Anti-Feminism and Self-Improvement: Hegemonic Femininity in the Manosphere

Abstract

The Red Pill adherents believe “feminist doctrines” in society deprive men and women of being their natural selves, disrupting heterosexual relationships in consequence. Research on manosphere groups generally focuses on men’s involvement, but women participate in these movements too. One such form of participation is the RedPillWomen subreddit (“r/RPW” in reddit jargon). Hegemonic femininity remains an understudied component of the manosphere. Using a qualitative critical thematic analysis, 127 texts are analyzed to establish what constitutes hegemonic femininity on the r/RPW according to moderators and how this is enacted and maintained by Subreddit members. It is found that moderator texts use discourses of evolutionary psychology, neoliberalism, and anti-feminism to construct a local postfeminist femininity that is both subordinate to men as well as highly entrepreneurial. Subreddit-member posts showed how this femininity is enacted and maintained, demonstrating the responsibility women feel in transforming both the physical and psychological. Peer-surveillance served to reach consent on group norms, correct those who deviate from these norms, and create boundaries between RedPillWomen and other women. This research demonstrated how postfeminist sensibilities in the manosphere shape the articulation of various local hegemonic femininities that both contrast and parallel each other.

Anti-Feminism and Self-Improvement: Hegemonic Femininity in the Manosphere

“We’re glad you made it here,” announces the welcoming post to visitors. The “here” in this post refers to the RedPillWomen subreddit, the female counterpart of the male-oriented TheRedPill subreddit. Being “Red Pilled” is the self-imposed name for a socio-political movement that occurs mainly within the online manosphere, a group of websites and social media communities where men’s rights and perspectives are discussed (Farrell et al., 2019). Shared beliefs across manosphere groups are an anti-feminist stance, endorsement of evolutionary psychology, and the assumption that Western society is threatened by contemporary developments like women’s emancipation, immigration, and liberalism (Ging & Murphy, 2021). These sentiments are encapsulated in the Red Pill, a cultural trope appropriated from the 1999 film The Matrix where the main character is given the choice between taking a red pill or a blue pill. Within the manosphere, “taking the Red Pill” and waking up to society’s “Blue Pill” brainwashing is fundamental in taking back control over one’s life. Underpinning many different manosphere groups, adherents to the Red Pill believe feminist doctrines fuel social misandry, depriving contemporary men from reaching their full potential, endangering heterosexual relationships in consequence. The manosphere manifests itself most clearly in online spaces (Krendel, 2020). Reddit, a discussion website that hosts online communities around a variety of topics in forums called subreddits, is home to many manosphere groups including TheRedPill subreddit (hereafter: r/TRP). The r/TRP is one of the most influential chat rooms of the manosphere, boasting over 280,000 members before it was “quarantined” ¹ by Reddit in 2018 (Stern, 2019) and is currently one of the few active manosphere subreddits that has not been completely banned from the platform. Love (2020) has pointed out that while the manosphere may be understood as exclusively male, women participate in these movements too. Unlike other online anti-feminist communities, the RedPillWomen subreddit (hereafter: r/RPW) is uniquely dedicated to women. It also boasts the highest and most clearly delineated membership among known online anti-feminist communities for women, hosting 74,000 members in September 2024. While stemming from the same ideologies, r/RPW differs from r/TRP because its content focuses on “sexual strategy, gender roles, and relationships” (Stern, 2019, p. 57) by and for women. Indeed, as the original welcoming text explains, r/RPW is a site for “self-improvement” where women strive to become optimal girlfriends and wives by incorporating Red Pill ideology.

Scholars note that women help spread manosphere ideology through a combination of politically charged content and seemingly innocent discussions on everyday topics (Leidig, 2023, p. 36). However, our understanding of women’s perspectives and participation within the manosphere remains limited (Leidig, 2023; Love, 2020). This study aims to enrich the growing body of research on the manosphere by exploring women’s participation on a prominent and dedicated manosphere group: the r/RPW. Recent research suggests that in men’s manosphere groups, Red Pill ideology serves to exalt a hegemonic masculinity in which women are subordinate (Vallerga & Zurbriggen, 2022). This begs the question of how Red Pill ideology can be used to construct a hegemonic femininity that exists in relation to hegemonic masculinity, what this hegemonic RedPillWomen-femininity entails, and how this is enacted and maintained.

Manosphere Ideology

Previous research on the manosphere sees its distinct ideology to consist of, for example, anti-feminism (Marwick & Caplan, 2018), gender, and sex essentialism based on evolutionary psychology (Vallerga & Zurbriggen, 2022) and neoliberal discourses that construct relationships as economic practices, reducing women to commodities (Van Valkenburgh, 2018, 2019). Marwick and Caplan (2018) argue that manosphere communities discursively construct feminism as misandrist, depicting men as “the true victims” of contemporary social life. Anti-feminism conveys meaning among ingroup members and excludes an outgroup, also within different manosphere groups. What binds them, however, is the belief that the premise of feminism, the existence of sexual and gender inequality, is a “bald-faced lie spread by feminists” (Marwick & Caplan, 2018, p. 554) to oppress men. Within the r/TRP, gender essentialism is used to endorse traditional gender roles (Vallerga & Zurbriggen, 2022). To legitimize these claims, the Red Pill draws both on contested theories like Evolutionary Psychology (hereafter: EP) and neoliberal ideas. As Van Valkenburgh (2018) explains, EP entails:

