The Rise of Female Pseudo-Intellectualism

Discussing the Problematic Nature of the Hegelian E-girl Subculture, Women in Academia, and the Feminine Attraction to Hegelianism

Chances are that if you are on Substack, you are well aware of the problem that is encroaching on our society directly correlating with more women attending college. I am saying this as a woman who has attended college, plans to attend again, and considers herself a lifelong academic – so I will leave it up to your discretion whether you proceed or take what I say with any gravity. I do hope that you would consider that these identifiers in fact do make me a qualified interpreter of the consequences of this phenomenon. 

Academia is becoming women’s work. Male college attendance is dropping. We have lowered academic standards. Merit is dead. These tired, and oft-quoted tenets are typical in Right-Wing online discourse and synthetic philosophy, part of which I have contributed through my Substack Publication The Dialectic Project, as well as spoken about in platforms far larger than my own. I take no issue with reiterating this concept tirelessly again, and again, and again, and again some more; much to the tune of fellow Substack creators who make this their single talking point. It just so happens that after a while, it becomes stale, especially once you begin to realize that there is very little that can be done about this issue. 

It benefits my point that, as I am writing this, I am sitting here as a female who greatly appreciates philosophy and academia, craves institutional legitimacy despite her ideological leanings, and happens to frequent Right-Wing spaces online. After withstanding the discourse for this long, I have come to the  position where I am led to find relief in aid of my beleaguered mind. 

You may consider my justification for female college attendance as a form of coping, yet I would venture to say that it is a valid attempt to understand the situation. These are my following points:

One, the undeniable economic instability that would occur in the midst of women leaving the workforce simultaneously is a ball-and-chain continuing to ring the necks of nationals. Despite the serious gravity of this problem, it is also one of the most curable of the problems tied to the women-in-college discourse. 

Second, and I have written about this in depth before, is the social implications of encouraging less women to pursue higher-education. Although you would argue that this would not necessarily be an issue, and I would ordinarily agree with you (because, truthfully, not a lot of men nor women should attend college) there is a problem that arises upon its realization. The societal acceptance of women attending college would decline, and so will the general acceptance of their attendance for those who do wish to attend and have the means and capacity to do so. Alternatively, with the promotion of women attending college and engaging in philosophical academic endeavors, we are seeing the opposite occur as well. (Men are either not wanting to, nor can participate). It is also as if, unless we socially accept elite human status or a caste system (for both men and women) we are unable to differentiate who should attend college and who should not. 

I have come to the conclusion that women attending college is just part of the growing pains of our contending cultural and socio-political dialectic.

But then I came across the Hegelian e-girl and my mind was changed.

What is a Hegelian E-girl?
A few months ago the Hegelian e-girl project obtained some online notoriety. I am late to the party discussing it; however, it is nonetheless pertinent to the online social climate.

The Hegelian e-girl aesthetic is meant to be a complete subversion of the commonplace interpretation of the e-girl character, mixing intellectual depth into the appeal of modern  female online sexuality and marketing.

There is a “scene” in New York composed of and heralded by three e-girls who have been largely attributed to popularizing the Hegelian e-girl subculture, they are:  Nikki the Hegelian, Anna, and Sanje. Such figures are essentially glorified Instagram meme page administrators disseminating Žižek-inspired memes and achieving mid-level virality. The initial project was seemingly conducted to espouse a subculture, primarily female-led, proliferating the works and ideals of Hegelianism into mainstream online communication and culture. I initially became attracted to this subculture for that reason, and had interacted with it accordingly by putting in my two cents by helping diffuse Hegelian thought into online spaces. It was shortly after this that Nikki the Hegelian followed me on X, as well as the other Hegelian e-girl acolytes. 

It was shortly after this that the “Hegelian E-girl Council” project was launched following the multiple failed attempts to throw the “Hegelian E-girl Launch Party” in inner-city New York; a notable and productive affair I am sure. Sadly, I was unable to attend such an event. It is a shame New York is so far away.

Despite cancellations and hurried rescheduling, the party would finally occur in the late-summer of 2024 where, I have no doubt attendants had a pleasant time discussing Gnosticism and the memetic energy of the Absolute.

The Problem
A woman entering academic spaces often finds herself in the vexing position of needing to attain male approval and she doesn’t always know what to do. She believes that the mere action of speaking is enough to draw herself attention; however, this is a minor mistake that can cultivate poor intellectual hygiene. The main issue is that, just saying something isn’t necessarily enough to earn respect or adherence to what is being said, especially when it isn’t thought-provoking or new. 

This is the problem  with the Hegelian e-girl subculture — and the overall problem of women in academic spaces. The regurgitation of material doesn’t merit well-deserved attention when it doesn’t provide new conceptualizations of the current world. Upon my investigation on the Hegelian e-girl subculture, I had come to the understanding that these women were not interested in provoking newfound thought or modern applications of Hegelian ideology. It is far more concerned with articulating pre-established Hegelian concepts in an effort to arouse a sense of devotion to the now-dead philosopher. It also seems to be founded on the notion that merely being a girl online holding to these self-evident truths was enough to generate attention and newfound respect.

Ever heard of the quote, “men act, women are.” Hegelian e-girls exemplify this. Their personality is situated on simply restating what was once said. She (the Hegelian e-girl) is already a personality, but not for what she has done, but rather of who she is. She is suspended in existence as a perpetual satellite.

Sadly, actually participating in the dialectic means having new ideas and agency.

I want to note here that my issue with this is by no means led by my status as a self-described Schopenhauerian (the rivalry between Hegel and Schopenhauer continues to live on) but it has more to do with my issue with women in academic spaces as bad actors. Because they simply do not belong in these spaces most of the time, they are destined to make the image of academic women unserious and not worthy of further consideration. 

My points here have nothing to do with my self-described status as a Schopenhauerian nor the spiritual and natural rivalry I may carry with Hegelians on the daily… I promise.

The Rise of Modern E-girl Pseudo-intellectualism 
The point has been brought up by Nikki and her underlings in an online interview that Hegelianism is especially attractive to women, and I can certainly attest to it.  The abstract, shapeless, and frankly unstructured philosophy of Hegelianism is easily appropriated and regurgitated (as well as just intuitively true) that, so long as you remember the talking points and elaborate words often associated with the original writings, will sound like an intellectual. This is why girls typically do better than boys in K-12 education, being that they have better memory-recall and are better at regurgitation (of material) and repetition of information, rather than conceptualizing novel ideas or universal recommendations than the male mind so often does. 

This has always been my dissatisfaction with most women in academia; it is their utmost lack of creativity. However, occasionally, you get marvelous exceptions.

That being said, it is very easy to recreate intelligent-sounding rhetoric and prose by recycling quotations from Hegel. Despite his meta-observations on the nature of “dialectical synthesis,” he was an atrocious and borderline incomprehensible writer. His attempt at philosophizing his way towards what is tantamount to a universal religion of process has left just as much room for charlatans as is similarly the case with other, more traditional systematic religions.

It is no wonder why the Hegelian e-girl has had a rise in popularity in modern online spaces. Unfortunately, due to it’s obvious pseudo-intellectualism and poor philosophical application, it will remain as solely a memetic subculture, and never a movement.