Why modern internet subcultures are obsessed with the ancient world's most famous thinkers
In short: Classicist Donna Zuckerberg discovered that online misogynist communities are weaponizing ancient Greek and Roman texts to validate their worldviews. By stripping figures like Ovid and Marcus Aurelius of their historical context, these groups claim the ancient world supports their modern grievances, turning academic study into a tool for digital radicalization.
Donna Zuckerberg, a classicist who earned her Ph.D. from Princeton in 2014, began investigating this phenomenon after noticing a surge in traffic to an article about Ovid on her online journal, Eidolon. She found that communities within the manosphere—a collection of groups including pickup artists and men's rights activists—were actively mining classical literature to justify their belief that society is unfairly biased against heterosexual men. This movement, which draws its name from the film The Matrix, frames its ideology as a form of enlightenment, positioning their misogyny as a gritty, objective truth.
In her 2018 book, Not All Dead White Men, Zuckerberg argues that these groups deliberately distort ancient texts to provide a veneer of authority to their campaigns. For instance, they frequently misappropriate works like Xenophon’s Oeconomicus or the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius to reinforce a perceived dichotomy between male rationality and female emotion. Zuckerberg contends that the goal of this discourse is not logical consistency, but rather to provoke intense emotional reactions, such as anger or validation, among their followers.
Zuckerberg’s work highlights a broader tension in how we engage with antiquity. While some scholars, such as Sarah Bond, praise her for challenging the insulated nature of traditional academia, others like Matthew J. Sharpe have questioned the precision of her portrayal of Stoicism. Ultimately, Zuckerberg argues that ignoring these appropriations is no longer a viable option. She maintains that the ancient world was deeply patriarchal, and by failing to critically engage with the sexism and racism present in these foundational texts, scholars leave a vacuum that right-wing ideologues are all too eager to fill.
The implications of this trend extend far beyond the classroom. As these grievances have migrated into mainstream political discourse, Zuckerberg has become a vocal critic of social media platforms. She argues that these digital spaces have amplified misogynistic rhetoric to unprecedented levels of violence and virulence, allowing conspiracy theories to spread with ease. Her research serves as a call for a more engaged, public-facing approach to classics that confronts the uncomfortable realities of how ancient history is being weaponized in the digital age.
Opens the Intellect+ feed with this card first. Swipe up for the next one.
Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Donna Zuckerberg
- Also: www.hup.harvard.edu — Donna Zuckerberg — Harvard University Press
To cite this card, link to https://intellectplus.co.uk/app/culture-donna-zuckerberg.
How we source, check and correct cards: Editorial standards.
General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.
Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?
Related
More in Festivals & celebrations · More in Cultures · Latest · A–Z · All topics
