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

30-08-2023 • 1 hr 1 min

‘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