[T]he belief that human behavior and psychology have evolved to maximize gene reproduction. . . . EP (controversially) deduces that men and women have divergent reproductive interests and therefore evolve essentially divergent personalities. . . . Building on this essentialism, EP posits the kinds of behaviors one can expect to see in men and women. (pp. 91–92)

Within the Red Pill, both EP and neoliberal rationalities help legitimize the articulation of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity departs from the idea that ideal manhood exists and entails practices of masculinity that grant legitimacy to the dominance of men over subordinate women (Connell, 2005). On r/TRP, Van Valkenburgh (2018) observes that members overcome the paradox between hegemonic masculine expectations and a desire for romantic and sexual connection by constructing women as commodities. This “economized sexuality” (Van Valkenburgh, 2018, p. 99) can be read as an example of how neoliberal rationalities are penetrating hegemonic gender identities. The way in which hegemonic masculinity distinctively persists in manosphere spaces as well as how women are perceived from these perspectives have been studied (Menzie, 2022; Vallerga & Zurbriggen, 2022; Van Valkenburgh, 2018, 2019), but despite the ideological tenets involving and including women, little research considers how women within the manosphere relate to these governing ideologies. Recent work has noted women’s participation in the manosphere, particularly focusing on far-right women influencers on YouTube and Instagram. Leidig (2023) observes that these influencers adopt anti-feminist stances and a form of femininity opposing hegemonic masculinity to support male supremacism. However, their entrepreneurial efforts to advance the far-right movement through social media content often contradict the political ideology they promote. These women echo manosphere ideas on women’s submissiveness while building successful influencer careers. If it is true that, as Leidig (2023) writes, these women “preach anti-feminism but practice feminism” (p. 116), these seem to be able to co-exist in a specific type of manosphere femininity.

Hegemonic Femininity and Postfeminism

Compared to masculinities, hegemonic femininities have been neglected by scholars of gender identity (Gill & Scharff, 2011). According to Paechter (2018), hegemonic femininity reflects a locally produced dominant perception of ideal femininity as well as an aspirational aspect to it. It maintains the status quo and creates group norms by celebrating a particular way of being a woman and rejecting a wider interpretation of womanhood (Schippers, 2007). Hegemonic femininity and masculinity exist in distinction of each other: what it means to be masculine is defined through its difference from what it means to be feminine and vice versa (Schippers, 2007). These hegemonic identities also legitimize a hierarchal relationality: hegemonic femininity perpetuates traditional gender orders and legitimizes male dominance (Paechter, 2018).

Similar to hegemonic masculinities, hegemonic femininities are increasingly influenced by neoliberal rationalities (Banet-Weiser, 2018; Gill & Scharff, 2011). Gill (2007) advanced the concept of postfeminist sensibilities to look at hegemonic femininity underpinned by neoliberalism. Several interrelated features make up postfeminism. First, women’s physical appearances are presented as both a source of power and in need of constant evaluation and scrutiny (Gill, 2007). Disciplining the body to conform to normative ideas of attractiveness is celebrated as this demonstrates the self as an entrepreneurial project, amenable to labor, manageable by the individual (Winch, 2013). Related is the increased participation in self-surveilling and self-disciplining behavior which is used to continuously optimize the self. Scholarly attention has also been drawn to increased peer-surveillance among women in postfeminist sensibilities. In what Winch (2013) calls the girlfriend gaze, female behavior and sociality are no longer subject to a gaze explicitly executed by men, but more so to one performed by women. As a result, female relationships serve as “schools of correction” (Apter & Josselson, 1999, p. 66, as cited in Winch, 2013) in which women are disciplined to behave in line with the normative social rules of the group. The internet may intensify peer-surveillance as internet users share personal content with a larger social circle using blogs and social media (Kanai, 2015). Female sociality online functions as a “system of feedback” (Winch, 2013, p. 193) where women adjust behavior criticized by group members and join in correcting others. Finally, postfeminism conflates feminist and anti-feminist ideas through neoliberal grammars of individuality and responsibility (Gill, 2007). Like anti-feminism, postfeminism is premised on the belief that individuals are no longer constrained by structural inequalities and can make freely chosen, rational decisions (Gill, 2007). Despite this conflation, research on postfeminism predominantly focuses on analyzing cultural products labeled as feminist rather than studying how postfeminist sensibilities manifest in explicit anti-feminist spaces like the r/RPW.

