Mapping the manosphere: thematic diffusion and influence across Reddit's gender-focused communities

This paper examines thematic diffusion across four Reddit communities spanning the ideological spectrum, with two of them affiliated with the manosphere, r/MensRights and r/TheRedPill, and two posing as more neutral or progressive spaces, r/MensLib and r/PurplePillDebate. Combining LDA topic modeling and graph analysis, we argue that the manosphere operates as a system of ideological influence, driven by a cohort of hybrid users who introduce masculinist topics into progressive spaces, where they are subsequently integrated and naturalized in the communities.