WTF Is Hoeflation: Breaking Down the Manosphere’s Latest Buzzword

Are we seriously going to use economic terms to explain away misogyny?

Photo by Marcin Sajur on Unsplash

If there is one thing the online manosphere has on tap, it’s coming up with colorful words to explain away their misogyny.

Case in point: Hoeflation.

It just oozes creativity even though it’s dripping in disdain for women.

I bet a lot of you, especially if you consume gender relations content, have already come across the word in some form or fashion. And even more of you have unconsciously brushed it off as internet noise.

Why? Because that’s exactly what I did.

Three years ago, I kept seeing the word pop up on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, mostly from no-name incels and MGTOW influencers. I initially brushed it off as the ramblings of fringe, basement-dwelling misogynists — that is, until I started to hear it being uttered by more prominent red-pill influencers like Fresh & Fit.

And now, even mainstream pundits like Candace Owens and Paul Pierce have started throwing around the term like it’s the gospel truth.

But what exactly is hoeflation?

Well, it’s a portmanteau of two words, “hoe” and “inflation.”

It describes the idea that modern women demand too much from men (i.e., wanting “wifey” treatment) while bringing nothing tangible to the table (i.e., acting like hoes). A dynamic driven by so-called “simps”: men who supplicate to women by giving them attention, which ultimately overinflates their self-image.

Before social media, the same women would have had to rely on simps within their vicinity. But thanks to this transformative piece of technology, they are now able to garner attention from men they never would have interacted with, hence the word “inflation.”

Only problem is…

Men practice their own version of hoeflation

But you will never hear them admit that.

The underlying premise is that women are increasingly receiving attention from men across all social strata, and in doing so, ordinary dudes are having a harder time standing out because, naturally, when women have that many options, who are they going to choose? The top-tier men, of course.

Only problem is that’s a false narrative, at least insofar as the data suggests.

Most women are not coupling up with a small group of elite men, leaving the rest of us fighting over what little is left. That is internet fiction (created by people who rarely interact with the real world).

Every study I have come across on the topic shows assortative mating habits: people tend to pair with those of similar education, attractiveness, and class. If you happen to see an NBA star getting it on with a working-class girl, that is, in all likelihood, an anomaly, not the norm. And herein lies the problem. These anomalies are what’s shaping the discourse surrounding this issue.

People go online and get bombarded with content showing Instagram models yapping incessantly about how a man must fund their lifestyle just to get a whiff — and then you have male content creators who are also neck-deep in the gender grievance ecosystem reacting, disseminating, and judging what these women are saying — creating the illusion that the only way to get play with women is to be a top tier man.

All while not a single person is paying attention to the boring Beckies, even though they are the type who do not care about all this online buffoonery. You don’t find them making rage-bait content to get a rise out of men; they are not going on redpill podcasts to act as mascots of hypergamy. They would much rather live a drama-free life with a decent guy who treats them right.

Yet they are invisible to the vast majority of men who buy into the whole “modern women are too demanding” mantra. Which, ironically, is a form of male hoeflation if you think about it.

Men complain about women going after top-tier men, but that’s only because the only women they desire are the same women who are unattainable to them.