By Windsor Johnson
When Olivia Petter first saw the news (click here) about the sexual assault allegations at Cornell University, she was shocked by how familiar parts of the story felt for her.
"The more I found out, the more triggered I became," she said. "I think for me, the worst thing was seeing the group messages that these boys were allegedly sending to each other on the night of the alleged rape."
Reading those exchanges brought the London-based author back to boarding school in England, where she says older boys targeted her and her friends from the age of 13....
Factional Differences Within the Manosphere
- Incels (Involuntary Celibates): This is the most extreme wing of the manosphere. Academic studies and watchdogs like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have documented that within incel forums, extreme misogyny, violent rhetoric against women, and the normalization or justification of rape—including collective or structural violence against women—are frequently expressed.
- Pick-Up Artists (PUAs): The PUA community focuses on manipulation techniques to secure sexual encounters. Critics and sexual assault advocates argue that PUA philosophy heavily emphasizes overriding a woman's boundaries ("Last Minute Resistance"), which directly blurs the lines of legal consent and can lead to the justification of sexual assault.
- Men's Rights Activists (MRAs) and MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way): These groups generally focus on legal grievances, anti-feminism, or separating themselves from women entirely. Rather than openly condoning violence, these spaces are more likely to exhibit "rape culture" tendencies—such as systemic skepticism toward rape victims, heavy focus on false accusations, and shifting blame onto the victim.
Ten years ago, (click here) a misogynist incel declared “war on women” before embarking on a deadly rampage in the beachside community of Isla Vista, California. On the evening of May 23, 2014, Elliot Rodger stabbed his two housemates and their friend to death before traveling to his ultimate target: a UC Santa Barbara sorority house. In his manifesto, he wrote that these women “represent everything I hate in the female gender.”
After he was unable to gain access to the sorority house, Rodger shot three women outside the house. He then proceeded to drive around Isla Vista, shooting at pedestrians and running others over with his car. Before finally killing himself, Rodger murdered six people and wounded 14 others....











