What the Manosphere’s New Anti Female Orgasm Trend Really Reveals About Masculinity
A viral misogynist talking point is doing what these movements always do: turning insecurity, entitlement, and control into a theory of manhood.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from online trends, it’s that they always point to something bigger brewing beneath the surface. And the Manosphere is the perfect example of this. The digital misogyny movement is seeping into every sphere—from schoolyards and workplaces to relationships.
We were warned through documentaries; women who were victims of intimate partner violence were screaming it from the rooftops, and yet we turned a blind eye.
Now there are rape academies and a black market selling software to create revenge porn against girlfriends, sisters, and family members. So we shouldn’t be surprised to see the new trend targeting the female orgasm.
You only need to do a search on Twitter to realize what the campaign is about: “Female orgasm doesn’t exist,” says one user. “It’s just a lie made up by big penises.” “Female orgasm isn’t even necessary for reproduction,” says another. “If God doesn’t care about you, what makes you think I do?”
The common thread among all the men in the conversation seems to be precisely that: the supposed “biological uselessness” of female pleasure.
It seems the manosphere has quickly moved from “recreational misogyny” to the construction of an increasingly dangerous system of thought.
“In hindsight, it is startling that all of this was normalized for so long,” wrote Laurie Penny in her column for The Guardian. “It was apparently inconceivable that violence against women could constitute a crisis—unless, of course, the violence was blamed on immigrants or on transgender people, at which point women’s safety suddenly shot to the top of the political agenda.”
“When feminists and others in the eye of the storm tried to raise the alarm, we were told we were exaggerating for attention, or that we couldn’t take a joke,” Penny adds. “Beneath the posturing, cartoon frogs, and meme-speak, these were lost young men who deserved patience and understanding, and if we didn’t offer it, we were heartless, humorless killjoys.”
Attacking the female orgasm has always been part of the misogyny playbook.
Decades ago, the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) was denounced by global organizations defending the rights of 230 million girls and women who were victims of this perverse practice in regions such as Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Today, it is considered a violation of human rights. However, the argument behind it seems to be the same one being revived by members of the manosphere.
The argument is often that it protects a girl’s virginity before marriage and ensures fidelity afterward. It is wrongly believed that FGM reduces a woman’s libido, thereby preventing “sexual misconduct” and ensuring the family’s honor. However, members of these communities insist on the same thing: it is not biologically “necessary.”
But this did not only happen in communities of color.
The institution of psychology itself stigmatized female pleasure from the very beginning. As Reina Gattuso explained, from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, many psychologists, inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis, argued that women should only achieve orgasm through vaginal penetration by a man. Any other form of female sexual pleasure—including masturbation, queer sexuality, and any stimulation of the clitoris—was considered a sign of “masculinity,” imbalance, or even insanity.
It is no wonder, then, that women themselves still feel ashamed when talking about pleasure. Nor is it surprising that this is one of the main targets of the manosphere, a community built by men that, as UN Women explained, has become an umbrella for “online communities that have increasingly promoted narrow and aggressive definitions of what it means to be a man—and the false narrative that feminism and gender equality have come at the cost of men’s rights.”
“These communities promote the idea that emotional control, material wealth, physical appearance, and dominance—especially over women—are markers of male worth,” the organization explains.
In this context, the female orgasm becomes a trigger for the already problematic insecurities of masculinity.
In the male worldview, the female orgasm has been attached to some unfounded sense of masculine achievement, partly fueled by the distortion of pornography and a lack of education. All of this makes it fertile ground for the advance of the manosphere.
In short, this is yet another example of how machismo has failed men, leading them to believe that there is a role to fulfill that involves distancing themselves from emotional intelligence and sensitivity in all aspects of interpersonal relationships.
Now, the risk once again lies in the escalation of violence as the sole solution for a handful of men incapable of taking responsibility for their own failure.