Stoicism has attracted all sorts of fans over recent years, but one group whose interest in this ancient philosophy has attracted a good deal of comment is the “manosphere”.

In her 2018 book Not all Dead White Men, on classics, misogyny and the digital age, the American classicist Donna Zuckerberg noted with some concern that “the men of the manosphere have a deep fascination with Stoic philosophy.” She makes clear how these online spaces use extracts from Stoic works to argue that women are psychologically unsuited to Stoicism. For instance, the manosphere uses Stoicism’s praise of logic to claim that men possess a “superior rationality” while women are emotionally driven. In fact, they believe Stoicism is a decidedly manly weapon against the manipulative and deceitful nature of women and their influence. For these and many other reasons, the manopshere argues that women can never be Stoics.

The prevalence of Stoic ideas in this world has led some, including Zuckerberg, to wonder if this is merely an unhappy distortion of the ancient material or whether there is something disturbing lurking beneath the surface of texts like the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.

Part of the problem is a deeply persistent image of the Stoic as someone who is emotionless and........

© The Conversation