The #MeToo Movement: Men and Masculinity in Swedish News Media

Abstract

This article analyses the coverage of the #MeToo movement in Swedish news media. The aim of the study was to explore how men and masculinity were represented. The results showed that masculinity was associated with violence, harassment, and a culture of abuse, as well as with progressive ideas of a “new man” that is both strong and gentle at the same time. The article discusses how the represented masculinities might be problematic in relation to the #MeToo movement’s ambition to reform a sexist society because of the stereotypical and gender-dualistic tendencies that permeate the material and the tendencies to individualize the represented assaults and perpetrators.

‘Inoculate Boys Against Toxic Masculinity’: Exploring Discourses of Men and Masculinity in #Metoo Commentaries

“…For those who are 'awakening', as a series of articles highlight, men's increasing awareness of women's issues has led to a subject position of naivety and newly acquired knowledge. This naivety enables a kind of safeguard, or perhaps method of dealing with the 'ugly feelings' (Nilsson & Lundgren, 2020) these revelations may evoke. There continues to be a strong focus on criticising, with little focus on how to enact or implement change, particularly around men's engagement with #MeToo (De Benedictis et al, 2019).…”

“…Some articles focus on men's awareness of power and women's experiences of sexual violence. This has been noted in Nilsson and Lundgren (2020)'s work in which they describe this as a discourse of 'awakening' that can be understood as a 'fateful moment' producing positive social change. However, I argue that 'awakening' has a different function more in alignment with feminist neoliberal discussions of 'woke' which describes the capacity for awareness and investment in social justice issues (Sobande, 2019).…”

“…What is missing from these considerations is a more nuanced exploration of how men and boys are talked about in #MeToo news articles, commentaries and public debates. This has begun with the work of Cover (2019), Nilsson and Lundgren (2020), and Hindes and Fileborn (2020). I see this paper as building on this scholarship by looking at the subject positions constructed for men in #MeToo commentaries, and reflecting on how such positions can relate back to broader gendered violence prevention initiatives.…”

“…This Othering works to reproduce the notion that sexual predators are rare oddities, rather than recognising average men have the capacity to engage in sexual violence (Boyle, 2020). Cover (2019) and Nilsson and Lundgren (2020) also focus on the types of masculinity afforded to men in media and how these intersect with #MeToo politics. Nilsson and Lundgren (2020) focus on constructs of types of masculinity and how they are shaped by commentaries and broader discourses, while Cover (2019) notes the way ‘new’ masculinities have failed in promoting progressive gender ideals.…”

“…Some scholars have become critical of the way in which ‘masculinity’ as a concept and subject position for men has been utilised within academic research and public discourse (Haywood, 2020), such as within the #MeToo movement (e.g. Cover, 2019; Hindes & Fileborn, 2020; Nilsson & Lundgren, 2020). One emerging criticism is the increasing use of masculinity tropes, types and taxonomies in academic research and public discourse like #MeToo that assume men’s subject positions, with little attention paid to agency, affect, emotion, reflexivity, temporalities and materialities (e.g.…”