“Simp”: How Manopshere Lingo Became Popular Culture

This was written for a class assignment.

One topic that is relevant when discussing contemporary masculinity is the Men’s Rights Movement, and specifically, the Manosphere, ”a loosely connected group of anti-feminist Internet communities” (Van Valkenburgh, 2018, p. 1). While most scholarly work on the Manosphere’s influence focuses on their prevalent platforms on Reddit and Twitter, recently their influence has trickled down to more publicly accessible spaces like TikTok and YouTube. This is most clearly seen in the spread of the term “simp” in content on both platforms. The term’s roots, both in usage and in ideology, directly come from Manosphere communities. We can use “simp”, then, as an example for how fringe Manosphere ideology is trickling down into contemporary culture.

In April 2020, Men’s Health released an article titled “Here’s What It Means When Someone Calls You a ‘Simp’” (Zane, 2020). As a men-centered publication’s interpretation of youth slang, it’s interesting that it opens by describing these young men as “frankly, entitled assholes”. In the author’s opinion, however, “simp” isn’t just trendy new terminology; “these men aren’t just annoying or distasteful; what they’re spouting is misogynistic and potentially dangerous”. The same author then defines “simp” as it is used in the Manosphere: those genuinely engaging with the term “believe they are entitled to sex”, and “believe a relationship between a man and a woman is always about sex”.

Connecting the definition of“simp” in this article to Manosphere ideology is simple. In “Digesting the Red Pill”, the article’s authors analyze recommended reading on r/TheRedPill, a Manosphere community on Reddit, and find that “the axiom that human behavior and psychology have evolved to maximize gene reproduction” is a common one (Van Valkenburgh, 2018, p. 8). In short, those deep into the Manosphere do believe that men are entitled to sex — going as far as claiming that rejection from women can be ignored in the pursuit of it — and that relationships between men and women are only about sex — emotions, in one case, being a trick women use to prevent men from having it. To summarize, the ideology underlying “simp”, a common piece of youth slang, is misogynistic to the core, stemming from fringe communities of men on the internet.

But, what are these fringe communities? In “The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web”, the authors summarize the history of the Manosphere. Their foundational ideas stem from the Men’s Liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s; a critique of societal norms for men, and an antagonism to feminism (Zannettou et al., 2020, p. 2). The Manosphere, however, didn’t start in earnest until the end of 2008, when forums for so-called “Pick Up Artists’’ began. This community, influenced by Neil Strauss’ book The Game and VH1’s series “The Pick Up Artist”, focused on how to “seduce” women (p. 4). From then on, Men’s Rights Activists (those focused on critiquing societal norms), Incels (“involuntary celibates’’), MGTOW (“Men Going Their Own Way”, rejecting dating culture) and most recently, Red Pillers (those convinced that “feminism is a sexual strategy”) rose to prominence (p. 5–6). These communities, collectively called the Manosphere, are most often centralized on Reddit or specific online forums; though many forums have since died out, and Reddit pages for these communities are often banned or “quarantined” (effectively blocked from public access). However, while there are specific Manosphere communities, “it is inaccurate to think of the Manosphere simply as discrete communities…users [are] active in different [ones] simultaneously …some communities are jump-started by large migratory influxes of older existing ones” (p. 9). In brief, these communities share significant overlap, and, according to the authors, may even form a “radicalization pathway”: “content produced by the Manosphere, despite internal conflicts and contradiction, is united in its adherence to [anti-feminist] concepts… many of the individuals involved with the [Pick Up Artist] community went on to participate in more extreme anti-feminist communities” (p. 11).

These Manosphere groups use hybrid masculinities — masculinities that selectively incorporate elements from marginalized masc- and femininities for the sake of privileged men. In “Alphas, Betas, and Incels”, the article’s authors analyze the hybrid masculinities of the Manosphere. They describe how the critiques of hegemonic — or culturally dominant — masculinities, and wanting“ ‘inclusive’ forms of masculinity… which allow men to be more emotionally expressive and physically tactile” actually end up reinforcing hegemony (Ging, 2017, 4–6). “What [those in the Manosphere call] ‘inclusive’”, the authors argue, “may be little more than another strategy for straight, white, middle-class men to secure economic, social, and political power in an era of gay rights”. In brief, the authors explain how “emotionally charged claims to victimhood can be strategically amplified in a bid to dismantle perceived threats — both online and offline — to power and privilege” for these men. This dynamic is at the core of hybrid Manosphere masculinities.

