{"id":1481,"date":"2016-04-11T14:40:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T14:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2016-04-11T14:40:50","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T14:40:50","slug":"beware-of-the-brocialist-harvey-weinstein-sexism-feminism-gender-femininity-masculinty-metoo-notallmen-bro-code-brocialism-sexual-harassment-harassment-molestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481","title":{"rendered":"Beware of the Brocialist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

M<\/span><\/p><\/div>

att Damon has been a having a bad week. \n\nAs a man accused of killing a 2004 New York Times investigation of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, he may have pissed off a few people. But then he went ahead and played the all-too-predictive daughter card saying, \u201cAs the father of four daughters, this is the kind of sexual predation that keeps me up at night,\u201d and pissed off everyone. But Twitter user Spookpants Cher went for him with what is perhaps my favourite tweet of all time: Matt Damon: I have 4 daughters which means I have… *counting aloud on fingers* 4 respect for women. \n\nMatt Damon is joined by good friend and fellow progressive, Ben Affleck, who in a hilarious statement said he was \u201cangry and saddened\u201d at the Weinstein allegations, when in fact, actress Rose McGowan tweeted angrily that he knew all along about the producer\u2019s behaviour. Affleck landed with more egg on his face when news surfaced that he\u2019d groped actress Hilarie Burton and make-up artist Annamarie Tendler in the past. \n\nDamon and Affleck are the real-life illustrations of a phenomenon Vice noticed last year \u2013 the rise of the \u201cbrocialist\u201d, i.e., woke dudebros who claim progressive politics but are assholes to women. These are men who will argue with you about America being the root of all human suffering \u2013 or closer home, how the Indian government crushes the back of rightful Adivasi rebellions \u2013 but will think nothing of objectifying, harassing, abusing, belittling, or ghosting women. You know, the woke-boy tech salesman who moonlights as a DJ, is widely travelled, and still says that \u201cVirat Kolhi isn\u2019t performing because he\u2019s distracted by Anushka\u201d? Yeah, that guy.\n\nOnce I became aware of the term, I saw brocialists everywhere. They were my uncles, my cousins, my granduncles, and my father even. Gents who told people that they eat meat even though they are Brahmin and talk liberal politics, but still tell me to find a job at a prestigious newspaper and wait to get married to start a freelance career. Because then a regular job would take away the time for \u201chousehold duties\u201d, unlike freelance which would allow me to \u201cprioritise the right thing\u201d.\n\nI might have dismissed it as an \u201cuncle\u201d thing, until I realised brocialists aren\u2019t restricted by age. A Twitter fight taught me that.\n\n

