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Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism
The revelatory and urgent story of how an explosion of misogyny is driving a surge of mass and far-right violence throughout the West—from an internationally recognized extremism expert and media commentator
What two things do most mass shooters, terrorists, or violent extremists have in common? Most of us know the they are almost always men or boys. But the second? They are almost always virulent misogynists, homophobes, or transphobes—even if they are also motivated by racism, antisemitism, or xenophobia. The antigovernment militiamen charged with plotting to kidnap and execute Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer used language saturated with misogyny, with one telling an FBI informant, “Just grab the bitch.” The men who killed scores at Virginia Tech, the Pulse nightclub, and a Maryland newsroom all had prior reports of stalking, domestic violence, or harassment of women. And in dozens of other incidents—from North America to Norway to New Zealand—an increasing number of misogynist incel (involuntary celibate) and male supremacist attackers have explicitly targeted and killed women, blaming feminism or sexual frustration with women as motivation for their attacks.
Yet, despite all evidence, the bright red thread of misogyny running through these attacks is barely acknowledged by the media or even experts—and this failing leaves us powerless to stop the violence. In Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a leading expert on extremism, addresses this crucial oversight head-on, revealing how an epidemic of misogyny—both online and off—and a patriarchal backlash are driving an exponential rise in mass and far-right violence. She also offers essential strategies that all of us—including parents, teachers, and counselors—can use to fight the rising tide of violence, beginning with recognizing the misogyny that pervades our everyday lives.
What two things do most mass shooters, terrorists, or violent extremists have in common? Most of us know the they are almost always men or boys. But the second? They are almost always virulent misogynists, homophobes, or transphobes—even if they are also motivated by racism, antisemitism, or xenophobia. The antigovernment militiamen charged with plotting to kidnap and execute Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer used language saturated with misogyny, with one telling an FBI informant, “Just grab the bitch.” The men who killed scores at Virginia Tech, the Pulse nightclub, and a Maryland newsroom all had prior reports of stalking, domestic violence, or harassment of women. And in dozens of other incidents—from North America to Norway to New Zealand—an increasing number of misogynist incel (involuntary celibate) and male supremacist attackers have explicitly targeted and killed women, blaming feminism or sexual frustration with women as motivation for their attacks.
Yet, despite all evidence, the bright red thread of misogyny running through these attacks is barely acknowledged by the media or even experts—and this failing leaves us powerless to stop the violence. In Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a leading expert on extremism, addresses this crucial oversight head-on, revealing how an epidemic of misogyny—both online and off—and a patriarchal backlash are driving an exponential rise in mass and far-right violence. She also offers essential strategies that all of us—including parents, teachers, and counselors—can use to fight the rising tide of violence, beginning with recognizing the misogyny that pervades our everyday lives.
344 pages, Hardcover
Published September 16, 2025
62 people are currently reading
673 people want to read
About the author
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
12 books61 followersCynthia Miller-Idriss is associate professor of education and sociology and director of the International Training and Education Program at American University. Her books include Blood and Culture: Youth, Right-Wing Extremism, and National Belonging in Contemporary Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 12, 2025
It's a book drawing on Kate Manne's Down Girl and the ways of misogyny, which helped me while reading it a lot, and yet I was extremely disappointed. Not that there isn't a good overview of our times and how it's tied to violent ways of manhood - it's just so liberal through and through.
Unshakeable belief just better education, better policies by policymakers, and man thinking how to work against it in their own life. The trust in a functioning state that would be open to do this is the failure of the liberal class to come to terms in what times the US is living now.
She is pointing out book banning and repression of gender discourse *done by state institutions who are captured* and yet has enough trust to somehow be able to return it. If this is what you bring to the fight under Trump 2.0, better give up right away.
An astonishing work that seems to totally misread the Zeitgeist, rehashes well known talking points (and real problems!) and has nothing to offer outside of a call to speech acts.
Again, if that is what liberal America is believing and relying on, they are doomed.
Unshakeable belief just better education, better policies by policymakers, and man thinking how to work against it in their own life. The trust in a functioning state that would be open to do this is the failure of the liberal class to come to terms in what times the US is living now.
She is pointing out book banning and repression of gender discourse *done by state institutions who are captured* and yet has enough trust to somehow be able to return it. If this is what you bring to the fight under Trump 2.0, better give up right away.
An astonishing work that seems to totally misread the Zeitgeist, rehashes well known talking points (and real problems!) and has nothing to offer outside of a call to speech acts.
Again, if that is what liberal America is believing and relying on, they are doomed.