The authors also find that unlike the Pick Up Artists and Men’s Rights Activists of old, there has been “a marked shift [in the Manosphere] from a predominantly political to a broadly cultural discourse, including a move toward more visual, video- and meme-based articulations of men’s rights. This is accompanied by a greater preoccupation with men’s personal relationships.” (p. 11) We can see this greater preoccupation when analyzing Manosphere discourse. In “Sluts and Soyboys”, the authors take a look specifically at the MGTOW community, and their harassment on Twitter. When it comes to other men, “‘Cucks’…‘betas’, ‘simps’ … [are] viewed as having committed the ultimate sin: they were either feminised or submitted to female power” (Jones et al., 2019, p. 14) . In this analysis, we can see both usage of the term of interest, “simp”, and its connection to the Manosphere’s focus on personal relationships. Specifically, the usage of the term in this context expresses how, as the authors of “Alphas, Betas, and Incels” put it, users “have both the intention and the effect of reasserting male sexual and cultural dominance” (Ging, 2017, p. 11). It is this usage that Men’s Health cited when calling the young men who used it “entitled assholes” — a usage that implies “that men should be traditionally masculine, by being dominant and independent, while women should submit and be content to nurture” (Jones et al., 2019, p. 12).

But, how did “simp” enter the popular lexicon? According to Logan Mahan of Inside Hook, the term, in its earliest popular usage, began in the African-American community, and most notably, the song “Sipping on My Syrup” by Three 6 Mafia, released in 2000 (Mahan, 2020). The earliest web presence is an Urban Dictionary entry in 2005, with another entry in 2012 defining it as, among other things, “a square with no game other than ‘Rolling out the Red-Carpet’ for every female.” Looking at Google Trends data, we can see that usage of the term was scant, but slowly grew in prominence starting December of 2019, before hitting a peak in March of 2020 (Google, n.d.).

While MELMagazine cites usage of the term in r/MGTOW as early as November 2018, the Google Trends data correlates with the first prevalent viral usage of the term; a TikTok captioned “simped’’ by Marco Borghi, posted on December 15th. (Taylor, 2020). In the TikTok, the captions read “If you ever paid for your crush’s food / I need you to know that / she posted ‘just finessed some eats’ on her private bruh” (Boghi, 2019). This video showcases a new definition of “simp” — as described by Magdalene Taylor of MELMagazine, “someone who overvalues women… by another man’s estimate”. They go on to explain that “while in some contexts, a simp is the sort of “nice guy” who deserves being called out … it more frequently seems to be a guy who simply treats women well”. We can see this in another viral TikTok by Ben Donnell, captioned “Don’t get caught simping😤’’. The video, which has 4.1 million views on Twitter and another 1.4 million on TikTok, seems to assert that death-by-lightsaber is a worthy punishment for leaving a gaming session to talk to a “female” (Donnell 2020; Mahan 2020).

Even if we take both of these videos in jest, they reflect dissemination of the terminology, and its connection to a Manosphere definition. However, that is not the only usage of “simp” today — as Nathan Greyson of Kotaku describes, it can vary in its definition based on context (Greyson, 2020). Some, they explain, are “calling themselves simps for particular people that they legitimately, unironically adore” — essentially, making “simp” a variant of the popular term “stan”. However, there are “others (who are often men)”, that “ take it gravely seriously… it’s a sign that you don’t deserve your man card”. This usage most closely matches the definitions given by Men’s Health, “Sluts and Soyboys”, and MELMagazine — definitions based on usage of the term in the Manosphere. While Greyson acknowledges that “simp” is also used in an ironic fashion, the irony still relies on knowing the Manosphere definition. In short, even if the TikToks mentioned earlier weren’t genuine, the humor was in understanding the intended definition of “simp” — one based on the belief that men are “entitled to sex” and that “a relationship between a man and a woman is always about sex” (Zane, 2020)

As the authors of “Sluts and Soyboys” pointed out, “memes and seemingly innocuous jokes can be encoded with sexist ideologies and position the target (generally women and ethnic minorities) as overly sensitive or as ‘feminist killjoys’ if they challenge the joke” (Jones et al., 2019, p. 12). This makes defining other people’s usage of “simp” difficult — while also providing cover for those that want to disseminate the ideas behind the term. Streaming platform Twitch banned usage of “simp” in custom emotes, calling it “harassment” in a response to Kotaku (Greyson, 2020). Twitch streamers interviewed for the same article described seeing the word as “harmless”, “banter”, and “just a joke within my community”, while also acknowledging that “it’s the new ‘beta’ in some cases”. In spite of the misogynistic history and usage of the term, as Logan Mahan of InsideHook put it, “its evolving definition and status as a meme put it in a grey area” (Mahan 2020).

