Open Access“Kick the XX out of your life”: An analysis of the manosphere’s discursive constructions of gender on Twitter
Author(s) -
Kathryn Hopton,
Susanne Langer
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
feminism and psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1461-7161
pISSN - 0959-3535
DOI - 10.1177/09593535211033461
Subject(s) - femininity , masculinity , gender studies , oppression , sociology , construct (python library) , feminism , invocation , power (physics) , empowerment , discourse analysis , harassment , social psychology , psychology , political science , politics , law , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , anthropology , programming language , linguistics , philosophy
The online community of the manosphere uses social media channels such as Twitter to promote a misogynist agenda. Feminist research has identified two key elements to their activism online: the harassment of women and the development of a discourse that presents feminism as threatening to men. Our research examined Twitter content produced in pursuit of both objectives to understand how the manosphere constructs masculinity and femininity. Analysis of the content identified three discursive strategies that we term: co-opting discourses of oppression, naming power, and disavowal by disaggregation. They serve to cast men as victims, construct women as a monstrous other, and reinstate gendered power hierarchies through a constant invocation of the female body within discourses of rape. Though powerful, these strategies are riven with tensions and bind manosphere masculine identities to the very women they wish to eradicate. Manosphere activism has escaped the virtual and leaked into the material world. We conclude by considering the implications of this breach for those women targeted by the manosphere as well as for the broader witnessing community and suggest avenues for future research.