The Intellectual Facade of Misogyny:
How Figures like Jordan Peterson Fuel Ideological Hatred and Violence Against Women and Girls
Posted by DAISY CHAPMAN 26 February 2025
How we think of everyday sexism and misogyny can often be perceived as overt, crude, loud and openly violent or hostile. But a pervasive and dangerous form of misogyny can often wear a suit, speak in measured tones, and presents itself as ‘rational discourse’, or ‘common sense’. In recent years, a notable rise in self-styled intellectuals who engage in debate and discourse about current affairs and trending topics, have begun to use their platforms to repackage and legitimise deep-seated hostility towards women.
This rhetoric comes as no surprise considering the stance many male academics have taken throughout history, utilising their credibility to cloak plainly misogynistic ideas in the language of intellectualism. Some examples being Sigmund Freud, Jean Paul Sartre, Lawrence
Summers, including more recent figures such as Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, Matt Walsh, as well as Andrew Tate. In 2006 Lawrence Summers, the President of Harvard University who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, suggested at a keynote speech that the underrepresentation of women in STEM was due to innate biological differences between men and women. Summers argued that boys and men out-perform women in science and maths due to an inherent genetic difference, and that women lacked an “intrinsic aptitude” that men possess. What Summers failed to note, however, was the long-lasting effects of sex bias and general historical oppression of women that prevented their introduction into academia and professional spheres for centuries.
This brand of misogyny is especially insidious, because it operates under the pretence of serious and intellectual debate. These figures often present their arguments as ‘biological reality’ and ‘truth telling’, using pseudo-intellectual arguments to justify gender inequality, mistreatment and even violence towards women. This normalisation of blatant misogyny, and further, the disguise of these rhetorics as being intellectual and providing advanced critical thought, presents a terribly dangerous offshoot of sexism and misogyny in the modern day. The individuals who actively reinforce these ideologies of sexism and division constitute a network of online commentators dedicated to amplifying such rhetoric. This interconnected community fosters an environment where deeply dangerous and misogynistic beliefs are continuously reinforced and self-legitimised by each other.
This online community of people has often been referred to as the ‘manosphere’ (or sometimes the ‘intellectual dark web’) a range of (largely male) avowed ‘intellectuals’ and, other communities such as ‘Men’s Rights Activists’, ‘Men Going Their Own Way’, and ‘Incels’ (‘Involuntary celibates’, a self-named online subculture of men who feel unable to form romantic or sexual relationships, often expressing extremist, misogynistic and resentful sentiments), who engage in debates and discussions about current affairs. Often, these subjects will include race, sex, gender, sexual identities and orientation etc. Consumers of ‘manosphere’ content believe modern feminism to be equal to misandry (the hatred of men), and that any person that holds feminist principles believes in invalidating the values of men and are cultivating a society in which women are the oppressors of, and superior to men.
Figures such as Jordan Peterson readily engage in this kind of discourse, and the content they produce, often found on YouTube, podcasts, TikTok etc, is specifically engineered to appeal to young, vulnerable and impressionable men, often seeking guidance or advice during their formative years.
In 2023, Matt Rife faced social media backlash for making a joke about domestic abuse in a Netflix stand up special, a joke made more hurtful considering the majority of his audience in attendance were women. Many regarded Rife’s jokes as ‘punching down’, on a marginalised group already experiencing oppression and hardship, which is why it was deemed unacceptable and offensive. Shortly after this occurrence, he appeared on Jordan Peterson’s podcast to talk about his experience of the ‘effects’ of modern day feminism. Rife resorted to blaming feminism and ‘woke’ ideology alongside Peterson, one of the most renowned anti-feminist and anti-woke creators on the internet, for the backlash to his jokes, rather than taking accountability.
Questions such as: ‘WHY WON'T WOMEN SLEEP WITH ME?’ turn into ‘WHY CAN'T I CONTROL WOMEN?’
Other notable members of the ‘manosphere’ include male ‘pick up artist’ influencers, who base their content on how to be more attractive to women, and typically emphasise concepts such as ‘alpha male’ dominance, confidence building and psychological tactics to attract women, all while propagating misogynistic rhetorics. One notable example is the ‘Fresh and Fit’ podcast, in which the hosts engage in debates with women and other influencers who may challenge their opinions. The opinions expressed within podcasts such as these, perpetuate patriarchal notions that women are incapable of leadership or directory roles, men are breadwinners and inventors, and women should accept the ‘biological reality’ of their inferiority. These creators engage with patriarchal and hateful concepts, while embracing misinterpreted statistics, data and news articles, in order to bolster the superficial validity of their claims. This ‘evidence’ is then presented and used to create essentialist and misogynistic narratives, in what Rothermel (2023) terms ‘evidence-based misogyny’.
The real-life danger of these kinds of content creators and ‘manosphere influencers’ being more present than ever on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, is the undoubted influence this kind of rhetoric has on young men who consume this very content. Jordan Peterson stated himself in a Channel 4 interview “…young men are starving for this sort of message” (Channel 4 News, 2018). Statistics indicate that young men who start engaging with ‘manosphere’ content are deeply insecure, lonely and often single. Additionally, young men are also facing increasingly higher suicide rates than previous years. In other words, young men’s introductions to the ‘manosphere’ may not begin with an outright hatred of women, but with questions relating to the origin of their loneliness, and uncertainty about the world around them, particularly intimate relationships. Subsequently, the knock-on effect of young men’s introductions into this world of misinformation leads them down a path in which they gain more essentialist and misogynistic views. Questions such as ‘why won’t women sleep with me’ turn into ‘why can’t I control women?’ .
There is an ever growing presence of self-titled ‘intellectuals’ who propagate sexism and misogyny, as well as online ‘manosphere’ communities poses a significant risk to women and girls. The danger presented by these ideologies can be seen in real-life terrorist attacks and calls for violence that have increased in numbers in recent decades. For example, the 2018 attack in Toronto that killed 10 people was committed by a self-proclaimed ‘incel’, as well as the 2021 Plymouth, England attack which killed 5, including the perpetrator’s mother and a three year old girl.
There is a dangerous pipeline that connects self-proclaimed ‘intellectuals’ who propagate subtle yet insidious forms of misogyny, with the more overtly dangerous, hateful, and radicalised ideologies of far-right misogynists. What may begin as seemingly benign discussions on gender dynamics, personal responsibility, or ‘traditional values’ often serve as a gateway to increasingly extreme beliefs. These figures present themselves as rational, authoritative voices, making their rhetoric more palatable to impressionable audiences, particularly young men seeking answers to their struggles. Over time, this exposure normalises harmful narratives about women and girls, relationships, and power, while gradually leading individuals towards deeply entrenched, extremist ideologies that fuel hostility, dehumanisation, and real-world violence.
o Rothermel, A.K. (2023) “The role of evidence-based misogyny in antifeminist online communities of the ‘manosphere,’” Big Data and Society. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221145671.
o Channel 4 News (2018) ‘Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus pro-tests and postmodernism’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcjxSThD54 (Accessed 13 February 2025)