@Notofeminism, #Feministsareugly, and Misandry Memes

Lawrence, Emilie; Ringrose, Jessica

doi:10.4324/9781351175463-13

Cited by 24 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Indeed, the heightened visibility of feminist politics within these gender transformative policies and programs—as well as within culture at large—has also resulted in various expressions of antifeminism within the “men’s liberation movement”—which emerged in the 1970s as a critique of conventional understandings of masculinity, and includes factions that endorse extreme antifeminist politics (Dragiewicz, 2011; Schmitz & Kazyak, 2016) and particularly narrow configurations of masculinity (Messner, 2016). As discussed within a recent special issue of Feminist Media Studies (Ging & Siapera, 2018), expression of antifeminist ideology and attacks toward individuals who champion gender equality is especially common in online forums (see Ging, 2019; Jane, 2014, 2016; Lawrence & Ringrose, 2018; Lewis, Rowe, & Wiper, 2017; Lin, 2017; Menzies, 2007; Moloney & Love, 2018; Van Valkenburgh, 2018) where the anonymous nature of interaction may facilitate disinhibited and hateful speech (see Suler, 2004). As noted by Ging (2019), attention to public sentiment regarding the depiction of masculine norms in online forums is especially important, as this is the venue through which men’s rights activists (MRAs) have established “complex connections with a myriad of interconnected organizations, blogs, forums, communities and subcultures, resulting in a much more extreme and ostensibly amorphous set of discourses” (p. 639).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

We (want to) believe in the best of men: A qualitative analysis of reactions to #Gillette on Twitter.

Bogen¹,

Williams²,

Reidy³

et al. 2021

Psychology of Men & Masculinities

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The Twitter hashtag #Gillette emerged in 2019 as a reaction to an advertisement that called attention to unhealthy manifestations of masculinities among men. The advertisement also encouraged men to intervene when they witnessed violence by and among other men. The “precarious manhood” thesis posits that pressure to constantly “prove” one’s masculinity provokes deep anxiety among men and that some men may resort to extreme, potentially risky externalizing behaviors—such as aggression—to project the traditional masculine norm of dominance when they perceive their masculine status is challenged. Gender transformative public health policies and programs also invoke resistance from some men. From this framework, the present study used qualitative thematic coding of a sample of original-content tweets (N = 497) to examine public sentiment toward an advertisement that directly challenged masculine norms of dominance and aggression. Themes included (a) commentary on the company that used the advertisement, (b) descriptions of masculine norms, (c) engaging men in challenging hypermasculine norms, and (d) resistance to the advertisement through deflection and antifeminist sentiment. A fifth theme encompassed comments that reflected nationalism, racial animus, and commentary on the political affiliations of other Twitter users. These findings highlight the opportunity for advertisements to initiate widespread discussion of masculine norms on social media, as well as the potential for discussions that question traditional masculine norms to incite defensiveness among some individuals.

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confidence: 99%

We (want to) believe in the best of men: A qualitative analysis of reactions to #Gillette on Twitter.

Bogen¹,

Williams²,

Reidy³

et al. 2021

Psychology of Men & Masculinities

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“…While misogyny obviously predates the digital era, scholars point to the role of digital technologies in facilitating new and more virulent strains of hatred and violence directed toward women. Referred to as “networked” (Banet-Weiser & Miltner, 2016) and “post-truth” (Lawrence & Ringrose, 2018) misogyny, the mass circulation of anti-women and anti-feminist sentiments through online connectivity and spreadability is historically unprecedented (Ging & Siapera, 2019). Media and Internet Studies scholars point to the role of platform affordances, such as visibility, anonymity, algorithmic politics, echo chambers, as well as the “disinhibition effect” (Suler, 2004, p. 321) as factors which enable misogyny and anti-feminist activism to thrive in digital spaces.…”

Section: Online Misogyny and “The Manosphere”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mainstreaming the Manosphere’s Misogyny Through Affective Homosocial Currencies: Exploring How Teen Boys Navigate the Andrew Tate Effect

Haslop,

Ringrose,

Cambazoglu

et al. 2024

Social Media + Society

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During the summer of 2022, Andrew Tate became a focus of concern for the media, parents, and educational leaders as his sexist and misogynistic social media content became popular with young people, especially boys. To explore Tate’s appeal, we conducted a discourse and content analysis of Tate’s videos and a small focus group study with boys aged 13–14 from London (United Kingdom). We found that apart from the obvious ways that Tate promotes men’s domination of feminine “others,” his content also mainstreams misogynistic “manosphere” ideologies. Moreover, Tate plays on boy’s fears about their economic futures and place in the structures of hegemonic masculinity while stylising himself as a maverick, but authentic figure who—against the context of his concocted fears—offers hope through advice about dating and entrepreneurial skills. We highlight how these tropes support Tate’s business model in the affective and attention economies of social media. Through focus group analysis, we show how these tropes are potent homosocial currencies for boys, including their conceptions of Tate’s content as humorous. In so doing, we contribute new theoretical perspectives on the way emotion and affect can work as homosocial currencies across digital and non-digital spaces to reify hegemonic masculinity and normalize misogyny. We conclude by suggesting that rather than attacking Tate’s messages which might play into Tate’s maverick identity, we should offer young people critical digital literacy education that helps them understand the business models of Tate, and influencers like him, and how they peddle in forms of gendered disinformation.

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“…Scholars have argued that visibility of sexual violence discourses can lead to feminist backlash and popular misogyny (Banet-Weiser, 2018; Dejmanee et al, 2020) as well as co-optation by strategically hijacking hashtags or agendas to invade others’ conversations (Bode et al, 2015). At the same time, rejections of feminism and anti-feminism are actively challenged on social media (Lawrence & Ringrose, 2018). Additionally, the hypervisibility of personalized expressions, especially often surrounding experiences of certain privileged women and celebrities, has led to reactions criticizing social media’s lack of capacity to address the structural complexity of sexual violence by excluding experiences of women of color (Hsu, 2019).…”

Section: Networked Acknowledgment and Feminism Contentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When the Personal Becomes Political: Unpacking the Dynamics of Sexual Violence and Gender Justice Discourses Across Four Social Media Platforms

Suk

Zhang

Yue

et al. 2023

Communication Research

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We propose a three-pronged framework to study discourses surrounding social media activism initiated by networked counterpublics: personalized expressions that share stories and support, demands for changes that address systematic problems, and contentions between various actors and perspectives. Situating our analysis in discourses related to sexual violence and gender justice activism on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, we use supervised machine learning to quantify three discourses—networked acknowledgment, calls to action, and feminism contention—and apply time series analysis to model their interrelations. Results show that networked acknowledgment stimulated both calls to action and feminism contention and that calls to action predicted feminism contention across all platforms. These discourses were more sensitive to real-world events on Twitter and Facebook, but more ephemeral and cyclical on Instagram and more persistent and coupled on Reddit. Our findings speak to the opportunities and challenges in social media activism and underscore cross-platform similarities and differences.

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@Notofeminism, #Feministsareugly, and Misandry Memes

Cited by 24 publications

References 1 publication

We (want to) believe in the best of men: A qualitative analysis of reactions to #Gillette on Twitter.

We (want to) believe in the best of men: A qualitative analysis of reactions to #Gillette on Twitter.

Mainstreaming the Manosphere’s Misogyny Through Affective Homosocial Currencies: Exploring How Teen Boys Navigate the Andrew Tate Effect

When the Personal Becomes Political: Unpacking the Dynamics of Sexual Violence and Gender Justice Discourses Across Four Social Media Platforms

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