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Grievance and Responsibility: Emotional Motivators and Knowledge Production Networks in Men’S Rights and Pro-Feminist Men’S Groups in North America

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Grievance and Responsibility: Emotional Motivators and Knowledge Production Networks in Men’S Rights and Pro-Feminist Men’S Groups in North America Grievance and Responsibility: Emotional motivators and knowledge production networks in men’s rights and pro-feminist men’s groups in North America by Edwin G. Hodge B.A., University of British Columbia, 2006 M.A., University of British Columbia, 2011 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Sociology © Edwin G. Hodge 2018 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. Supervisory Committee Grievance and Responsibility: Emotional and conceptual motivators within the men’s rights and pro-feminist men’s movements in Canada and the United States by Edwin G. Hodge M.A., University of British Columbia, 2011 B.A., University of British Columbia, 2006 Supervisory Committee Helga Hallgrimsdottir, School of Public Administration Co-Supervisor Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, School of Public Administration Co-Supervisor Steven Garlick, Department of Sociology Department Member Min Zhou, Department of Sociology Department Member ii Abstract The men’s rights movement (MRM) is a loosely affiliated collection of primarily online communities that together form a substantial component of a broader constellation of online men’s groups known as the “manosphere”. Though the specific ideologies that comprise the core of the modern MRM have existed since the mid-1970s, it was not until the advent of modern online communications that the movement was able to iterate into the form it is today. This research project examines the MRM as a form of reactionary countermovement, rooted in a collective sense of grievance, which directs knowledge producers and movement participants alike to engage in collective identity construction and in-group boundary maintenance through a shared, collaboratively developed countermemory. The research, composed of a qualitative analysis of MRM-produced texts found across more than thirty websites and online communities, indicates that the bulk of MRM literature and online activity facilitates the maintenance of this countermemory and to enable the movement to challenge its ideological opponents. Additionally, through a limited number of narrative interviews with members of pro- feminist men’s groups, this research contrasts the inward-facing orientation of MRM knowledge production and activity against that of pro-feminist men’s organizations, which engage in outward-facing, community-focused activism rooted in a shared sense of responsibility. This dissertation contributes to social movement theory by illustrating how online movements make use of virtual space through the construction of what I term virtual geographies to facilitate identity construction and knowledge transmission. The MRM makes use of these spaces to construct alternative discursive frameworks – countermemory – which allow for a reconceptualization of men’s social position from one of privilege and dominance, to one of marginalization and oppression. iii Table of Contents Supervisory Committee .................................................................................................................. ii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... viii Territorial Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................ ix Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... x Preface: Notes on authorial position .............................................................................................. xi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Research purpose and questions .............................................................................................. 4 Contributions to literature ........................................................................................................ 6 Dissertation outline .................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2: Literature, Theory, and the Men’s Rights Movement ................................................. 12 2.1 Theorizing Masculinity ....................................................................................................... 14 Gender performativity and neo-traditionalism ...................................................................... 14 2.2 Theorizing the Men’s Rights Movement ............................................................................ 20 Social movement theory ........................................................................................................ 21 Countermovement theory ...................................................................................................... 28 Aggrieved Entitlement ........................................................................................................... 31 2.3 The Literature of the Men’s Rights Movement ................................................................... 34 Central concerns .................................................................................................................... 35 2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 3: A History of Men’s Movements ................................................................................. 47 3.1 1970 – 1980: the first men’s groups emerge ....................................................................... 48 Men’s Liberation in the 1970s ............................................................................................... 50 Ideological Schisms ............................................................................................................... 52 3.2 The Men’s Movements: Mythopoetic Men’s Movement ................................................... 54 3.3 The Men’s Movements: The Men’s Rights Movement(s) .................................................. 58 3.4 The Men’s Movements: Pro-Feminist “Men’s Liberation” ................................................ 66 3.5 Feminist responses to the men’s movements ...................................................................... 70 iv 3.6 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 71 Chapter 4: Methodology ............................................................................................................... 73 4.1 Critical Discourse Analysis & the Cultural Diamond ......................................................... 77 Cultural Diamond .................................................................................................................. 78 Critical Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................... 81 Passive Oppositional Lurkers ................................................................................................ 83 Accessing online materials .................................................................................................... 85 4.2 Grey Literature of the Men’s Rights Movement ................................................................. 87 4.3 Pointwise Mutual Information ............................................................................................ 88 PMI: Assessing online community similarity across reddit communities ............................ 88 4.4 Interview Methodology: Narrative Inquiry and Analysis ................................................... 92 Narrative Inquiry ................................................................................................................... 93 Narrative Analysis ................................................................................................................. 94 Saturation ............................................................................................................................... 96 4.5 Recruitment and interview strategy..................................................................................... 97 Recruitment of key informants .............................................................................................. 97 Chain referral sampling ......................................................................................................... 98 Opportunistic sampling.......................................................................................................... 99 Interview setting .................................................................................................................... 99 Interview structure ..............................................................................................................
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