EXTREMISMHow Male Grievance Fuels Radicalization and Extremist Violence
Social extremism is evolving in reach and form. While traditional racial supremacy ideologies remain, contemporary movements are now often fueled by something more personal and emotionally resonant: male grievance.
Social extremism is evolving in reach and form. While traditional racial supremacy ideologies remain, contemporary movements are now often fueled by something more personal and emotionally resonant: male grievance. These movements do not replace older ideologies but expand their appeal by reframing the modern world as emasculating, creating hybrid ideologies. They lead with hurt, portraying men as victims of societal change, betrayed by social progress and sidelined by institutions.
Australia has one of the highest male suicide rates in the developed world, with men accounting for three quarters of all suicides nationally. (There were 2,419 male suicides in 2023.) The emotional vulnerability behind this can become a security concern when it is mobilized into grievance-based narratives that encourage resentment, distrust and, in some cases, extremist violence.
We have seen cases in which men have committed mass violence in response to gendered grievance. In other cases, male-related grievance was framed as ideological, leading to Canada’s first terrorism conviction. More recently, in an Australian incident where women were the primary target, online incel forums celebrated these hateful actions, reinforcing how grievance and misogyny are validated in extremist spaces to encourage further harm.
These narratives gain traction by offering not just explanations but perceived emotional clarity and meaning. They recontextualize frustrations about work, relationships or belonging into a story of symbolic status loss and collective injustice. That story can be profoundly compelling and, when exploited, dangerous.
Radicalization is intensely personal, and each case is individual. But emerging violent hybrid ideologies tend to follow a broad pathway to radicalization. People move from personal grievances towards identity crises, then align with a collective group of similarly aggrieved men. From here, they are exposed to ideological radicalization.
This is most visible in online communities such as the manosphere, where frustration is recast as collective injustice. What begins as content on dating, business or self-improvement often escalates into grievance-based messaging that frames men as threatened, oppressed, marginalized and morally wronged. More than blame, these narratives offer belonging, clarity and the promise of status restoration. Comment sections and various online platforms further provide a decentralized digital meeting place for men to discuss this content and to approach radicalization.