Data and Method

Reddit, Sidebars, Upvoting

(Semi-)anonymous social network websites are essential in the articulation and circulation of manosphere tendencies (Vallerga & Zurbriggen, 2022). Due to its semi-anonymous nature, the ability to form groups with shared ideologies (Farrell et al., 2019), and an algorithm favoring young, white, heterosexual men (Massanari, 2015), research highlights Reddit’s significant role in spreading manosphere ideologies. A key feature of Reddit is that every post is assigned to a community called a subreddit, styled “r/.” Subreddits are governed by moderators, designated subreddit members who set the etiquette and rules for other members to follow. Moderators serve as the gatekeepers of their subreddit: aside from having the power to set the rules on a particular subreddit, they can remove posts or members that do not comply with these rules. Because of this, every subreddit has its own distinctive culture (Anderson, 2015). On Reddit, the community norms are found in both the rules and the sidebar or wiki. These are a collection of texts on the first page of a subreddit that elaborate on important themes and concepts. Reddit’s design centralizes sidebars and rules by allowing moderators to highlight these documents within the layout of a subreddit, making it one of the first things visitors will see when visiting the page (Van Valkenburgh, 2019). This enables communities to exist around “a core of ideas and principles” which makes this collection of texts “a provisional representation of the community’s essential ideological core” (Van Valkenburgh, 2019, p. 4).

While moderators are important in setting the ideological rules of a subreddit, a subreddit would not exist without its members: Redditors. Unregistered individuals can browse a subreddit and view most of its content but only registered Redditors can post, comment, vote, and award. Like moderators, Redditors enjoy certain power. Within the r/TRP, r/RPW, and some adjacent subreddits, Redditors can influence a subreddit explicitly by being appointed an endorsed contributor by moderators. This illustrates when a Redditor’s posts are seen as contributing to moderator-endorsed ideology, something rarely observed in non-manosphere subreddits. But all Redditors can influence a subreddit. Operating on an upvote or downvote system, Reddit allows for voting on posts and comments, demonstrating whether Redditors liked the content or not, consequently bringing posts or comments visibility on the subreddit. Redditors can also purchase coins to “award” posts and highlight certain posts on a subreddit. Aside from moderators, Redditors too correct behavior deemed out of line from the subreddit’s guidelines by downvoting or reporting guilty members. Moderators may set the ideology core and consequential rules for a subreddit, but its members give substance to both these things and show how they are reflected in everyday life.

Sample and Analysis

This project focuses on texts by both moderators and Redditors as they co-create and give meaning to their shared online space (Massanari, 2015). A lurking ethnography (Squirrell, 2019) was combined with purposive sampling strategies to gather data. As a platform, Reddit enables lurking behavior by allowing non-members to view most parts of any subreddit (Massanari, 2015). For the last 5 years, the lead author has been an avid visitor of the r/RPW. During these visits, she remained a non-participant observer by never interacting with anyone or joining the community. This lurking presence in the field allowed her to develop a broader understanding of community norms and values without interfering in the subreddit. Purposeful random sampling was used to select data. In purposeful random sampling, texts are selected to represent a larger set of data without knowing their exact content beforehand as this increases the credibility of data by diminishing the risk of selection bias (Patton, 2014).

First, to obtain those texts that contain the “community’s essential ideological core” (Van Valkenburgh, 2019, p. 4), moderator texts from the “rules” and “wiki/sidebar” were selected. Following the principle of data minimization, only texts that were written by moderators or endorsed contributors were used for this part, which excluded the discussion of two books by regular Redditors. Another page that was excluded from analysis was a document that merely contained links to external resources, ranging from Red Pill–focused weblogs to subreddits on fermenting or gluten-free cooking and from clothing stores to beauty-focused YouTube channels. In total, this led to 27 texts by moderators that were analyzed. These texts had a mean of 2,486 characters, with the shortest texts marking 350 characters and the longest 11,525 characters. These posts were analyzed as coherent units, excluding any comments other users may have posted. For Redditor posts, 100 of the top posts of all time were selected, including only the posts that are considered the most relevant by the subreddit community. These highly ranked posts serve as an indicator of the content in line with a subreddit’s dominant ideology (Dynel & Ross, 2021; Massanari, 2015). Analyzed posts had a mean of 2,412 characters, with the shortest texts marking 125 characters and the longest 9,263 characters, again only full posts were analyzed. Selected posts range from 2013, when the subreddit was founded, to 29 March 2022, when data were gathered.

The decisions we have made in data collection and reporting have been informed by an iterative ethical engagement, in which we developed a contextually situated approach to potential harms to both data subjects and researchers (cf. Gliniecka, 2023). A factor that kept the lead author from interacting with the women of the r/RPW and making herself known to them is a message that was posted by moderators on the sidebar. The post in question indicated what is permitted if researchers want to learn about the r/RPW. While reading the sidebar and posts are allowed, the post prohibits asking questions to members or other forms of engagement if the researcher does not identify with the views of the group. While this post signifies that moderators are aware of a possible broader audience that includes researchers, it also indicates that establishing contact with the community in question would violate their wishes, even if this were for the purposes of seeking consent. As this post indicates a permission to read but not engage with the community, we took additional steps to ensure that our research would not facilitate readers from establishing contact with specific posters. We therefore omit usernames and other identifiable details from reporting. We also navigate the fact that researchers are permitted to “read” content, but not necessarily reproduce sections of posts or side bar content. We therefore additionally ensure that no direct connection can be made between our reporting and the community. We alter the specific wording of all substantial quotes from moderators and Redditors below (typically four words or longer), to prevent re-identification of r/RPW members (franzke et al., 2020).