If you aren\u2019t looking, it\u2019s easy to miss that brocialists practise a much more subtle form of sexism, couched by a constant PR campaign about being one of the \u201cgood guys\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nIn August 2017, when the micro-blogging platform was outraging about the Amy Schumer-Chris Rock equal pay issue, I noticed a stand-up comedian tweeting about how Schumer wasn\u2019t in the same league as Rock and Chappelle, that Schumer didn\u2019t create a market for herself and wasn\u2019t as funny as Russell Peters. This was a man who announced on a regular basis that he was a feminist and prided himself on doing comic routines about \u201chard-hitting\u201d social issues like marital rape, Syria, and terrorism. I asked him what was wrong with Schumer asking for more money. WokeComedianBro berated me for not knowing comedy and said that it wasn\u2019t a gender issue \u2013 except, it was clear to me that he thought that women who demand power are \u201ccrazy bitches\u201d, overstepping boundaries.\n\nNaturally, this blew into a full-on dangal with the comedian\u2019s dudebro friends and support-ers attacking me. Two months later, the same WokeComedianBro tried to shame another male comedian for not being as feminist as him.\n\nI\u2019m amazed at the way men can find ways to take a political posture that questions their priv-ilege, and then turn it into a status symbol. This is the hallmark of a brocialist, who, as Boris-senko writes, is \u201ca guy so in love with his own progressiveness or radicalness he is con-vinced he can do no wrong.\u201d \n\nIf you aren\u2019t looking, it\u2019s easy to miss that brocialists practise a much more subtle form of sexism, couched by a constant PR campaign about being one of the \u201cgood guys\u201d. You some-times end up swallowing their spiel, because deep down, you are just grateful that it\u2019s not the full-blown assault of sexism that you\u2019re used to. Folks like director Nagraj Manjule, who gave us the stunning, feminist Sairat, and said things like \u201cI want a break from this male-dominated world. I want a woman now to build the world or mess it up,\u201d even as he was ac-cused of domestic abuse by his wife. \n\nAnother trait of the brocialist is to confound and gaslight the women around him. A close friend\u2019s long-time partner, who plays in a rock band considers himself progressive and fem-inist. And yet, every time the two fight, she tells me how \u201cdismissive he is\u201d and how anything she says is \u201ctoo dumb\u201d. In the past, he\u2019s labelled her \u201cmentally challenged\u201d, \u201can attention-seeking cunt\u201d, and the \u201cwhiny girlfriend\u201d who will always be a \u201cbitch\u201d. And while he is at it, he\u2019ll make her feel like an idiot for objecting to the litany of abuse. \n\nThis is the hideous default vocabulary supposedly liberal men go for. Even the most famous woman author in the world is not impervious to it. JK Rowling tweeted in June about self-professed liberals, whose \u201cmask slips every time a woman displeases them\u201d and they \u201creach immediately for crude and humiliating words.\u201d Just like my friend\u2019s partner. \n\nIt\u2019s why men like Weinstein have been an open secret in Hollywood. Because he talked the good talk about art and books and raised funds for Hilary Clinton and made movies for a female audience. Because he was so convincing that his politics was the right sort, that the women he attacked were left wondering, \u201cwhat is wrong with me?\u201d Because if everyone you spoke to told you that\u2019s just not Harvey, then it must be you who is f**ked up, right? \n\nAs for me, I have come to realise that I\u2019d rather have to deal with an outright sexist than a brocialist. I\u2019d rather have a Twitter user with an egg DP tell me that women aren\u2019t cut out for physical labour, than be called a \u201cfeminazi\u201d by someone who cares for Syria and writes a moving post about all the \u201cbrave women\u201d on his FB on Women\u2019s Day. It\u2019s simpler that way. At least there are no masks waiting to slip off.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[2588,2589,2590,2591,1279,710,2592,2593,2568,2594,2595,2596,803],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-metoo","tag-notallmen","tag-bro-code","tag-brocialism","tag-femininity","tag-feminism","tag-gender","tag-harassment","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-masculinty","tag-molestation","tag-sexism","tag-sexual-harassment"],"yoast_head":"\nBeware of the Brocialist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beware of the Brocialist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-11T14:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Apoorva Sripathi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Beware of the Brocialist\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Apoorva Sripathi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Apoorva Sripathi\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8c6d421dc6aacb65c78846fc5ae0702d\"},\"headline\":\"Beware of the Brocialist\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-11T14:40:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481\"},\"wordCount\":1087,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1508336491.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"#MeToo\",\"#NotAllMen\",\"bro code\",\"brocialism\",\"Femininity\",\"Feminism\",\"Gender\",\"harassment\",\"Harvey Weinstein\",\"Masculinty\",\"Molestation\",\"sexism\",\"Sexual Harassment\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Gender\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481\",\"name\":\"Beware of the Brocialist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1508336491.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-11T14:40:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8c6d421dc6aacb65c78846fc5ae0702d\"},\"description\":\"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1508336491.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1508336491.jpg\",\"width\":1520,\"height\":850},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1481#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Beware of the Brocialist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8c6d421dc6aacb65c78846fc5ae0702d\",\"name\":\"Apoorva Sripathi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/65d6d30cddd6e500066b5a92a200d092423aac79f9030e598ca65239731fc018?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/65d6d30cddd6e500066b5a92a200d092423aac79f9030e598ca65239731fc018?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/65d6d30cddd6e500066b5a92a200d092423aac79f9030e598ca65239731fc018?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Apoorva Sripathi\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=170\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beware of the Brocialist","description":"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beware of the Brocialist","og_description":"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-04-11T14:40:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1520,"height":850,"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Apoorva Sripathi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Beware of the Brocialist","twitter_description":"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Apoorva Sripathi","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481"},"author":{"name":"Apoorva Sripathi","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6d421dc6aacb65c78846fc5ae0702d"},"headline":"Beware of the Brocialist","datePublished":"2016-04-11T14:40:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481"},"wordCount":1087,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg","keywords":["#MeToo","#NotAllMen","bro code","brocialism","Femininity","Feminism","Gender","harassment","Harvey Weinstein","Masculinty","Molestation","sexism","Sexual Harassment"],"articleSection":["Gender"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481","name":"Beware of the Brocialist","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg","datePublished":"2016-04-11T14:40:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6d421dc6aacb65c78846fc5ae0702d"},"description":"In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg","width":1520,"height":850},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1481#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Beware of the Brocialist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/8c6d421dc6aacb65c78846fc5ae0702d","name":"Apoorva Sripathi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65d6d30cddd6e500066b5a92a200d092423aac79f9030e598ca65239731fc018?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65d6d30cddd6e500066b5a92a200d092423aac79f9030e598ca65239731fc018?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/65d6d30cddd6e500066b5a92a200d092423aac79f9030e598ca65239731fc018?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Apoorva Sripathi"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=170"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1508336491.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}