Masculinity and Violent Extremism

Abstract

The dramatic success of Gender Studies has rested on three developments:(1) making women's lives visible, which has also come to mean making all genders more visible; (2) insisting on intersectionality and so complicating the category of gender; (3) analyzing the tensions among global and local iterations of gender. Through textual analyses and humanities-based studies of cultural representations, as well as cultural studies of attitudes and behaviors, we have come to see the centrality of gender in the structure of modern life. This series embraces these advances in scholarship, and applies them to men's lives: gendering men's lives, exploring the rich diversity of men's lives -globally and locally, textually and practically -as well as the differences among men by class, race, sexuality, and age.

Young Masculinities and Right-Wing Populism in Australia

“…Right-wing populism is founded on the further idea of the (threatening) cultural 'other'; usually manifesting as prejudice/intolerance of ethnic minorities [28]. We also acknowledge the current prevalence of white male victimhood discourse [2] [6,7] [29] which is often deeply entwined with right-wing populist rhetoric [1].…”

“…Resentment is then channelled into the standard discourse of white male victimhood by the digital propaganda of the so-called 'manosphere'. The term manosphere refers to online communities that circulate misogynist material [1] [21] [31]. The online 'hate' message is that feminists, LGBTQI+s, left-leaning individuals, people of colour, and so on, have undermined (white) men [32].…”

“…The online 'hate' message is that feminists, LGBTQI+s, left-leaning individuals, people of colour, and so on, have undermined (white) men [32]. It is typically accompanied by longing for 'a lost patriarchal social order' [1] (p. 34).…”

“…Proud Boys are certainly concerned by the alleged 'replacement' of white people by people of colour [57]; but are prone to hysteria when it comes to the imagined 'replacement' of men in positions of power by women [58]. We need to consider the complexities of gender identity and other socio-cultural factors that are constituted at the interface of hetero-normative masculinity and the populist right wing [1]. At that point of discursive struggle, engaging right-wing populist misogynist discourse -online and offline -may have compensatory value for young (white) men who feel they have somehow missed out; in their career, in relationships, in making their views heard.…”

“…It seems there is some affinity between disenfranchised (white) working-class young men and the radical right [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The survey data analysed below were collected for a project on masculinity and the far right in Australia.…”