Anti-Feminism and Self-Improvement: Hegemonic Femininity in the Manosphere

IF 5.5 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2024-12-16 DOI:10.1177/20563051241302154

Sanne Pieters, Daniel Trottier

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The Red Pill adherents believe “feminist doctrines” in society deprive men and women of being their natural selves, disrupting heterosexual relationships in consequence. Research on manosphere groups generally focuses on men’s involvement, but women participate in these movements too. One such form of participation is the RedPillWomen subreddit (“r/RPW” in reddit jargon). Hegemonic femininity remains an understudied component of the manosphere. Using a qualitative critical thematic analysis, 127 texts are analyzed to establish what constitutes hegemonic femininity on the r/RPW according to moderators and how this is enacted and maintained by Subreddit members. It is found that moderator texts use discourses of evolutionary psychology, neoliberalism, and anti-feminism to construct a local postfeminist femininity that is both subordinate to men as well as highly entrepreneurial. Subreddit-member posts showed how this femininity is enacted and maintained, demonstrating the responsibility women feel in transforming both the physical and psychological. Peer-surveillance served to reach consent on group norms, correct those who deviate from these norms, and create boundaries between RedPillWomen and other women. This research demonstrated how postfeminist sensibilities in the manosphere shape the articulation of various local hegemonic femininities that both contrast and parallel each other.

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来源期刊

Social Media + Society COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

9.20

自引率

3.80%

发文量

111

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Media + Society is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that focuses on the socio-cultural, political, psychological, historical, economic, legal and policy dimensions of social media in societies past, contemporary and future. We publish interdisciplinary work that draws from the social sciences, humanities and computational social sciences, reaches out to the arts and natural sciences, and we endorse mixed methods and methodologies. The journal is open to a diversity of theoretic paradigms and methodologies. The editorial vision of Social Media + Society draws inspiration from research on social media to outline a field of study poised to reflexively grow as social technologies evolve. We foster the open access of sharing of research on the social properties of media, as they manifest themselves through the uses people make of networked platforms past and present, digital and non. The journal presents a collaborative, open, and shared space, dedicated exclusively to the study of social media and their implications for societies. It facilitates state-of-the-art research on cutting-edge trends and allows scholars to focus and track trends specific to this field of study.