Reversing Positions: Constructions of Masculine Victimhood in Online Discussions about Intimate Partner Violence Committed by Women

Abstract

Discussions about men’s victimization by their female intimate partners have gained increased visibility in the last two decades. These discussions put victim positions on offer for men that stand in stark contrast to more widespread associations between masculinity and perpetration of violence. This article examines how these contradictory positionings play out and are discursively negotiated in Finnish online discussions of female-inflicted intimate partner violence (IPV). Two recurring types of positioning of men were identified in the analysis: neglected victims and naturally superior perpetrators. The analysis illustrates how gendered differences between men and women in relation to violence are both reiterated and denied in the processes of enacting, balancing, and rhetorically employing these positionings. Thereby, light is shed on the multiplicity of complex and fluid ways in which masculinities are constructed and customized in the context of meaning-making surrounding the issue of IPV.

Nobody cares for men anymore: Affective-discursive practices around men’s victimisation across online and offline contexts

“…As the analysis earlier demonstrated, the underlying logic also in the rhetoric that highlighted men's victimhood without being explicitly linked to anti-feminist affective meaning-making closely resonates with the more hostile, harassing and explicitly anti-feminist and misogynous practices of the manosphere (e.g. Lumsden, 2019;Marwick and Caplan, 2018, see also Venäläinen, 2020b). The affective-discursive practices of contemporary men's rights advocacy can, therefore, be seen as exhibiting continuity across contexts and different manifestations on one hand, as well as fluidity on the other hand, as it takes different context-specific shapes and simultaneously invites affects with various valences and intensities (Wetherell, 2012: 12-14).…”

“…The wide appeal of the ideas circulating within and beyond the manosphere has been explained not only by the rise of extreme, polarised anti-feminist politics, but also, for instance, by their seeming rationality, commonsensicality and apparent reliance on scientific thinking (Saresma, 2018; Tileagă, 2019; Van Valkenburgh, 2018). This is especially the case with online rhetoric on common interest sites that borrows from the manosphere in its forms of reasoning and argumentation, but is more subdued and less aggressive in its tone (Venäläinen, 2020b). The different versions of online anti-feminism have their equivalents offline; there have been several factions of men’s movements since their birth in the late 1970s, some of which have been built on non-aggressive notions of healing and finding lost masculinity, while nevertheless viewing feminism as the source of men’s plight (Kimmel, 1995; Messner, 1997).…”

“I Don’t Hate All Women, Just Those Stuck-Up Bitches”: How Incels and Mainstream Pornography Speak the Same Extreme Language of Misogyny

“…Incels are part of a larger backlash against feminism propelled by what has been defined as the “manosphere” ( Marwick & Caplan, 2018 ), that is, groups of men whose ideology is informed by misogynistic tropes aimed at silencing feminist voices ( Faludi, 1991 ; Venäläinen, 2019 ). These tropes include the idea that feminism has corrupted society and is unnecessary because equality has been achieved, and that women’s equality is detrimental to men and, therefore, men need to retaliate against this misandrist culture to preserve their very survival.…”

“What about men?”: Ideological dilemmas in online discussions about intimate partner violence committed by women

“…This repertoire, and the associated sub-repertoires discrimination against men and feminism as antithetical to equality, echo notions circulated among the advocates of men’s rights movements in Finland and elsewhere, based on viewing efforts to achieve gender equality as having resulted in discrimination against men that surpasses that against women. The repertoire makes available the subject position of neglected and wronged victim to men, and creates an image of a reality characterised by reversed gender inequality (Calder-Dawe & Gavey, 2016b; Peace, 2003; Venäläinen, 2019). The following extract provides an example of this repertoire and, in particular, of the sub-repertoire discrimination against men.In a presumptive and biased manner people always think that the man is the perpetrator and the woman is the victim.…”