Critical Thematic Analysis

Critical approaches are particularly useful when studying hegemonic power (Van Dijk, 2015). Lawless and Chen (2018) elucidate a method of Critical Thematic Analysis (hereafter: CTA) by integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter: CDA) with a more commonly used qualitative method in social science, thematic analysis. A thematic analysis identifies “patterns of meaning” (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 86) throughout a data set. Braun and Clarke (2006) outline six steps for thematic analysis: “familiarizing with the data,” “generating initial codes,” “searching for themes,” “reviewing themes,” “defining and naming themes,” and finally, producing a report with examples (p. 87).

Lawless and Chen (2018) find a critical specificity missing from Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework that asks why certain themes are present in data yet also point out that CDA foregrounds linguistic elements that are of less importance outside the field of linguistics. CTA helps inquire what dominant ideologies permeate themes rather than focus on syntax and grammar, something particularly useful for researching how texts operate in social interactions (Lawless & Chen, 2018), for example, on internet discussion boards like Reddit (Brandley & Dehnert, 2024).

Following Owen (1984), three things are key in CTA: recurrence, repetition, and forcefulness. Recurrence is the repetition of certain themes “not necessarily using the same words” (Lawless & Chen, 2018, p. 4) while repetition is the repeated recurrence of literal words, phrases, or situations. Forcefulness is the importance individuals assign to their discourse via things like caps lock, bold or italic fonts, emoticons, or punctuation marks. Analysis started by open coding, guided by recurrence, repetition, and forcefulness, after which closed coding connected the emerging themes, for example, binary gender roles and self-improvement, to broader power structures and ideologies such as patriarchy, neoliberalism, and postfeminism.

In writing down the results, quotes are taken from a data corpus of which links to the matching internet pages can be provided provisionally. Quotes are referred to by stating their corresponding number. Over time, internet links may change or be removed. To account for this, anonymized text copies of the original data were made and are available upon request.

Results: Moderator Texts

Anti-Feminism and Gender Essentialism

Following De Seta’s (2020) call to participate online as regular individuals would, this analysis began with the sidebar, a collection of texts selected by moderators including rules. According to the welcoming post, being red pilled means the “recognition and awareness of the way that feminism, feminists and their white-knight enablers affect society” (p. 10). How feminism has affected society became clear later, when it was stated that the “march of feminism” has “broken” the relationship market (p. 10). For moderators, feminism has propagated the idea that women do not have to fulfill “natural” feminine gender roles and this has deprived men of their motivation to commit: “what reason does a man have to marry if he is not entitled to sex, his wife isn’t expected to cook or clean?” (p. 3). Instead of finding in a good husband to start a family with, feminism advanced the idea that:

Women don’t owe men anything, they are without fault and would never need to improve, seeking agreement or accommodation is a tool of the patriarchy, and they can have whatever they want. A great job, a family, a university degree—they can have it all. (p. 3)

Texts not only presented starting a family, being sexually available, and taking up household labor as “natural” female behavior, these were also communicated as the only thing that would bring a woman long-term happiness. In giving their anti-feminist stance, r/RPW moderators collapsed different interpretations of feminism to create one antagonistic version to fight against. While the “RPW Glossary and Acronyms” (p. 10) mentioned different “flavours” of feminism, it stated that every “doctrine” that calls itself feminism should be considered violent and misandrist. On the r/RPW, feminism worked as boundary object (Marwick & Caplan, 2018). The rule “No feminism” (p. 1), stating the r/RPW to be an “anti-feminist community” with anybody bringing a feminist viewpoint to “be sent away,” demonstrated how those with deviating views on feminism are not welcome at the subreddit and will be censored or banned. The construction of feminism as the cause of many contemporary problems further established The Red Pill as an antagonistic alternative to feminist ideas (Marwick & Caplan, 2018, p. 553). For moderators, feminism served to create an agnostic Other (Marwick & Caplan, 2018), to oppose Red Pill ideology to feminism ideology, Red Pill’s interpretation of hegemonic femininity to that of feminists. To negate the “problems” feminism has created, RedPillWomen (RPW hereafter) were advised to come to terms with the “truths” that surround human behavior. According to moderators, society is obscuring the truth about men and women’s different “mating strategies.” These are referred to as “biological natures and preferences,” and taking the Red Pill was presented as the antidote to these lies.

RPW ideology also asserts a neoliberal approach to relationships. Moderators used terms like the “sexual marketplace transaction” and the “highest value” partner to refer to relationship aspects. Research on r/TRP has suggested that these sorts of economic discourses construct women as commodities (Van Valkenburgh, 2018). On r/RPW, similar discourses served to construct men as commodities too. This showed in the repeated mention of hypergamy, a female mating strategy where women seek out “the top alpha around to procreate with” and will leave if a “higher status male is found” (p. 10). By rationalizing female dating strategies, moderators reduced women to strategic child-bearers and constructed men as little more than vessels of the “highest quality DNA.” The emphasis on DNA, instinct, and procreation is ideologically related to EP. EP has been identified as an important feature of Red Pill ideology, used to justify sexual strategies (Van Valkenburgh, 2018). On the r/RPW, EP served as a seemingly objective, scientific foundation for making universal differentiating claims about men and women. EP was endorsed through a variety of methods. While the rules left no room for doubt, stating that all debates stem from an “evolutionary psychology, traditional or anti-feminist foundation” (p. 1), texts by moderators focused on how women can use EP to their advantage. For example, the second rule, “You can only change yourself” (p. 15), explained that RPW have the obligation to understand “what men want from a partner” before “putting that knowledge to use to become the best rendition” of themselves. Repeatedly, moderator texts on the r/RPW emphasized the agency and responsibility women have in navigating both male and female biological urges. Indeed, as the next section illustrates, the responsibility to mend the broken relationship market by self-improvement was a prominent aspect of hegemonic femininity at the r/RPW.

