Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age

A virulent strain of antifeminism is thriving online that treats women’s empowerment as a mortal threat to men and to the integrity of Western civilization. Its proponents cite ancient Greek and Latin texts to support their claims—texts which, they argue, articulate a model of masculinity that sustained generations but is now under siege. Not All Dead White Men looks at this unexpected instance of Classical reception, where Alt-Right and Red Pill men’s groups deploy ancient sources to justify the return of antifeminist masculinity.

Donna Zuckerberg dives deep into the virtual communities of the far right, where men lament the loss of the power and privilege of masculinity and strategize about how to reclaim it. Mixed in with weightlifting tips and misogynistic vitriol she finds the words of the Stoics deployed to support an ideal vision of masculine life. On other sites, pickup artists quote Ovid’s Ars Amatoria to justify ignoring women’s boundaries. By appropriating the Classics, these men lend a veneer of intellectual authority and ancient wisdom to their project of patriarchal white supremacy. In defense or retaliation, feminists have also taken up the Classics online, to counter the sanctioning of violence against women.

As Not All Dead White Men reveals, some of the most controversial and consequential debates about the legacy of the ancients are raging not in universities but online, reanimating the persuasive power of the Classical tradition.