Kevin
February 10, 2022
Common Questions

Do you know what MGTOW stands for? This article will provide information about the abbreviation MGTOW as well as other terms incels use.

What Does MGTOW Stand For?

According to Dictionary.com and The Guardian, the term MGTOW stands for Men Going Their Own Way. This refers to a social movement by Men’s Rights Activists in response to feminism. In the MGTOW movement, men seem to reject women and avoid interactions with them, living out their own version of masculinity. The acronym MGTOW is pronounced, “mig-tau.”

One of the core MGTOW beliefs is that the rise of modern feminism has, in turn, oppressed men. They believe that society is biased against men and in favor of women when it comes to custody battles, suicide rates, and false accusations of sexual assault and rape.

MGTOW members and followers eliminate all interactions with women that they can. These people do not participate in romantic relationships, marriage, or friendships with women. They believe that these sorts of interactions cause women to abuse men by taking their money and using them for other reasons.

MGTOW is associated with misogyny, celibacy, and the incel (involuntary celibate) community. Those who are a part of Men Going Their Own Way are often frequent users of internet forums, Twitter, and subreddits on Reddit. Their hate for femininity and the female gender has led to not only divorce and the decline of long-term relationships but often dangerous ideas.

The Four Stages of MGTOW

There are four different stages that a person must go through to encompass the MGTOW ideology. Once someone has “taken the red pill,” a reference to The Matrix referring to Men Going Their Own Way understanding that society is against them, they can begin the four stages.

The first is situational awareness. In this stage of MGTOW, a man realizes that he is a part of an oppressive, anti-man society. This can also be described as the thinking or realizing stage of becoming a part of the Men Going Their Own Way lifestyle.

Next, someone who is a part of Men Going Their Own Way will begin to reject the idea of long-term relationships with women. Men Going Their Own Way believe that marriage is an oppressive force in which women take men for granted. They believe that women take men’s money and livelihood, so men steer clear of cohabitation.

Later in this stage, Men Going Their Own Way move from rejecting not only long-term relationships and marriages but to rejecting short-term relationships and hypergamy like casual hookups or hiring paid sex workers, becoming voluntarily celibate.

Third is the stage of economic disengagement. Here, Men Going Their Own Way seek to only make the necessary amount of money to live, thus alienating themselves from capitalism and taxation. Men Going Their Own Way attempt to avoid supporting groups like single mothers or elite alphas using their tax dollars, in turn working toward a limited government.

Finally, Men Going Their Own Way participate in social rejection. This isolation can range from staying in a person’s own home or apartment to completely going off the grid into the wilderness. Men Going Their Own Way who achieve level four isolation are referred to as ghosts and are seen as legendary in the community.

MRA vs. MGTOW

MRA stands for Men’s Rights Activist, who is a person who identifies with the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM) and other manosphere groups. These people focus on the active combating of so-called male oppression and allow females into their communities.

This is very different from those in MGTOW, who avoid women altogether. People who participate in the MGTOW ideologies do not try to fight against male oppression but remove themselves from a supposedly oppressive and anti-male system, hence “going their own way.”

While the terms Men Going Their Own Way, incel, Men’s Rights Activist, and manosphere are all closely related; this does not mean that they are necessarily synonymous. Often, Men Going Their Own Way are not involuntarily celibate like an incel, but rather voluntarily celibate. They believe that this distances them from women. An incel, on the other hand, is by definition a person who cannot get another person to sleep with them even though they wish to.

Incels might be Men’s Rights Activists and vice versa, but Men Going Their Own Way are a slightly different adjacent group to these other two. They are, however, all a part of the manosphere. This is a community of men online who believe that society is inherently predisposed to reject certain types of men.

What i=Is the Origin of MGTOW?

In the early 2000s, users on the XYZ forum, which was an MRA message board, sought to remove themselves from the supposed anti-male society. The Men Going Their Own Way movement was officially instituted in person in October 2004 in Hickory, North Carolina, by message board users Ragnar and Meiko.

They wrote the MGTOW manifesto, and the online community has since grown into a much larger community that exists in various forums, subgroups, and online communities of many men.

What Are Other Meanings of MGTOW?

According to The Free Dictionary, the term MGTOW also has one other meaning, which is Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight. This refers to the maximum gross weight of a given aircraft, as defined by The Balance Careers. Sometimes, this is referred to as Maximum Brake Release Weight, but that is rare.

Overall, MGTOW stands for Men Going Their Own Way, an anti-feminist community that believes society holds double standards for men and women. This movement was started as a backlash against feminism.

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Kevin Miller is a growth marketer with an extensive background in Search Engine Optimization, paid acquisition and email marketing. He is also an online editor and writer based out of Los Angeles, CA. He studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google and became infatuated with English Grammar and for years has been diving into the language, demystifying the do's and don'ts for all who share the same passion! He can be found online here.