Responsibility and Self-Improvement

The welcome post stated the r/RPW to be about “setting personal targets and working on yourself to maximize your happiness” (p. 3). While this quote alluded to the economic rationale that surrounds RPW ideology, “maximizing” one’s happiness, it touched upon another element of its doctrine too: self-improvement. In postfeminist makeover paradigms, women are made to believe their self or life is flawed but that these flaws are amenable by following the advice of experts (Gill, 2007). In this case, anonymous moderators took up the role of relationship experts, deploying authoritative discourses in ascribing women to self-improve. Wood and Skeggs (2004, as cited in Gill, 2007) point out that makeovers are formed as “solutions to the dilemmas of contemporary life” (p. 156). For those adhering to Red Pill ideology, female self-improvement served as the solution to the broken relationship market. Gill (2007) argues that postfeminist discourses present women’s actions as freely chosen, uncorrupted by structural inequalities. Moderators presented the “broken relationship market” as a structural societal problem induced by feminism. Still, women’s individual actions were sold as a way of solving these problems. Elaborating on one of the rules, a moderator explained becoming a better woman would “make an impact in matters of love and life” (p. 15). While the word “life” signified importance outside the realm of relationships, the same moderator repeated in another post that the centrality of self-improvement in RPW ideology “is only relevant to the kinds of self-improvement that make women more appealing to the right kind of man” (p. 7, original emphasis). In advocating self-improvement, moderators acknowledged that there is more to women’s lives than finding a man, but self-improving to become a more attractive partner should be the top priority. The centrality of this logic was made explicit when it was stated that “all women have control over what happens in their lives” (p. 6). Texts like these communicated that if women choose not to participate in continuous makeover and reskilling practices, they, and they alone, are responsible for the unsatisfactory life that will inevitably follow.

Moderator texts showed that hegemonic femininity on the r/RPW consists of the construction of the ideal woman as a rational and calculated maternal subject that is willing to continuously self-improve to become a better partner to men. This was discursively legitimized via ideologies of anti-feminism, EP, and neoliberalism. What constitutes a “better partner for men” is evident in the top posts by Redditors. The second step of this analysis was to examine how Redditor texts enacted and maintained hegemonic femininity on the r/RPW.

Redditor Texts

The Feminine Project of the Self

While moderator texts claim self-improvement is essential in women’s responsibility to become better partners to men, posts by Redditors demonstrated a strong desire to take on this responsibility. Reskilling for RPW entailed both physical and psychological transformation. Texts repeated the importance of looking a certain way, with slender body physique, overall attractiveness, and dressing “feminine” to be the preferred appearance. Redditors deemed disciplining the body of utmost importance in becoming more attractive. RPW perceived the relationship market as a competitive field and obtaining a slim and fit body was seen as a way of navigating this. One post stated that having an attractive physique will put women “on top of the vast majority of other women, even those with a pretty face” (p. 25). The focus on the malleability of the body aligns with the idea that women’s bodies are an important source of power (Gill & Scharff, 2011). Women today can obtain social and cultural capital by disciplining and drilling the body to conform to reigning ideas of female attractiveness. RPW embraced this idea and strategically used it to their advantage: one Redditor was relieved that men prefer a hot body over a pretty face. As a self-proclaimed “very unremarkable woman,” working on her body enabled her to remain “competitive on the dating market” (p. 24). One repeated term contradicted the statement that the face is of less importance. The Wall refers to the age at which a woman’s attractiveness stagnates and her “sexual market value,” which encompasses the desirability of an individual in the relational market which plays a crucial role in determining their own dating power, decreases (p. 10). Redditors referred to this term particularly when talking about facial aging. The top post of all time, “Approaching my late twenties, and I finally understand ‘The Wall’” (p. 1), captures how one Redditor had lived “in fear of growing old” since discovering The Red Pill. She mitigated signs of aging by using anti-aging skin products and supplements and at almost 27, she claimed to look “better than ever.” This post celebrated the success of self-surveillance and disciplining and again emphasized personal responsibility. The truth this poster referred to is that signs of aging can be repressed through great effort, stating that “the Wall is more a reflection of lifestyle than age.” In postfeminism, women are seen as rational actors whose success in life is dependent on their ability and willingness to take care of themselves (Gill & Scharff, 2011). Because of this, becoming is valued over being as this illustrates the amount of work women are willing to put into cultivating the ideal female self (Winch, 2013).

