Essay:Anti-humanity ideologies on romance

The traditional Christian view of romance sees marriage as a relationship built on mutual respect, flowing from the gender complementarity of humanity. Man needs woman as a companion, while woman comes from man. As such, the genders ought to be in right relationship with each other, united under God, since they are both part of the same plan. Paul of Tarsus describes Christian marriage as a relationship of mutual love between husband and wife, though with the wife submitting to the husband. Thus, from a Christian perspective, the idea of hating the other gender for ideological reasons is unthinkable because it goes against God's plan of loving complementarity, which incorporates both genders as part of His design for humanity.

With the rise of liberalism and secularism in the modern age, humanists have expanded the sexual relationship to include more sexualities and genders. A family can have gay or lesbian parents; a cisgender man can be married to a transgender woman; an asexual person can have a platonic but deep relationship with another asexual person; and people have become more open to polyamory, with the condition that it is consensual. Yet the humanist view shares an emphasis on the need to respect other humans; and so to hate other genders for ideological reasons would still be unthinkable. Humanism is about dispensing with the dogmas of religion, and perhaps some of its more conservative views, but not the core ideas undergirding religious ethics. As a result, even the most adventurous practitioners of BDSM will still emphasize concepts like informed consent, which flow from a need to respect the dignity of the human person.

Recently, however, there has been a new trend of "dating ideologies" emerging within internet echo chambers that have dispensed with the idea of respect for humanity. Some, such as MGTOW, preach the idea of despising the other gender to the point of running away into the woods to avoid them. Others, such as the incel movement, spread pessimism, misogyny, and a hatred of self and others, to the point of encouraging suicide and terrorism. Like other internet echo chambers, such as pro-ana websites, some communities have dispensed with reason, common sense, and ethics to promote unhealthy and dangerous ideas.

This essay, once completed, will take an in depth look at some of these communities, and point out the faults in their ideologies. It will also explain to victims of these ideologies why embracing love of self and others isn't cope; it's hope.