Beyond the Pill: Understanding Incels and Redpill Communities through Social Movement Analysis

In recent years, studies on the so-called "Manosphere" have greatly developed in the fields of media studies, gender studies, and social psychology. The present research shows the great opportunity to bring into Manosphere-related studies the theoretical and methodological tools typical of social movement theory (Benford, 1997; Snow & Ben-ford, 2000; van Eerdewijk & Roggeband, 2014). This approach is proposed in response to Ging and Murphy's (2021) call for a more nuanced understanding of the Manosphere, particularly regarding the dynamics, genealogy, and spread of ideas, as well as internal heterogeneity. The paper explores this through an empirical case study of the Italian Manosphere. It focuses on subsections related to Incels (Involuntary Celibates) and Redpill blogging, with a year-long netnographic fieldwork analyzing their major hubs. The analysis proposes the first timeline and internal morphology study of the Italian Mano-sphere. Specifically, the Redpill community is seen as a counter-movement rooted in feelings of aggrieved entitlement, relative deprivation, and the “loss of horizon” of a hegemonic category now “under attack”. This approach helps us understand how Redpill's frames lend empirical credibility, consistency, and experiential commensurability to the experiences of men susceptible to conservative views against gender equality and critiques of the patriarchal system. Traditional patriarchal norms serve as domain assumptions, while their increasing questioning presents the cultural opportunity in which such contested norms become particularly salient. Furthermore, through the genealogical approach, the article describes the diffusion of typical Redpill norms and frames in the pre-existing “brutti” (ugly) community and the resulting constant process of their renegotiation in the light of the broader Italian anti-feminist conservatism. The resultant frames are fundamental channel creating a favourable background for more institutional reactionary frames to be effective. These norms and frames are not given and fixed but constantly re-discussed in a discursive process, which requires a shift from the concept of 'Manosphere' to that of 'Manospheres' linked both to geographic-linguistic-cultural criteria and to internal structuring.