Aside from looks, posts asserted the importance of behavioral and psychological alterations. Feminine demeanor on the r/RPW consisted of being positive, nurturing, and submissive. At times, this behavior materialized in practical forms, with many texts stating the importance of homemaking and cooking. This was explained by one Redditor who believed that cooking for your man creates a “profound, emotional non-sexual” (p. 48) bond that improves marriage. Other posts endorsed the importance of homemaking, for instance, by advising to always keep the house tidy or improve one’s overall cooking skills. At other times, these makeovers were more psychological. One Redditor who already partook in extensive caretaking explained that the fact that she did so “WITH A BAD ATTITUDE” (p. 17, original emphasis) rendered it worthless. Another Redditor also explained her alteration following an earlier aggravation:

It occurred to me that I don’t need to bitch and nag my husband to wash up. That was a source of so much stress and irritation for the two of us, so I adopted a different approach for us. I now take care of the dishes before going to bed every evening. That way they don’t get out of hand. (p. 71)

While at first trying to divide the labor, this poster thanked the r/RPW for making her realize that she shouldn’t be “such a nag,” which improved her relationship. Her new approach encompassed the attitudinal change toward her husband not partaking in household labor and taking on full responsibility for doing the dishes. Submissiveness was another important element of hegemonic femininity on the r/RPW and multiple posts addressed the importance and complexity of it. As one post said, “women are naturally submissive and deferential to men” while “men naturally defend and look after women” (p. 57). Here, the need for submissiveness was legitimized by relating it to “corresponding instincts,” utilizing EP to “eroticize” sexual differences between and women by presenting them as beneficial for heterosexual relationships (Gill, 2007). This post communicated that the balance deriving from these instincts made for a “win-win situation” for both sexes. Two terms repeatedly deployed by Redditors that encapsulate submissiveness are STFU, meaning “shut the fuck up,” and Captain, a term used to refer to male partners. RPW acknowledged STFU was a crass exaggeration, with the post “How to properly STFU (with examples!)” (p. 50) explaining that the term does not mean women have to be “totally mute.” Rather, the term is used to remind women that refraining from criticizing male partners is at times more beneficial for the relationship. Submissiveness was notably advocated in the context of sexual intercourse. One Redditor believed “consistent sex with [a] sexy girlfriend” (p. 54) is what persuades men to commit and saw it as women’s duty to be desirable to their husband and limit sexual rejections. But in their submissiveness, RPW should not just be seen as passive dupes. Submissiveness was repeatedly presented as a chosen strategy to get from men what RPW desire most: commitment. Multiple women rejoiced over recent proposals they believed were harvested by acting more submissive. Some women utilized sex as strategic method too. Redditors advised to keep men’s “balls empty” because this would have him refrain from looking elsewhere. Another post recommended sex as strategy when extramarital affairs do come into play. By “combatting forbidden fruit with sugar” (p. 75), this Redditor advised RPW with transgressing partners to use sex to secure their men’s commitment to them. This strategic outlook on submissiveness and sexual intercourse again constructed the ideal RedPillWoman as an entrepreneurial subject that operates fully rationally and is in full control over not only her appearances and her behavior but also men’s actions and feelings. It was widely held on r/RPW that if something went wrong in a relationship, it was not only a woman’s fault but also her obligation to remedy it.

Some RPW still struggled with the execution of Red Pill ideology. Some admitted grappling with STFU, disclosed still having “nagging tendencies,” or believed their appearances still in need of transformation. But what all these posts had in common is that Redditors expressed willingness and eagerness to work on their shortcomings to become better (potential) partners.

The RPW Gaze

Aside from the intense desire to self-improve, another feature that arose from top r/RPW postings was how Redditors maintained RPW femininity by dictating to how a RedPillWoman should exist. Multiple top posts explicitly prescribed group norms by giving guidance on how to become more RPW-like. For instance, one top post offered instructions on how to “be lovely” (p. 85). Among tips, “keeping judgements to yourself” when in the presence of men and “honour your heritage” were communicated as the preferred behavior, signifying that being lovely for RPW entails compliance and patriotism. Aside from stating what behavior is preferred, posts also showed what behavior is deemed inappropriate. Posts generally agreed that wearing revealing clothing or too much make-up makes women look “superficial” and that being too vocal is unfeminine. Women should also avoid being upfront about their sexual desires or boast about their successes or careers, as this was seen as masculine behavior better left to “angry feminists.” These types of posts are an example of how groups of women serve as schools of correction (Apter & Josselson, 1999), using “normative cruelties” (Ringrose & Renold, 2010, p. 575) to discipline women into desired behavior. These criticisms created clear demarcations by differentiating RPW from other women (Ringrose & Renold, 2010). Despite not looking at comments, posts also illuminated the disciplining interaction between posters and commenters. Multiple Redditors expressed gratefulness for the RPW community for helping them improve their relationships. At times, the comment section was explicitly mentioned, as when one Redditor wrote:

I valued the comments for their guidance. Especially the ones that pushed me to dive into the conflict and think about his perspective before my emotions got the best of me! (p. 60)

