S4E10 How Male Supremacism Drives Gender Based Violence

Male supremacism is the belief that men are more important, more valuable, or should have more power than women; reinforcing gender inequality, and creating the conditions in which violence against women, non-binary people and LGBTIQ people is more likely to occur and to be tolerated or excused. While it shows up in everyday norms, cultural messages and institutions, its most concentrated forms drive organised movements and pathways into violent extremism as well as online misogyny and hate.

In this episode, we explore what male supremacism is, how it shows up in the lives of men and boys long before they encounter extremist spaces, and why confronting it is essential for preventing violence against women and children.

Your host is: Ayesha Mago, Global Advocacy Director, Sexual Violence Research Initative (SVRI).

This episode’s guests are:

• Soraya Chemaly, award-winning Bahamian-American author, activist and feminist

• Alex DiBranco, Executive Director and Co-founder, The Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (IRMS)

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ What male supremacy is.

➡︎ How misogyny acts as a gateway to broader forms of extremism.

➡︎ How other forms of gendered abuse and violence function as tools of systemic power across institutions.

➡︎ The role race, class, sexuality and colonial legacies play in male-supremacist dynamics.

➡︎ What practitioners and policymakers can do to respond and prevent harm.

⚡Follow SVRI on Instagram.

🌐Check out the SVRI website.

🎥 Watch our film on YouTube.

💬 Connect with the SVRI svri@svri.org and our host, Ayesha Mago.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.

Resources:

• IRMS 2019-2025 Impact Report

• IRMS In The Media page

• Five ways to address male supremacist ideology and violence (Ms Magazine) based on a 2021 report by the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism/New America

• Roots, Structures, and Intersections of Supremacism: Bio-essentialism and Anti-Trans Attacks

• Interview on creation of IRMS

• How does the literary canon reinforce the logic of the incel?

• IRMS cofounder Dr. Emily Carian's 2024 book, Good Guys, Bad Guys: The Perils of Men's Gender Activism, which interviews men's rights activists and feminist men to understand their motivations and deficiencies in the search for gender justice. There's also a podcast interview with Carian that can introduce people to the themes discussed in the book.

• GNET article by IRMS Fellow Allysa Czerwinsky "Learning from the Leavers? The Promise (and Perils) of r/IncelExit.

• Soraya Chemaly Books: https://www.sorayachemaly.com/books

Please share new resources with us at svri@svri.org.