This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Stoicism has attracted all sorts of fans in 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 manosphere 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 indifferent. They are courageous and resilient but perhaps not overly concerned with anyone but themselves. Is Stoicism really a cold and indifferent macho mindset?
Is it really just for men? As I argue in my new book "Stoicism Is Not What You Think", the short answer is, of course, "no." The Stoics identified rationality as the defining characteristic of human beings, and it is our rationality that makes us members of a single global human community. All other characteristics, such as ethnicity, nationality and gender, are inconsequential in comparison to the shared reason that all humans possess.
So there are no grounds for the Stoics to make a hard distinction between men and women. The Roman Stoic philosopher Gaius Musonius Rufus, active in the first century A.D., commented directly on this very topic. In response to the question of whether women should study philosophy, he argued that women and men have the same senses that provide information about the world and the same rational capacities.
They are both equally able to act virtuously. If philosophy is the study of how to live a good life, then it would be absurd to suggest that it is only suitable for one part of humanity. Musonius notes many examples where women display the "manly" virtue of courage, such as when protecting their offspring.
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