How Reddit and Instagram (Re)Define Masculinity Through a Feminist Lens
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Digital Masculinities: How Reddit and Instagram (re)define masculinity through a feminist lens Master’s Thesis New Media & Digital Culture Bianca Crichigno Biggs 12158062 June 2019 Supervisor: Dr. Sabine Niederer Second reader: Daniël de Zeeuw Abstract Since gender studies were established as a research field, the social construction of the male figure has been mainly analysed under the scope of hegemonic masculinity. Nevertheless, masculinity has been continuously shaped by social movements such as the Gay Liberation and feminist waves which, although suggested alternative types of masculinities within Western culture, also led to the creation of male stereotypes that confined the understanding of how men should be. More recently and with the rise of new technologies, the emergence of the concept of the manosphere has reinforced hegemonic masculinity and stained further studies on the construction of masculinity identity online across digital platforms, particularly on Reddit. This thesis uses a qualitative content analysis approach to study the portrayal of a new type of masculinity on Reddit and Instagram. This alternative masculinity adopts feminist values in order to become a hybrid type that struggles against the social and historical stereotypes that have conditioned the understanding and role of masculinity within the field of gender studies. Through the analysis of the top ten most engaged posts within the community r/MensLib and those related to #feministmen it is found that both Reddit and Instagram promote an alternative masculinity based on feminist principles. However, the former encourages users to adopt a pro-feminist stand in order to favour men whilst the latter encourages men to embrace a feminist posture by favouring women. Keywords: feminist masculinity, hybrid masculinity, digital platforms, hegemonic masculinity, manosphere, Reddit, Instagram. 2 Table of contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………5 Chapter 1: The dominant male figure: a brief history 1.1 Feminism and Gay Liberation: the free and enslaving forces of masculinity………………………………………………………………………………………7 1.2 The measurement of masculinity.............................................................................10 1.3 Hybridization of masculinity……………………………………………………………...13 Chapter 2: Masculinity on New Media 2.1 The portrayal of masculinity in the digital space...……………………………….…...15 2.2 Feminist masculinity: not an oxymoron………………………………………………...16 Chapter 3: The arise of the manosphere in social media..…………………………..20 3.1 The Red Pill…………………………………………………………………………........20 3.2 Pickup Artists (PUAs) and gaming culture…………………………………………….22 3.3 Manosphere on Instagram……………………………………………………….……...25 Chapter 4. Methodological Framework 4.1 Online identity construction……………………………………………………………...30 4.2 Platform vernaculars……………………………………………………………………..31 4.3 Qualitative content analysis……………………………………………………………..32 4.4 Introducing Reddit………………………………………………………………………..33 4.5 Introducing Instagram……………………………………………………………………34 4.6 Case studies: r/MensLib and #feministmen…………………………………………...35 4.7 Content selection…………………………………………………………………………36 Chapter 5. Findings 5.1 r/MensLib: a pro-feministmen and anti-manosphere space…..…………………......41 5.1.1 Educating pluriform masculinities.…………………………………………...41 5.1.2 Gender-neutralizing issues …………………………………………………..47 5.1.3 Persistence of male stigmas………………………………………………….49 3 5.1.4 Distant but close figures………………………………………………………51 5.2 #feministmen: a pro-women feminist space…………………………………………...55 5.2.1 Feminist men have gone ………...............................................................55 5.2.2 Underrepresentation of feminist men………………………………………..60 5.2.3 Feminism connected to racism…………….………………………………...63 Chapter 6. Discussion and conclusion …………………………………………………69 Reference list………………………………………………………………………………….76 Appendix I……………………………………………………………………………………..88 Appendix II…………………………………………………………………………………...111 4 During the second half of the 20th century, scholars have mainly studied the male subject through the lens of hegemonic masculinity (Connell; Edwards; Kimmel; Demetriou; Garlick; Kendall). Gender studies scholar R.W. Connell, who coined the term hegemonic masculinity in the mid 1980’s, defines the concept as the “maintenance of practices that institutionalize men’s dominance over women”, where alternative masculinities that might emerge are prevented of “gaining cultural definition and recognition as alternatives” (Gender and Power: Society, The Person and Sexual Politics 186). Therefore, the social construction of what it is to be a man has been characterized by specific dominant aspects that can be summarized in four words: “white, Western, middle-class and heterosexual” (Edwards, 2). Even though these aspects have been powerful enough to set the parameters of how men should be, the concept of masculinity has been socially constructed based on the lives of only “5 percent of the world’s population of men, in one culture-area, at one moment in history” (Connell, The Big Picture: Masculinities in Recent World History 600). Therefore, different types of masculinities that originated from other social, cultural, ethnic and sexual backgrounds have been strongly underrepresented. The social construction of masculinity has been widely studied in terms of its portrayal on traditional media, reinforcing the persistence of the dominant values associated to men such as aggression, competition, control and strength, which have been constantly tested and imposed in the public sphere (Kimmel 184). Therefore, the basis of hegemonic masculinity denies every value that is considered to attack manhood’s power such as being emotionally vulnerable, passive, physically weak, and nurturing, values that the man consequently suppresses in order to achieve masculinity (Kaufman; Spence & Helmreich). This has created a significant tension between women, men, and among men, which has led to study gender in terms of power structures that configure the interaction between these groups (Kimmel). Gender studies have been mainly focused on how the traditional western role and social position of women has changed, which has been enhanced by feminism waves (Carrigan, et al.; Pilcher and Whelehan). In contrast, the rise of interest on men’s social roles have been analysed and treated as a “reaction and adjustment to the new status of women” (Hacker 227). Consequently, studies of masculinity arose as a riposte to feminism’s successful denigration of men (Kimmel). In contrast to feminism, in masculinity studies the male figure is not attacked by the female figure, instead, he is repressed by the social construction of the male role (Carrigan). The male role is based on a dominant type of masculinity, one that aims to become an empowered individual through the combination of various factors such as race, class, nationality, sexual 5 orientation and religion, which consequently have direct incidence in the creation of a man’s self-worth (Kaufman). Therefore, the remaining working-class, gay and black men were subordinated by the hegemonic masculinity type of men (Edwards). Nevertheless, feminism has also enabled the creation of different types of masculinities where the pro- feminist man embraces behaviours that have been considered more feminine-oriented, such as expressing himself, being emotionally vulnerable, and being more invested in their role as a father, while ignoring the stereotypes that have been imposed on men (Kimmel; Pleck; Kaufman). According to Kareithi, the use of new technologies has enabled media companies to spread in a higher scale the stereotypes related to masculinity across the world by making use of their power of “replication, amplification and extension” (Kareithi 28). Whilst the use of technology and the Internet have significantly increased during the last decades scholars have studied the concept of masculinity and its interactions within the digital space, however, mainly focused on the sexual interactions of men and persistence of hegemonic normativity (Light; Campbell; Jenkins). However, there is a dearth of study on the portrayal of a more nuanced masculinity on digital platforms which must be addressed, as the analysis of alternative masculinities can potentially contribute to the redefinition of masculinity online. In consideration of the aforementioned aspects that have influenced the study of how masculinity performs online, this thesis analyses the portrayal of a hybrid type of masculinity rooted on feminist values that distances itself from hegemonic stereotypes and from the manosphere, particularly on the discussion website Reddit and social media platform Instagram. Through a qualitative content analysis of the top ten most engaged posts in Reddit’s community r/MensLib and Instagram’s hashtag #feministmen this thesis examines how does feminist masculinity resonates on both platforms and whether their discourses differ from each other. This thesis is divided into three main sections. The first one is based on a theoretical framework which addresses the various factors that have contributed to the social construction of masculinity during the last century. This section also includes the study of masculinity in new media and it emphasizes particularly on the origin of the manosphere. The second section refers to the methodology used and results analysed in order to study the portrayal of feminist masculinity through a close reading of the content found in two case studies: r/MensLib and #feministmen. Finally,