My Brush With the Black Manosphere
Online dating led Black feminist queer writer Nicole Young right to the Black Manosphere.
It all began when Young's Zoom date claimed that she was behaving in a masculine way, that someone in the relationship had to be dominant, and that feminism divided the Black community. Young had previously heard such beliefs expressed in white communities and was interested in how they seemed to be spreading among Black men. She found a large and diverse set of men online who have created a Black Manosphere. Then she decided to write about them. Through interviews and scholarly research, Young provides an overview of this misogynistic space and explores the origins of what they believe.
Multiple sources and forces shape the Black Manosphere. It draws from a history of respectability politics, that is, from efforts to advance by mirroring white cultural norms. The white Manosphere influences its Black counterpart. Both are politically conservative and both endorse heteronormative, patriarchal gender norms.
The Black Manosphere targets Black women and feminism. It promotes stereotypes and tropes that developed during slavery and emancipation such as the mammy and the jezebel that disparage women. Moreover, it sees Black women as a problem. Black Manosphere influencers frequently cite the Moynihan report from 1965, which blamed Black people, especially Black women, for poverty and dysfunction within Black families. The Black Manosphere likewise blames Black women for the struggles of Black men in society, from difficulties with professional advancement to their inabilities to find romantic partners.
Young concludes the article by pointing out what the Black men of the Black Manosphere fail to recognize: that the real forces that contribute to their struggles are systems like racism, classism, and colorism.
Like the white Manosphere, the Black Manosphere is right-wing and politically conservative. (Ali proudly said he voted for Trump twice.) Its content creators perpetuate the belief that Black women—not systemic economic, political, or social oppression—are to blame for any inequities Black people, especially Black men, observe in their lives.
SOURCE: Elle Magazine • AUTHOR: Nicole Young • LAST UPDATED: January 25, 2022