November 18, 2025
It's a good book, but it reads more introductory and surface level, with a lot of repetition.
If you're any way active online or have read on this topic before, most things discussed herein will be very familiar to you.
If you're any way active online or have read on this topic before, most things discussed herein will be very familiar to you.
November 27, 2025
“Across all mass shootings in US in 2018, 83% had of perpetrators had a *recorded* history of gender-based violence”
“There are examples of expressed misogyny or domestic violence in the personal histories of *nearly all the perpetrators* of the worst terrorist incidents and mass killings in recent years” - UN advisors
Feels like a lightbulb moment of a book.
“There are examples of expressed misogyny or domestic violence in the personal histories of *nearly all the perpetrators* of the worst terrorist incidents and mass killings in recent years” - UN advisors
Feels like a lightbulb moment of a book.
August 3, 2025
Book Review: Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism by Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Rating: 4.7/5
A Groundbreaking Exposé of Misogyny as the Engine of Extremism
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a preeminent scholar on extremism, delivers a luminous and troubling account of how patriarchal backlash fuels global violence. Man Up meticulously traces the bright red thread of misogyny linking mass shooters, far-right terrorists, and incel attackers—from Michigan militias to the Pulse nightclub massacre—while critiquing systemic failures to name this pattern. Her analysis bridges everyday sexism and spectacular gender-based violence, arguing that dismissing the former enables the latter.
Emotional Resonance and Personal Reflections
As a reader, I was both galvanized and unsettled by Miller-Idriss’s unflinching case studies. The FBI informant’s testimony about the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (“Just grab the bitch”) viscerally illustrates how dehumanizing rhetoric precedes action. Her dissection of incel ideology—where sexual frustration metastasizes into lethal entitlement—left me reflecting on how platforms like 4chan normalize hatred under the guise of male grievance. Just today, I read an article on Apple News about the application "Tea" that created an extremely dangerous mechanism for perpetrating the violence discussed in this book. I think this happens more than any of us could imagine. I hope this text will be required reading in sociology classes nationwide.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its refusal to silo misogyny from other extremist motivations. By framing it as the lifeblood of hate-fueled violence, Miller-Idriss reveals interconnected systems of oppression. Yet, her prose remains accessible, blending academic rigor with the urgency of an MSNBC column (where she regularly contributes).
Constructive Criticism
-Intersectional Gaps: While the book excels in linking misogyny to white supremacy, deeper engagement with how race, class, and disability intersect with gendered violence would strengthen its framework.
-Global Scope: Case studies focus heavily on the U.S. and Europe; including more Global South perspectives (e.g., Latin American femicide movements) could broaden its relevance .
-Solutions Section: Though the final chapter offers strategies (e.g., media literacy programs), concrete policy recommendations for legislators feel underexplored.
Summary Takeaways:
- The Silent Spring of gendered extremism—a book that names the poison in our political bloodstream.
- From incel forums to militias, Miller-Idriss maps the ‘manosphere’ with the precision of a bomb squad expert.
- Essential reading post-#MeToo: proves misogyny isn’t just toxic—it’s the foundation of terrorism.
- A flare in the darkness for parents, teachers, and policymakers fighting the rise of violent masculinity.
- Kathleen Blee meets Malcolm Gladwell: a page-turner that rewrites how we understand hate.
Gratitude
Thank you to Edelweiss and Princeton University Press for the advance copy. Miller-Idriss’s work—praised by experts like Rachel Louise Snyder as “a new discipline that could not be more urgent”— and I wholeheartedly agree that this is a clarion call to action. I hope that this book is the first of many in the genre by this author. There is so much more to explore that would benefit from the voice provided in this book.
Final Verdict: A transformative, if occasionally narrow, study. Docked 0.3 for missed intersectional depth, but a must-read for its field.
Why Read It? To confront the uncomfortable truth: We cannot interrupt extremism without grappling with patriarchal systems.
Rating: 4.7/5
A Groundbreaking Exposé of Misogyny as the Engine of Extremism
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a preeminent scholar on extremism, delivers a luminous and troubling account of how patriarchal backlash fuels global violence. Man Up meticulously traces the bright red thread of misogyny linking mass shooters, far-right terrorists, and incel attackers—from Michigan militias to the Pulse nightclub massacre—while critiquing systemic failures to name this pattern. Her analysis bridges everyday sexism and spectacular gender-based violence, arguing that dismissing the former enables the latter.