In late March 2020, as “simp” hit its cultural peak, controversial YouTuber iDubbbz (Ian Carter) released a video called “Sex Workers — iDubbbz Complains” (Greenspan, 2020). This video was a response to backlash over the discovery that Carter’s partner “had signed up for an account on OnlyFans, a subscription-based social media platform used for adult entertainment videos”. In the video, Carter explains that “a good amount of people are …just making jokes and laughing about it. But there’s a whole other group of people who feel personally devastated and betrayed”. Ignoring the misogyny of backlash to a woman sex worker, it is notable that despite the split in attitudes over the news, “many of the memes and reactions to [it] used the word “simp” to describe Carter”. This is a real life example of the “grey area” the term has, and how it is used to advance hateful ideas — as Rachel Greenspan of Business Insider put it, “viewers are teasing Carter for theoretically being the submissive partner in the relationship, all because of his girlfriend’s decision to use OnlyFans.” What influence does the term “simp” have to have for a YouTuber PewDiePie calls “an important figure for the internet” to make a video response?

The Google Trends data seems to suggest “simp” as a passing fad, at least in its unironic usage (Google, n.d.). Since its high point in late March 2020, the term has been on a steady decline in searches. So while discussing “simp” may not be useful to discuss trends as of the time of writing, it can be useful in seeing how concepts from fringe communities like the Manosphere can disseminate to the general populous. The idea of fringe communities pushing for general understanding of their ideas in this way isn’t new. As the authors of “On The Origins of Memes” describe, “These memes, often generated by fringe communities, are being “weaponized” and even becoming part of political and ideological propaganda”. They go on to explain that these “communities … have been working hard to create new memes and make them go viral, aiming to increase the visibility of their ideas” (Zannettou et al., 2018, p. 1). In that regard, whether intentional or not, “simp” was a massive success. The term, adopted from black culture by the Manosphere, then was popularized on youth-focused platforms like TikTok and Twitch — despite being called “harassment” by the latter — and became so powerful that its usage forced a video response from “an important figure for the internet” (Greenspan 2020). The result is that millions in Generation Z now are familiar with the term’s ideology — that men who are “either feminised or [submit] to female power” have committed the “ultimate sin” (Jones et al., 2019, p. 14).

References

Borghi, M. (2019, December 15). simped [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@polo.boyy/video/6770776735664377094

Donnell, B. (2020, March 19). Don’t get caught simping😤 [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@bendonnell_18/video/6805775069088992517

Ging, D. (2017). Alphas, betas, and incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere. Men and Masculinities, 22(4), 638–657. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x17706401

Google. (n.d.). “Simp”. Google Trends. Retrieved June 6, 2020, from https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=simp

Greenspan, R. E. (2020, March 30). A popular YouTuber is being attacked online after his girlfriend started an adult OnlyFans account. Insider. https://www.insider.com/idubbbz-youtube-drama-simp-meaning-pewdiepie-2020-3

Greyson, N. (2020, May 8). Twitch is cracking down on simp emotes over harassment fears. Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/twitch-is-cracking-down-on-simp-emotes-because-of-haras-1843347454

Jones, C., Trott, V., & Wright, S. (2019). Sluts and soyboys: MGTOW and the production of misogynistic online harassment. New Media & Society, 146144481988714. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819887141

Mahan, L. (2020, March 26). Youthsplaining: What the hell is a simp? Are you a simp? InsideHook. https://www.insidehook.com/article/internet/what-is-a-simp

Rafail, P., & Freitas, I. (2019). Grievance articulation and community reactions in the men’s rights movement online. Social Media + Society, 5(2), 205630511984138. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119841387

Taylor, M. (2020, March 13). Welcome to simp nation, TikTok’s new Softboi club. MEL Magazine. https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/why-is-the-simp-sucka-who-idolizes-mediocre-pussy-so-hated

Van Valkenburgh, S. P. (2018). Digesting the red pill: Masculinity and neoliberalism in the Manosphere. Men and Masculinities, 1097184X1881611. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x18816118

Zane, Z. (2020, April 2). Here’s what it means when someone calls you a ‘Simp’. Men’s Health. https://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/a31994140/what-is-simping/

Zannettou, S., Blackburn, J., Bradlyn, B., De Cristofaro, E., Stringhini, G., Long, S., Greenberg, S., & Riberto, M. H. (2020). The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web. https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.07600

Zannettou, S., Caulfield, T., Blackburn, J., De Cristofaro, E., Sirivianos, M., Stringhini, G., & Suarez-Tangil, G. (2018). On the origins of memes by means of fringe web communities. Proceedings of the Internet Measurement Conference 2018. https://doi.org/10.1145/3278532.3278550