Misogynist terrorism

A plaque at Polytechnique Montréal memorializing victims of a misogynist terror attack

Misogynist terrorism is terrorism motivated by the desire to punish women. It is an extreme form of misogyny, the policing of women's compliance to patriarchal gender expectations. Misogynist terrorism uses mass indiscriminate violence in an attempt to avenge nonconformity with those expectations or to reenforce the perceived superiority of men.

Misogynist terrorism often targets representatives or stand-ins for a type of person that the terrorist feels anger toward. For example, some have been motivated by a perception of entitlement to sex with women of a type the perpetrator sees as attractive. These attacks, some arising from the incel subculture, have targeted both women and men seen as sexually successful.

Since 2018, misogynist or male supremacist ideology has been listed and tracked by counter-terrorist groups as an emerging terrorist threat.

Recognition

According to the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) at the Hague, counter-terrorists were slow to recognize misogyny as an animating ideology for acts of mass violence in comparison to recognition of other ideologies. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have tracked misogyny or male supremacy as a motivation for terrorism since 2018. They describe this form of terrorism as a "rising threat."

Blogger Jessica Valenti was influential in designating these acts as misogynist terrorism.

Motivations

Misogyny is common among mass killers, even among those who kill for other reasons. The below lists specifically misogynist motivations that have been given as primary reasons for indiscriminate mass killings.

Sexual entitlement

Mass murderers, in some cases identifying as incels, have described being motived by a perception of entitlement to sex or companionship with attractive women, a desire to seek vengeance for the perception of being rejected by women, and a drive to put women "in their place." For example, in the 2014 Isla Vista attack, the perpetrator set out to "punish all females for the crime of depriving me of sex." Incel ideology has been a contributing factor to 90 fatalities and injuries since this attack, as of early 2020.

Sexual entitlement, alone, has been a primary motivator for acts of terror. The ICCT have found that anti-feminist conspiracism in general is typically combined with other far-right ideologies in motivations of terrorists; however, sexual entitlement may be a motivation that stands by itself.

Male supremacism

In some attacks or threats of terrorism the perpetrator has described desire to reenforce male superiority in a sexual hierarchy by preventing women from being recognized for their work or tolerated in leadership positions. For example, feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian received threats of mass shooting and bombing unless a ceremony in which she was to be given an award were canceled. The ICCT argues that the Hanau terrorist attack, although the perpetrator also had some beliefs about sex in common with the incel subculture, should be understood as motivated instead by male supremacism.

The desire to prove manhood

Valenti writes that some misogynist terrorists have been motivated by a desire to live up to a stereotype that "real men" are powerful through violence.

Incel beliefs can include an abhorrence of men who are perceived as sexually successful with women. Male victims of misogynist violence have been targeted because of a desperation to assert superiority over these men.

The desire for stand-ins

As is typical of terrorism, these acts are intended to cause widespread fear. Any woman may reasonably be unsettled about the potential of being targeted, notes philosopher Kate Manne, because often victims of these killings are treated as essentially interchangeable. Women are targeted merely because they fit a certain type rather than because they have any particular relationship to the killer.

Misogyny need not mean hostility to women universally, or even very generally. Instead, misogynist terrorists often express desire to target women of a particular type, as revenge for perceived slights, or because of the women's perceived connection with feminism. However, the women targeted have no actual connection to a terrorist targeting indiscriminately; instead they are viewed as representatives or stand-ins for the women he wishes to harm.

Responses

Like other forms of terrorism, misogynist extremist violence is intended to make a political statement. However, political responses to this form of terrorism have been less proactive than government response to Islamic extremist violence and other forms of terrorism.

Counter-terrorist response is complicated by cultural attitudes toward misogynist crimes in general. Such crimes tend to be viewed as a "private issue" rather than a proper political subject. Further, because incel attacks sometimes target men and women indiscriminately, the gender-based motivation of these attacks has been difficult to recognize.

The 2020 Toronto machete attack, because of an association with an incel group, was the first instance in which a government charged someone with terrorism on the basis of a misogynist ideology.

Australian researchers have recommended securitisation of incel ideology, as has been done for other ideologies that animate terrorism. Jessica Valenti recommends that feminism build a helpful alternative culture for young men, as it has successfully for young women, which would give young men an alternative to misogynist online communities when seeking respite from mainstream culture's constraints.

List of incidents

• 1989 École Polytechnique massacre
• 2009 Collier Township shooting
• 2014 Isla Vista killings
• 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting
• 2018 Toronto van attack
• 2018 systematic shooting of female drivers in Texas
• 2018 Tallahassee shooting
• 2020 Hanau shootings
• 2020 Toronto machete attack
• 2020 Glendale Westgate Entertainment District shooting

See also

• Anti-abortion violence
• Domestic violence