Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age by Donna Zuckerberg (review)

There is a crisis with Classics. That’s the position of an emerging generation of scholars concerned with how Classics are (mis)used by authoritarian, misogynist, white nationalists, particularly in digital spaces. Donna Zuckerberg, editor of https://eidolon.pub/, is one of the most prominent voices resisting the reactionary politicization of Greek and Roman history, culture, literature, and symbols. Not All Dead White Men documents and analyzes how Red Pill communities online utilize Classical literature to support anti-feminist ideologies and to fuel misogynist rage.

Drawing the term from the film The Matrix, the Red Pill is a loose online association of misogynists, drawn together by a sense that (white) men are the true victims of contemporary society, and that this is a profound injustice (24). Zuckerberg traces three major sub-groups, each with their own particular ideals, attitudes, and perceptions of how women should fit within society—from pickup artists (PUAs) who see women as sexual objects, to Men Going Their Own Way who advocate avoiding women all together (15–19). For all of these groups, the often misogynistic views expressed in ancient Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, history, etc., shape and legitimize aspirations for a more authoritarian patriarchy: “Men in all factions of the Red Pill have become increasingly outspoken in recent years about their desire to bring back not just old-fashioned but literally antiquated gender politics—to reinstate the social conditions of men and women in the ancient world” (175).

The core chapters of Zuckerberg’s book examine in detail two ancient sources particularly popular among Red Pill communities: Stoicism (in the chapter “The Angriest Stoics”) and Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (in “The Ovid Method”). These sections detail how Red Pill men translate Classics for their own purposes and to inflate their own sense of importance. Red Pill users draw on a watered down, “life hack” version of Stoic philosophy to convince themselves that they are rational, and therefore superior to “the groups they perceive as irrational, including women, people of diverse sexualities and genders, and people of color” (82–83), while simultaneously justifying their own rage as a reasonable response to men’s oppression (85). The Ars Amatoria is a significant text for PUAs, who take Ovid as one of their own, which, of course, requires that they ignore ironic elements of the Ars (105). In comparing Ovid and modern PUA strategies, Zuckerberg highlights “two parallel tendencies: the prizing of male subjectivity over female subjectivity, and a project of gradually intensifying the violation of women’s boundaries” (108). In other words, both Red Pill Stoicism and the PUAs’ use of Ovid center male experience as the only legitimate, valid, and valued subjectivity—drawing on ancient texts to support this worldview.

Along with other scholars documenting and resisting misogynist and white nationalist appropriations of Classics (like Sarah Bond, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, or Curtis Dozier at http://pages.vassar.edu/pharos/), Zuckerberg struggles with how best to respond to such appropriations. She argues that, because their goal is rarely if ever to produce coherent, scholarly readings of Classical texts or ideas, it is insufficient merely to point out errors in Red Pill appropriations (9); however, “by revealing how this self-mythologizing works, we can develop strategies for counteracting its pernicious influence” (10). As excellent as Not All Dead White Men is, it largely remains at this revelatory stage, and doesn’t propose many strategies for resisting or counteracting Red Pill misogyny. This diagnostic work is crucial, but more focus on counter-strategies would have strengthened the book.

Despite this, Zuckerberg’s book will prove an invaluable resource for Classicists and students interested in social justice, reception studies, and digital media/culture. The writing style is clear and easily accessible, as befits a book targeting a general audience. While Zuckerberg doesn’t analyze ancient texts as deeply as some professional Classicists might...