In a previous post, this woman had asked advice for dealing with her husband sending her photos of Instagram models for “inspiration” and she has taken the advice to consider her husband’s point of view to heart. Female sociality on the r/RPW functions as “systems of feedback” (Winch, 2013) where, to belong to a group, women eradicated behavior criticized by other members. Demonstrating the power that comes from belonging or the disempowerment that comes from not-belonging furthers the idea that hegemonic positions are desirable (Paechter, 2018). The disciplining of this Redditor turned into a reciprocal governing system when the Redditor herself hoped to encourage others to behave similarly in comparable situations. In performing their girlfriend gaze, Redditors also deployed techniques of warmly couched hostility, where criticism was given in explicit well-intended ways (Elias & Gill, 2018). Subreddit texts communicated that it is in women’s best interest to refrain from behaving aberrant to group norms. Only by following RPW group norms will women cultivate the best feminine version of themselves and snatch a high value man for good. Another way by which the r/RPW stimulated conforming to the social norms of the group was by deploying Reddit’s affordances. Multiple posts were edited to thank the community for rewarding them with stars or awards. RPW perceived awarding as an endorsement from the group with one Redditor writing: “Wow a gold star! This is so inspiring!” (p. 4).

While RPW self-improve to become better partners to men, their intimate posting on the r/RPW indicated they are just as willing to submit to surveilling girlfriend gazes and participate in continuous systems of feedback that serve to reinforce consent on what constitutes hegemonic femininity in the manosphere. The final section illuminates what being red pilled yields RPW and how they believe their interpretation of femininity challenges hegemonic femininity in contemporary society.

RPW Femininity as Counter-Hegemony

Another aspect that emerged from r/RPW posts was the idea of RPW femininity as a counter-hegemonic approach. RPW maintain and reinforce a hegemonic femininity within the manosphere yet see its construction as opposing a hegemonic femininity in the “blue pilled” and feminist contemporary world. This exemplifies what Banet-Weiser (2018) refers to as the dynamic between popular feminism and popular misogyny, which contends that expressions of misogyny have evolved in reaction to feminism’s mainstreaming. Indeed, one Redditor wondered: “Am I the only woman on Earth who isn’t a liberal feminist? Aren’t there any dissenting views on what being a woman is supposed to mean?” (p. 67). Most posts criticized contemporary society and a type of femininity they considered to be dominant. Some did so between the lines of personal anecdotes, usually by stating men’s surprise at how nurturing or kind RPW are compared to other women. Others condemned society more explicitly. Like the far-right women influencers that Leidig (2023) examines, Redditors considered society biased against women who want to live the red-pilled life and men in general. These “blue pilled” societies were referred to as the “dominant culture” with “conditioning,” “brainwashing,” or “propagating” leading to an inherently misandrist society. Redditors believed more male appreciation necessary because of the amount of “bashing men these days” and perceived society to be a “gynocentric” one, where women’s sensibilities are constantly privileged over men’s rights. These mishaps in current society were largely attributed to the articulation of hegemonic feminism which was at times used as a synonym for being blue pilled and at other times as an example of it.

But men were not the only victims of feminism. RPW believed feminism has harmed them too. The post “Why do we have to do EVERYTHING these days?” (p. 27) asserted feminism has only made things harder for women. Feminism was blamed for increased demanding expectations of women and this Redditor felt pressured to have an ambitious career while simultaneously working on her appearance, relationship, hobbies, and friendships. This Redditor’s longing to “simply be a woman” instead of both “woman and man” illustrated how RPW femininity was used to oppose a society where hegemonic femininity entails that women are now obliged “to do it all.” The post “They deceived me” (p. 29) narrated the story of a woman who continued working while being a mother because throughout her life, “they” had persuaded her that this was the proper thing to do for women. “They” referred to a society that, according to the poster, has reached consensus on the idea that women do not need to sacrifice a successful career for motherhood but are able to excel in both. Subscribing to what Leidig (2023) observes far-right women influencers promote as well, a lot of posters believed that countering hegemonic femininity by taking The Red Pill led to more happiness and sense of community than women who are not red pilled could ever experience. In the post “The truth revealed . . .” (p. 34), a stay-at-home-mom recounted that her “girlboss” neighbors, who favored their career over their families, envied her for being able to spend more time with her children. In general, RPW agreed that other women seemed far less happy, believing the r/RPW to be the only subreddit where “reasonably happy women” (p. 6) exist.

Conclusion, Discussion, and Future Directions

Women play an active role in the circulation and normalization of manosphere ideologies by joining political beliefs with seemingly mundane subjects and relatable content online (Love, 2020). Yet the digital world inhabited by women who endorse manosphere ideology remains largely unknown (Leidig, 2023). It is apparent that within the manosphere there is a commonality in beliefs among various groups, although important local variations exist (Ging, 2019; Leidig, 2023; Love, 2020). This study heeds researchers’ calls for mapping out a distinct women’s manosphere group by showing what constitutes hegemonic femininity in the r/RPW. Moderators present The Red Pill as a means for women to overcome grievances seemingly brought about by feminism, advocating for women’s self-improvement and adherence to gender essentialism as the sole solutions. We found that on the r/RPW, ideologies of evolutionary psychology, neoliberalism, and anti-feminism helped moderators to construct a local hegemonic femininity that is both subordinate to men and highly entrepreneurial. We find that the hegemonic femininity that is constructed and perpetuated in the r/RPW closely mimics what scholars have called postfeminist sensibilities (Gill, 2007). Thus, while moderators portrayed normative gender roles—such as starting a family, being sexually available, and assuming household labor—as inherent to women’s natural behavior, they also emphasized the responsibility women have in navigating male biological urges and societal restraints. What constitutes hegemonic RPW femininity is an amalgamation of a traditional femininity that serves to uphold gender essentialism and postfeminist sensibilities that render women responsible not only for their own appearance and behavior but also for the actions and desires of men. This research shows that postfeminist sensibilities may have permeated conservative spaces and put forward a bricolage of ideologies that help uphold women’s subordinate position to men.

