My recent article, “The Problem Isn’t Men, It’s Bros,” has been popular with readers, though not with the gatekeepers because I dared to mention tech bros. I won’t repeat the earlier article but will extend it here.
I realized a day after the first article that I had forgotten to include a large and virulent type of bro. Several of my readers reminded me of a few other types of bros and brohaviors that I neglected to include. Time to rectify my oversights.
But first, what should we call a group of bros? A pack of bros? Gang of bros? Herd of bros? Choosing good collective nouns for animals is a fun activity. Let’s go with “herd” for a group of bros.
Brocall — Gamer Bros
How could I have forgotten to include these bros? My not being into video games is part of it, but I shouldn’t have forgotten about the high water mark of brohavior — Gamergate. The first Gamergate was in 2014, when a chunk of the gamer bros herd went on a stampede to harassed women working in the video game industry. Quite a few INCEL bros joined the online mob angry that women into gaming weren’t conforming to the gender roles the bro-dominated subculture had assigned to them.
Too many men objectify women, feeling that women exist as objects for the use of men and that women are only valuable if they act in ways pleasing to men. This objectification leads to misogyny, and Gamergate was a prime example of that.
Gaming is rife with sexist objectification of women.
A typical sexist ad for a video game, designed by gamer bros who have little to no knowledge of real-life women.
Gaming is also rife with simulated violence, and most games have dominance and destruction as the main goal. Many games reward bullying of other players.
No surprise then that in a bro culture of deliberately uncouth obliviousness, violence, and sexual objectification, women game designers who failed to comply with the stereotypes of the bro-dominated industry were subjected to harassment and threats.
A good overview of the Gamergate harassment campaign.
The first Gamergate was ten years ago. It was outside of normal brohavior only in scale. Gamergate 2.0 is currently underway, because gamer bros will be bros.
Gaming’s virtual world of killing cartoon characters for points is a perfect arena for being a bro. Women are certainly the main targets of gamer bros, but certainly not the only targets. Gamer bros want to play the games but harass game developers. The full gamut of brohavior is manifest in the gamer bro herd mentality.
Brocall — Anti-woke Bros
Prominent in the herd brohaviors manifested in Gamergate is the trumped up outrage over “wokeness.” Man-children like Elon Musk, Andrew Tate, and their followers are warriors in this bro “war on woke.”
The subtitle of my first article on bros is “Deconstructing prejudice.” Bro prejudice is strongest in this “anti-woke” type of bro. The core of being a bro is expressing obliviousness as power, so being oblivious to social and political oppression is part and parcel of being a bro. That attitude easily shifts to antagonism toward anything that acknowledges social injustices or doesn’t repeat them.
Typical of the herd mentality of bros is showing disdain for diversity. Movies and games, say the anti-woke bros, now have too many Blacks, women, and gays — it’s “woke.” Typical of bros, they will say that anyone who doesn’t share their condemnation of “wokeness” is weak and stupid, just like having too many Blacks, women, and gays in anything is weak and stupid. Being a bigot is very bro.
Brocall — Film Bros
I hadn’t thought of this herd of bros, but Lakitha Tolbert astutely pointed them out to me. Lakitha was kind enough to provide an explainer article, “What Is a Film Bro?” They are a subherd of pop culture bros, Lakitha pointed out. Which leads me to . . .
Brocall —Fan Bros
Yep, any area of pop culture will have its herd of fan bros. They stalk fan conventions and online conventions to police other fans. Fan bros are, as Lakitha remarks, there to to put pressure on “other fans to see if they’re as knowledgeable about their niche subject … and insist on driving out those people they don’t believe belong in their fandoms.” Because, of course, no one knows the lore of the band/comic book series/movie franchise/TV series as the fan bro does and the bros make sure everyone is aware of their possession of a superior quantity of arcane trivia.
The fan bros also drive our of the fandom the undesirables. The bros, of course, decide who are the undesirables. Noobs or newbies, definitely are not welcome, but women, people of color, and some ethnic groups are also harassed by the bros. Only the fan bros are “true” fans.
The Tangled Web Spun By Bros
The problem with bros is that they assume they are not accountable to anyone for their behaviors. The problem with the rest of us is that we don’t stand up and speak out against the bros.
Regan DuCasse spoke serious truths in responding to me first article. I invite you to read it.
Like Regan says, we will get slammed for speaking up about the bros, but we need to call out the bros. We all need to step up — especially, the men who have enough self-esteem to not desire to belong to the herd of bros.
The bottom line is that all of us (mostly women) are put in a difficult situation and hostile environment because of these idiot men. Staying silent is not a good option, especially now.
However, we must not descend to the level of the bro herd. As much as they refuse to act like it, bros of any type are still adult human beings. As Soul Dancer, Soul University remarked,
When Karma strikes — maybe — just maybe a bro will ripen into an adult capable of compassion.