I personally didn’t hear the term The Manosphere until around the time of Gamergate, which we’ll talk about in this episode. And it’s weird because I did want to talk about masculinity and the effects it had on what I thought was my gender roles. However the masculinity discourse was completely taken over by this conversation. This idea to talk about being a man, this was the only avenue you had. It was either trying to have sex, or making fun of women, that’s it. It was a weird time and place to be. And I understood later on as to why when guys stumbled into a pro-feminist men’s organization or a conversation about masculinity that wasn’t misoginist that they thought it was a brand new thing. Because the manosphere was the only game in town, or so it seemed. This time, this era, not only encapsulates a lot of what’s wrong with the masculinity discourse now, it also brings forth the violent tactics that other internet vigilantes would use. Mainly harassment. So in this episode we'll talk about the start of Pick Up Artistry, Paul Elam and A Voice for Men, and Gamergate.