Emotional Resonance and Personal Reflections
As a reader, I was both galvanized and unsettled by Miller-Idriss’s unflinching case studies. The FBI informant’s testimony about the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (“Just grab the bitch”) viscerally illustrates how dehumanizing rhetoric precedes action. Her dissection of incel ideology—where sexual frustration metastasizes into lethal entitlement—left me reflecting on how platforms like 4chan normalize hatred under the guise of male grievance. Just today, I read an article on Apple News about the application "Tea" that created an extremely dangerous mechanism for perpetrating the violence discussed in this book. I think this happens more than any of us could imagine. I hope this text will be required reading in sociology classes nationwide.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its refusal to silo misogyny from other extremist motivations. By framing it as the lifeblood of hate-fueled violence, Miller-Idriss reveals interconnected systems of oppression. Yet, her prose remains accessible, blending academic rigor with the urgency of an MSNBC column (where she regularly contributes).
Constructive Criticism
-Intersectional Gaps: While the book excels in linking misogyny to white supremacy, deeper engagement with how race, class, and disability intersect with gendered violence would strengthen its framework.
-Global Scope: Case studies focus heavily on the U.S. and Europe; including more Global South perspectives (e.g., Latin American femicide movements) could broaden its relevance .
-Solutions Section: Though the final chapter offers strategies (e.g., media literacy programs), concrete policy recommendations for legislators feel underexplored.
Summary Takeaways:
- The Silent Spring of gendered extremism—a book that names the poison in our political bloodstream.
- From incel forums to militias, Miller-Idriss maps the ‘manosphere’ with the precision of a bomb squad expert.
- Essential reading post-#MeToo: proves misogyny isn’t just toxic—it’s the foundation of terrorism.
- A flare in the darkness for parents, teachers, and policymakers fighting the rise of violent masculinity.
- Kathleen Blee meets Malcolm Gladwell: a page-turner that rewrites how we understand hate.
Gratitude
Thank you to Edelweiss and Princeton University Press for the advance copy. Miller-Idriss’s work—praised by experts like Rachel Louise Snyder as “a new discipline that could not be more urgent”— and I wholeheartedly agree that this is a clarion call to action. I hope that this book is the first of many in the genre by this author. There is so much more to explore that would benefit from the voice provided in this book.
Final Verdict: A transformative, if occasionally narrow, study. Docked 0.3 for missed intersectional depth, but a must-read for its field.
Why Read It? To confront the uncomfortable truth: We cannot interrupt extremism without grappling with patriarchal systems.
November 4, 2025
If you have been paying attention for the last 5-10 years this book may feel a little stale to you as it did for me. This one may be more appropriate for a parent who doesn’t fully understand the ins and outs of online misogyny and wants an intro course to the characters and subgroups.
I came to this book from an NPR interview from the author. She sounded well informed in the interview so I wanted to snag it to get her perspective. I’m not sure if the scope was too broad or if it was something else, but it just did not deliver the depth I was looking for.
This book relitigates some of my biggest pet peeves on this subject; it implies that violent video games lead to real world harm, something that has been proven false time and time again. Or, implying that porn consumption leads to real world harm or an increase in misogynistic behavior - which again has been shown to be incorrect across the vast majority of studies. This book also conflates several subgroups - linking together the tendencies of incels with those of trad family values or alt right militias. These are all distinct groups with distinct beliefs and aims - conflating them isn’t helpful in solving the issue of increased right wing violence.
I think this book is a great intro but if you’re looking for nuance, a well researched new perspective on male violence in the modern era, or new information this unfortunately didn’t deliver.
I came to this book from an NPR interview from the author. She sounded well informed in the interview so I wanted to snag it to get her perspective. I’m not sure if the scope was too broad or if it was something else, but it just did not deliver the depth I was looking for.
This book relitigates some of my biggest pet peeves on this subject; it implies that violent video games lead to real world harm, something that has been proven false time and time again. Or, implying that porn consumption leads to real world harm or an increase in misogynistic behavior - which again has been shown to be incorrect across the vast majority of studies. This book also conflates several subgroups - linking together the tendencies of incels with those of trad family values or alt right militias. These are all distinct groups with distinct beliefs and aims - conflating them isn’t helpful in solving the issue of increased right wing violence.
I think this book is a great intro but if you’re looking for nuance, a well researched new perspective on male violence in the modern era, or new information this unfortunately didn’t deliver.
December 14, 2025
Honestly, this was a massive let down. My biggest issue was that Miller-Idriss bought into a lot of cultural myths that, as an academic, she should have known better than to take at face value. The two myths that bothered me the most were male loneliness (stats show that men and women experience loneliness at similar rates) and the idea that mass rape occurred on October 7th. Side note - I'll never understand why extremism researchers are so pro Israel when Israel has been committing acts of terror since its inception.
