’t real men but cucks. The text is meaningless but its purpose is not. This is the anti-establishment aspect that Trumpism thrives on even as it becomes the mainstream. Trump controls the entire Republican Party but never stops ranting about how he’s fighting the Republican establishment. As long as you can pretend you’re the outsider under siege by shadowy forces, you can justify anything and command loyalty. Classic cult programming 101.

“Your Future Is Patriarchy” also rants about how men will become the center of the family again, real fathers, etc. The father thing doesn’t sound awful. Who doesn’t want men to actually be involved in their kids’ lives? Well, about that…

“Strong Fathers Strong Families” Oh, it’s worse than you think.  

This page is funny. The assault on fatherhood is not. At The Patriarch Convention and 21 Summit we are boldly and unapologetically in favor of strong fathers leading their families. None of this "co-equal" marxist-feminist garbage. Captain of the ship, tip of the spear, leading your wife and children by example first with 100% authority, responsibility, and conviction.

…

The West is on fire. Trust in the news and government are at all time lows. Fatherhood has all but been erased in the never ending quest to "smash the patriarchy" and silence those wretched "mansplainers". Up to 25% of generation Z kids identify as some bizarre made up gender. Our culture is so screwed up young men and women don't even know if they are men and women.

If fathers don't stand up now and draw a line in the sand there will be dudes sharing a locker room with your daughter - or worse, she'll end up as a dude.

Radical feminists and their alphabet allies are coming for your kids. They want to destroy your family and brainwash your children. They won't stop until you stop them. The good news is they are terrified of bold and masculine fathers with zero tolerance for propaganda and lies. Our expert alpha male speakers will teach you how to stand up to these deranged lunatics in daily life and help you become the best father you can be - for yourself and your children.

Yes, I often lie awake at night wondering if my girls will end up as men… In all seriousness though, I do wonder if one of them will be sexually assaulted by a knuckle-dragging basement dweller who thinks he needs to make women submit to him in order to be a real man. This is why I have both of them learning how to break bones.

Just a quick aside: The “this page is funny” line, while appearing to be a throwaway, is really really important. Part of the process of radicalization is using “jokes” as camouflage. As is, “Why are you getting so upset, snowflake? It was just a joke!” 

But it’s not. None of it is a joke and you would do well to understand it as the hate speech it is. These are not “exaggerations” and this is not satire. This is what they believe and the “haha” part is to deflect criticism. Tom Dreisbach reports on the ploy:

Researchers who track domestic extremism say [Republican darling white nationalist Nick] Fuentes is not the only figure to adopt these tactics, particularly among far-right content creators, who encourage their audiences to follow suit.

"A lot of these content creators will tell the audience explicitly, 'When people say you're racist for liking this or thinking this, just laugh at them. They can't handle it — they're sensitive babies,' " said Jared Holt, a resident fellow with the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.

It’s all fun and games until a Supreme Court Justice is quoting a virulent misogynist in an opinion reducing women to livestock. And we are talking about misogyny. The final section concerns the (almost certainly long-suffering) wives of our theoretical patriarchs. I only included one sentence from “Upgrade Your Wife” because, honestly, it’s all you need to understand how women are viewed:

We have the best mansplainers in the world ready to increase her greatness, shed fat, and boost her femininity by over 500%, helping make her the best and most submissive wife ever.

Are you still surprised by the misogyny of the leaked Supreme Court decision? I’ll wager you are not.

For my part, I consider the men who need to “dominate” the women in their lives to be broken, desperate creatures. If you have to cripple women by stripping them of their agency so they are utterly dependent on you, you are not a man. You are a parasite. But what do I know? I’m just a beta soy boy cuck, right? (article continue below:)

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Read the latest for Banter Members: How To Criticize The "Woke" Without Being "Anti-Woke"

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This is who they are

If your name is Chuck Todd or Chris Cillizza, your brain is currently struggling to fabricate a million reasons why we should write these lunatics off as an outlier. They can’t possibly represent the mainstream. Republicans aren’t like that. It’s just a handful of bad apples!

But mainstream political pundits said that about the John Birch Society in the 50s. And the violent militias in the 90s. And the Tea Party. And GamerGate. And MAGA. And the Proud Boys. And the violent militias of now. The fringe is always somehow the fringe until it becomes the party and they’re attacking the Capitol. Then there’s a new fringe we have to pretend isn’t really who these people are.

Meanwhile, the same hate that animates “the fringe” is the lifeblood of the mainstream movement. There is no daylight, just an awareness to keep it hidden until there’s no need to bother. Like, say, when you have a supermajority on the Supreme Court and you’ve completely abandoned the rule of law in favor of rule by fiat. 

I get it. It’s hard to wrap your head around the insane level of hatred for women baked into the DNA of the right. Misogyny is the air we breathe in America (and most of the world, for that matter). I am not yet 50 and it was in my lifetime that women were “given” the right to own a credit card or legally refuse sex to their husbands (yes, you read that correctly). Justice Alito’s infatuation with Sir Matthew Hale suggests that the legality of marital rape might soon make the rounds. Religious freedom and all that.

Women as second-class citizens is as American as apple pie and the genocide of indigenous peoples. Even we on the left are far from immune from the effects. Just look at the blinding rage Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez inspire among our allies. It’s a level of venom no male Democrat is ever subjected to, not even Bernie or Obama.

While we need to come to grips with our own misogyny problem, we really need to see and understand the intensity of what is happening on the right. People in the mainstream media are talking about how contraception is next (it’s about f***ing time) but that is being viewed as a scare tactic. That’s what they said about Roe v. Wade. 

Listen and understand: the subjugation of women does not end with Roe. It continues with contraception. First the kind they can pretend causes abortions and then all contraception. Some states are already openly discussing bans on abortions even when the mother’s life is in danger. A Missouri Republican had the gall to propose a ban on ending ectopic pregnancies while claiming to be pro-life. Ectopic pregnancies, by definition, cannot produce a living baby and almost always produce a dead woman. 

Republicans are openly, and eagerly, talking about forcing women to die from pregnancy. The hatred of women required to fuel that kind of thinking is limitless. In what universe would they not come for contraceptives? And once we’ve established the primacy of the fetus and the disposability of the mother, what other rights can be stripped? The world is your oyster when your morality is entirely based on woman-as-livestock.

So, yes, The 21 Convention: Patriarch Edition is ridiculous. It’s so over the top it’s impossible to parody. But just because it’s beyond parody doesn’t mean it’s not real and it doesn’t mean it’s not part of the toxic waste dump of the American right. Justice Amy Comey Barrett literally belonged to a sect that taught women to be submissive to their husbands in all things. 

From a collection of arrested development imbeciles in Florida to the highest court in the land wielding unimaginable power over the lives of every woman in the country, the message is identical: Women are to be controlled and subjugated at all costs. When they start dying from unsafe abortions, that will not be a tragedy to the right. It will be a victory. A feature, not a bug. That’s not the fringe, this is who they are. 

Read the latest for Banter Members:

How To Criticize The "Woke" Without Being "Anti-Woke"

If the Left doesn't learn how to do this, they face electoral disaster moving forward.

by Ben Cohen

The list of Anti Woke activists grows, mostly on Substack, by the day. Disgruntled employees, frustrated liberals, and angry libertarians have discovered a highly lucrative wheeze where they can rant against Woke Twitter and get paid for it. The OGs of the movement, Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Bill Maher, and Andrew Sullivan have spawned not just a cottage industry, but a movement of sorts. They tweet each other’s work, promote each other on Substack, and basically write the same article over and over again for their devoted audience of Anti-Wokesters.

Here are three articles published on three separate newsletters in the Anti-Woke network within hours/days of each other:

All three newsletters had exactly the same take on Elon Musk Twitter purchase — a lazy jab at the ‘Corporate Woke Elite’ afraid of free speech because it undermines their control over society and so on and so forth.

I get it. I think elements of the Left are insufferable. I also think the Left is in real danger of becoming what it hates, and more importantly, at risk of destroying Democrats’ prospects in the midterms this year and the general election in 2024.

The problem is that the Woke and the Anti-Woke are now making it almost impossible to have a civilized debate because they reject absolutely everything the other side believes in. This endless tribalism and circular firing squad mentality will only ensure the success of the far right. There has to be a better way to talk about this, because the consequences of this endless warfare means one thing for Democrats: losing elections.

Identity politics: pros and cons

I am not a fan of identity politics in its current form, but I do acknowledge the obvious fact that ethnic, gender and sexual identity have a basis in reality…

This is an excerpt. To continue reading and get a free two month trial, go here.