Lexicon ·
MGTOW
noun, acronym, also 'going MGTOW'
- Stated meaning
- Choosing to put one's life and interests first, and to stay out of marriage and long-term relationships.
- Operating meaning
- An exit from the market, announced in the market, at a volume of posting that keeps the departing party a regular participant.
- Origin
- An acronym for Men Going Their Own Way, from online forums of the early 2000s. Dictionary.com reports that its formal foundation was laid at a meeting in Hickory, North Carolina, in October 2004.
Dictionary.com (opens in a new window) dates the movement to the early 2000s and gives it a founding: “The formal foundation of MGTOW was laid during an in-person meeting between users Meiko and Ragnar in Hickory, North Carolina in October of 2004.” The definition it offers is a withdrawal. Adherents prioritize “their own lives and interests over traditional societal expectations,” and the philosophy “encourages men to avoid long-term relationships, marriage, and cohabitation.” In their place it lists “self-improvement, financial independence, and pursuing hobbies and interests.”
The exit was offered back to the market it left. In November 2012 a post on the seduction newsgroup alt.seduction.fast (opens in a new window) ran under the subject line “Why MGTOW is the new PUA!” Its argument was that the withdrawal works as a pickup tactic: the “refusal to invest time, attention, money, and other resources” puts the burden on the other side to offer “a REAL chance of success.” The post linked a video, a free PDF, a forum and an ebook on Amazon. The filed term monk mode calls itself “a temporary form of MGTOW,” a retreat with a return date.
Under load, the withdrawal is conducted at volume, from inside the room it says it has left. A 2020 study of one MGTOW forum, as Wikipedia summarises it (opens in a new window), found that 59% of its posts mentioned women. An exit from a market is ordinarily a quiet event that leaves no further record, and this one produces a continuous record about the market it no longer trades in. Its mirror across the aisle, decentering men, keeps the same books in the opposite currency: attention moved away from someone, documented daily and delivered by algorithm to the people it was moved away from.