Press Release: Institute for Research on Male Supremacism Releases New Guidance to Prevent Male Supremacism
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Alex DiBranco
Email: contact@theirms.org
Institute for Research on Male Supremacism Releases New Solutions to Prevent Male Supremacism
Interventions into violent misogyny are failing. A transnational collective recommends new strategies to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE) by addressing male supremacism at society’s core.
Oakland, CA (October 5, 2026) -- The Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (IRMS) warns in its new white paper that current practices are failing to prevent growing violent misogyny, conspiracy theories, and male supremacism due to significant flaws in the approach.
The paper, written by a transnational team of researchers, critiques the trend in prevention strategies of approaching misogynist ideology and violence as solely a fringe issue. “Countering Male Supremacist Ideology and Violence: Challenges and Recommendations” guides researchers and practitioners in preventing/countering violent extremism (P/CVE) and similar fields to shift approaches to understanding male supremacism as a shaping cultural and structural force, recognizing violence from headline-catching misogynist incel attacks to more overlooked acts of domestic abuse share common roots.
“Supremacism operates on a spectrum,” says IRMS Executive Director and co-founder Alex DiBranco. “The everyday sexism and misogyny that is so ubiquitous it often becomes invisible to the general public lays the groundwork for violence, authoritarianism, and deepening dehumanization and entitlement.”
Other barriers to effective research and practice identified in the white paper include:
Misleading statistics that exaggerate harms to cisgender men (i.e. the “male loneliness epidemic”);
Legitimizing male supremacist narratives and uncritical platforming of self-identified supremacist “formers”;
Reinforcing gender essentialism and gender-segregated programming, while Gen-Z increasingly eschews the gender binary;
IRMS experts recommend:
Getting to the root of supremacism, as it appears in varying degrees across mainstream society;
Expanding the toolkit by incorporating intersectional, feminist, and queer creative approaches to target mainstream culture and systems;
Investing in long-term cultural change through diverse education and popular entertainment oriented toward the entire youth population, not just those deemed at-risk.
Download the full report here.
Request an interview with the report’s co-authors via contact@theirms.org.
Report authors:
Dr. Alex DiBranco, IRMS Executive Director and Founder (primary contact)
Dr. Catherine Baker, IRMS Fellow, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities (IRGS), Dublin City University
Dr. Molly Dragiewicz, IRMS Fellow, Professor, Griffith University, Australia
Dr. Eli Erlick, IRMS Fellow, program director at the NYC Trans Archives
Kat Fuller, IRMS Mentee, PhD Student in sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dr. Vizla Kumaresan, IRMS Fellow, clinical psychologist
Dr. Ann-Kathrin Rothermel, IRMS Fellow, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Bern, Switzerland
Anda Solea, IRMS Fellow, Lecturer in Cybercrime, University of Portsmouth, UK
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This is the second in the white paper series, “A Restructuring of Thought Around Male Supremacism and Prevention,” also available on the IRMS online resource repository.
The Institute for Research on Male Supremacism exposes and challenges common narratives that provide shelter to male supremacist movements, advances new theoretical understandings and practical analyses of contemporary threats, and provides resources for media and activists to improve their ability to challenge male supremacism and misogyny. Visit us at theirms.org or contact us at contact@theirms.org.