Posts by Redditors showed how this RPW femininity is enacted and maintained. Women are made to feel responsible for transforming both the physical and psychological, endorsing the construction of the ideal Red Pill Woman as an entrepreneurial yet traditionally feminine figure whose endless self-work is solely aimed at enhancing her prospects of securing a fulfilling heteronormative relationship. Peer-surveillance served to create boundaries and correct those who deviated from group norms. This promoted the idea that hegemonic positions are desirable (Paechter, 2018) by expressing RPW femininity as leading to a better life. In line with what scholars of postfeminism have observed, RPW emphasized the pleasure and power of disciplining themselves to conform to normative ideas of female attractiveness.

However, while RPW femininity shows similarities with postfeminist sensibilities, a subtle distinction can be drawn. In postfeminism, women explicitly articulate that they engage in optimizing practices for themselves rather than to cater to men (Gill, 2007). In r/RPW, both the necessity of self-improvement to be more attractive to men and to improve one’s own life are asserted. While women serve as the invigilators of the RPW gaze, men and their desires are omnipresent in the subreddit. The opinions and “natures” of men are constantly considered in reaching consent on how RPW ought to be. This “double gaze” indicates that heightened notions of surveillance under postfeminism can result in women being disciplined from two sides. In RPW femininity, both the male and girlfriend gazes work seamlessly together to maintain an ideal feminine form.

Finally, although RPW maintain and reinforce a hegemonic femininity within the manosphere, it seems that this interpretation of femininity is established in relationality with hegemonic masculinity as much as oppositional to a femininity they see as prevailing outside the manosphere and within the “blue-pilled” contemporary world. Many RPW believed taking the Red Pill was their way out of a postfeminist society that expects women to excel in all aspects of life. While the r/RPW constructs RPW femininity as a type of counter-hegemony that opposes to “blue-pill” femininity, our analysis shows how both the blue and red pill femininity as defined by the manosphere rely on postfeminist ideas. As Van Valkenburgh (2018) reminds us, the social interactions that shape gender identities are governed by structural conditions. This research shows how macrostructures shape the formation of different local hegemonic femininities, which exist both in contrast and in parallel of each other. What it means to be a RedPillWoman is defined not only through its difference from what it means to be the good type of man, but also from what it means to be the wrong type of woman. It has been argued that postfeminist sensibilities help maintain patriarchal structures (Gill, 2017). On the r/RPW, RPW femininity not just maintains, but actively promotes and celebrates the subordinate position of women to men. In this regard, RPW femininity does not challenge dominant ideas but instead reinforces prevailing power structures. Hegemonic masculinities in the manosphere traverse digital spaces and even reach non-manosphere spaces (Ging, 2019). Further research is needed to explore how Reddit helps “digitally hegemonic” (Ging, 2019, p. 653) RPW femininity spread to the non-digital world.

Most types of hegemonic femininity are a racialized and heterosexualized version of femininity (Paechter, 2018). This is also reflected in our analysis, where heterosexual relationships are the only relationships mentioned by both moderators and Redditors. The decision to select for top posts influenced the research by looking only at texts that were deemed most relevant by Redditors. Indeed, Reddit’s system of upvoting and downvoting establishes and reinforces dominant ideas by amplifying their visibility while reducing the visibility of diverging opinions (Massanari, 2015). While this fits our research objectives, it has excluded more dissonant and diverse voices on the subreddit. As pointed out by Brody and colleagues (2022), sexual minority spaces in the far right exist and help showcase how power is manifested through discourses on sexual and gender identities. During the ethnography phase, we did come across posts that were written by queer women or spoke about the difficulties of being a Black RedPillWoman. These posts were not included in the top posts on the r/RPW, suggesting that while there may be non-white and non-heterosexual members, they do not hold hegemonic positions. Future research could focus on less dominant identities to examine how these relate to or challenge hegemonic RPW femininity, for instance by looking at controversial posts or conflictual comments. Another route to consider is exploring the external resources used by social media groups in the manosphere, particularly on the r/RPW. During feedback sessions, the question rose whether men could be posing as women on the r/RPW. Indeed, due to Reddit’s semi-anonymous affordances, there is no way of ethically confirming the gender or sex of moderators and Redditors on the r/RPW. However, we believe this does not jeopardize the project’s intention, as whomever is moderating, posting, and upvoting on the r/RPW articulates how hegemonic femininity is constructed, enacted, and maintained there.