The MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way) movement stormed the internet age kindling masculine identity crises amidst eroding marriage rates and gender turmoil. This inside expert analysis explains MGTOW’s perplexing pull.
Origins Story
MGTOW germinated through early 2000s blogs and forums debating society’s supposed gynocentric mistreatment of men. Foundational texts included The Manipulated Man, a 1971 tract by Esther Vilar asserting systematic female exploitation of male disposability.
Online spaces like NO MA’AM (No Marriage For All Men After Midlife Crisis) unpacked dilemmas around divorce, legalized misandry and romantic disillusionment. Clarence in Buffalo’s influential 2006 A Man’s Home is His Castle essay rejected married householdership as a compromised “bargain with hell”.
Such exchanges valorized male self-ownership outside romantic coupledom. The phrase “Men Going Their Own Way” emerged during 2002’s Usenet discussions between veterans Flightcrew, Luggnagg and Pook, who argued patriarchal marriage now works against most men’s interests.
“Romance can complement a man‘s life, but it cannot be the mission of his life … Don‘t get involved in the melodrama and nonsense of dating and women.”
Early vlogs and blogs evangelized romantic non-participation as rational self-protection given surrounding misandry. After Barbarossaaaa’s seminal 2008 “Post-Feminist Man” video intervened, confused young males flocked towards these counterintuitive havens.
"Romantic isolation brings freedom – but freedom neither comforts nor protects you from reality‘s pitiless judgment."
Stardusk, Sandman, Colttaine and other MGTOW YouTube stars converted swelling legions of divorcees, dateless men and general malcontents through the 2010s, embedding MGTOW across the internet manosphere.
Beliefs and Practices
All MGTOWs share the cornerstone view that contemporary institutions subjugate men to favor women. Most concur that withdrawal from systems stacked against you comprises “the only winning move”. Beyond this unifying gender separatism though, the community harbors eclectic ideological diversity.
There are divisions between libertarian minimalists, fiery anti-feminists and traditionalist philogynists respecting but avoiding women’s perceived power. Differing suggested levels of dissociation also emerge:
Level 1 – Rejecting marriage/cohabitation without forsaking female intimacy
Level 2 – Limited socioeconomic participation with women
Level 3 – Total independence and self-interest
Level 4 – Dropping out from society‘s sexual marketplace
These tiers highlight MGTOW’s personalized adaptability. Extreme misogynistic voices exist but are unrepresentative according to reputable MGTOW champions like Sandman, who consider self-protection more constructive than the reflexive antifeminism of Men’s Rights Activists.
Everyday MGTOW practices emphasize building the best individual life rather than pursuing political goals. Lifestyle pointers target career development, financial literacy, travel adventuring and/or monastic minimalism.
"MGTOW helps men haunted by failure happily surrender false hope of perfection, and craft satisfying lives from imperfect worlds.”
Some invoke the manosphere’s metaphor around taking “the red pill” to signal clearly comprehending reality behind comforting social myths – in this context around romance’s corrupted basis.
Demographics and Growth
Estimating total MGTOW numbers is complicated by heavy internet anonymity. However, 150,000 active subscribers likely understates millions now exposed to signature arguments. Interest seems concentrated among westernized, tertiary-educated men under 40 years old.
Google searches for “MGTOW” quintupled between 2016 and 2020 as discussion proliferated across Youtube, Twitter, Reddit and other social channels. 89% of surveyed Gen Z American males recently claimed disinterest in marrying or fathering children – suggesting potent generational alliance with MGTOW reasoning amid plummeting US marriage rates.
“Younger generations facing socioeconomic instability don’t share their parents’ reverence for marriage.”
==These trends seemingly vindicate core MGTOW claims around wedlock’s declining appeal.== Many posit an approaching “marriage strike” as developing biosocial technologies offer alternatives to troublesome human intimacy.
Mainstream scrutiny remains sporadic though, considering the scale of recent interest and ideological influence across the manosphere’s complex ecosystem of overlapping masculinist factions. Books like Peter Lloyd’s Man Disconnected provide sympathetic insight to curious outsiders.
| Year | US Marriage Rate |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 8.2 per 1,000 |
| 2017 | 6.9 per 1,000 |
| Projected 2030 | 5.4 per 1,000 |
(Source: US Census Bureau)
Sigma and Seceding
Recently MGTOW’s monk-like autonomy questing cross-pollinated with the related “Sigma Male” concept from Jungian archetypal theory. Sigma denotes ambivalent outsiders beyond status hierarchies who disregard chasing rank or validation.
Both frameworks recognize modern power structures as exhausting and futile to climb. Sigma and MGTOW messaging now intermingle freely across the manosphere‘s matrices of forums, Youtube videos and podcasts.
"Sigma symbols let males jettison anxiety around sociosexual prestige."
This ideological fusion arguably reflects broadening disillusionment with conventional self-actualization pathways as technology reshapes society‘s operation.
For example, Japanese grass-eater movements like Soushoku-kei Danshi (herbivore men) also reject traditional breadwinning burden for more passive digital fulfillment. And amongst western MGTOW advancers, predicted trends like automation, VR intimacy and transhuman reproduction seemingly vindicate abandoning flawed ancient social contracts.
“When VR surpasses reality, why shackle yourself to meatspace limits?"
Surveys already show around 25% of under-35 men open to AI for sexual/emotional support over human relationships given preferences for digital escapism. Straight marriage rates project declining 30% by 2050 as lifelike sexbots arrive.
With birthrates falling alongside mosque and church attendance, virtual relationships could dominate within coming generations. MGTOW forums share an ambivalent mix of enthusiasm and unease around intimacy‘s technological transformation.
Critical Attention
MGTOW has received periodic vilification across mainstream media, caricatured as an embassy for toxic male bitterness. Such coverage rarely conveys the spectrum of thought, motivations and identities gathered under its banner.
Feminist attacks typically characterize all MGTOW discourse as vindictive misogyny rooted in entitlement. However, few progressives acknowledge the strands of ideological diversity mentioned earlier. Broader manosphere integration between incels, Men‘s Rights Activists and Men Going Their Own Way also complicates strictly demarcating groups by precise beliefs.
Traditionalists like Jordan Peterson acknowledge some activists highlight concerning systemic issues around modern masculinity – but consider disengaging from responsibility and positive contribution the worst possible response.
In reaction, MGTOWs argue walking away from decaying moral foundations demonstrates higher sanity than clinging to delusions. They believe technology and economic instability corrode incentives for men to keep propping up broken social systems which took their support for granted.
"MGTOW protects men fleeing societies racing towards terminal decadence."
Overall though the decentralized community continues thriving through grassroots internet proliferation despite facing external criticism.
What Future?
Current trends point toward exponential MGTOW expansion until something fundamentally realigns gender relations in response. Appeal seems liable to grow given rising socioeconomic instability facing young western men alongside increasingly viable alternatives to compromised intimacy.
"When VR surpasses reality, why shackle yourself to meatspace limits?"
MGTOW correctly identify how modern stresses corrode incentives to participate in systems whose rewards seem unreliable or unsatisfying. Cryptocurrency and videogame escapes beckon next generations away from decaying mainstream social contracts.
Equally though, sustainable civilizations depend on cooperative contribution. MGTOW provides valuable emergency relief addressing crisis-level male disillusionment, but cannot represent the apex of human flourishing.
Perhaps synthetic companions and progeny will enable sustainable substitute fulfillment as biological family continuation and lifetime bonding loses imperative. Regardless of precise vectors, coming decades promise profound intimacy flux. MGTOW forces spotlighting current anomie might hopefully precipitate overdue progress towards more holistic gender reconciliation.