In addition to the lax fact checking, it felt like Miller-Idriss had a fairly surface level understanding of the feminist theories she cited, although that may have been because the book was meant for a mainstream audience. The death knell for this book was the author's liberal politics. Her personal politics really hampered her analysis, especially because so many of the theories she cited are not liberal. This ideological clash sapped a lot of the explanatory value from the book.
In addition to the lax fact checking, it felt like Miller-Idriss had a fairly surface level understanding of the feminist theories she cited, although that may have been because the book was meant for a mainstream audience. The death knell for this book was the author's liberal politics. Her personal politics really hampered her analysis, especially because so many of the theories she cited are not liberal. This ideological clash sapped a lot of the explanatory value from the book.
October 19, 2025
Overall I think it was quite interesting but it is a little surface level if someone is knowledgable about the topic.
I think she does a great job of connecting misogyny to anti-LGBTQ+ hate and properly contextualizes how the sort of gender based extremism is not a distinct phenomenon but is simply the more extreme version of things that are found across society more broadly.
Some sections of the book I found less convincing, for example, the discussion of the abuse of children and the association to the far right and the far-rights use of women for financial motives. In the first case, she provides no quantitative evidence to demonstrate that this is more prevalent, it may reflect general trends of abuse across wider society, and in the second case some of the examples had more to do with organized crime groups that while are white supremacist, are not ideologically motivated.
Overall it is an important book to write and to be out there in the world.
I think she does a great job of connecting misogyny to anti-LGBTQ+ hate and properly contextualizes how the sort of gender based extremism is not a distinct phenomenon but is simply the more extreme version of things that are found across society more broadly.
Some sections of the book I found less convincing, for example, the discussion of the abuse of children and the association to the far right and the far-rights use of women for financial motives. In the first case, she provides no quantitative evidence to demonstrate that this is more prevalent, it may reflect general trends of abuse across wider society, and in the second case some of the examples had more to do with organized crime groups that while are white supremacist, are not ideologically motivated.
Overall it is an important book to write and to be out there in the world.
October 12, 2025
man-Up by Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an eye-opener for those of us trying to understand the increase of violence and oppression against women in the world in recent years. The book is well researched and supported by fact based information from limitless sources. The fact that women increasingly support and promote white male dominance is appallingly but not surprising. Ms. Miller effectively and factually states the reasoning behind why quite clearly in this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned about the increasing violence and hate directed at women, minorities, and LBGTQ+ people. Her recommendations in the epilogue and following resources section will help guide teachers, parents coaches, religious leaders etc… to discuss misogyny online and in social media platforms. Highly recommend reading it!
November 1, 2025
“More than 94% of far-right violent and non-violent extremists in the US between 1948 and 2021 were men. Men commit 98% of mass shootings and and least 94% of sexual abuse.” As a sociologist the author has studied this and the growth of misogyny not only in the US but abroad. The book is a little repetitive and frankly I think if you read the introduction and a few selected chapters you would get the gist of her thesis that their are five major strategies used by both conservative and extreme right members that are aimed at reasserting patriarchy: containment, punishment, exploitation, erasure and the enabling the support of white women. Worth my time.
October 8, 2025
A look at white supremacist misogyny in the United States. The author has not grappled with men and women having 'gender', not just transgender persons, and as much a right to it, and the analysis is stuck in the shallows as a result, which also stifles the suggested methods to curb and end misogyny.
Nikki Zakocs does a good reading.
Nikki Zakocs does a good reading.
October 16, 2025
This is one of the most important books I’ve read in years. Miller-Idriss doesn’t just analyze statistics; she humanizes them, showing how misogyny festers and transforms into radical violence. Her writing is sharp, empathetic, and backed by extensive evidence. Man Up isn’t just a warning it’s a call to action for a safer, more equitable world.
September 29, 2025
The epilogue has earned this book an additional star. If only the whole book were as nuanced and thought-provoking.
September 29, 2025
It’s a bit repetitive but it’s true
October 17, 2025
Probably one of the most important books I have read in years.
October 29, 2025
Some of the content of the book was familiar, but Miller-Idriss raised some great new points for me, and I liked how she incorporated personal experience. I raced through it!
November 17, 2025
Read for uni but so interesting
November 28, 2025
published a week after New Age of Sexism, but has mostly the same information
December 9, 2025
Interesting subject matter but rather dry.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews