The Discursive Style and Reactionary Politics of the Manosphere by Selena Neumark Hermann B.A., University of British Columbia, 2015 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Communication Faculty of Communication, Arts and Technology © Selena Neumark Hermann 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2019 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Selena Neumark Hermann Degree: Master of Arts Title: The Discursive Style and Reactionary Politics of the Manosphere Examining Committee: Chair: Sun-Ha Hong Assistant Professor Stuart Poyntz Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Frederik Lesage Supervisor Associate Professor Enda Brophy Internal Examiner Associate Professor Date Defended/Approved: June 13, 2019 ii Abstract This study aims to unpack the styles of discourse adopted and implemented by the Manosphere, an online community of self described Men's Rights Activists (MRAs) and “Red Pillers”. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis of Manosphere texts, the research explores how issues of gender and race inform the culture and politics of the community. It identifies common linguistic markers that distinguish the Manosphere from the historical Men's Rights Movement and liken it instead, to the the Alt-Right movement. For example, devices like metaphor, hyperbole and dog whistles operate in the discourse as modes for negotiating meaning making and accelerating the dissemination of extreme right discourse in mainstream political spaces. I argue that this process in part explains why particularly since 2016 and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, political sentiment has become more open to the iterations of misogyny and racism emblematic of the Manosphere. I reference and reflect upon the renewed push towards gender normative thinking and how it intersects with ultra- nationalism in Manosphere discourse. Finally, I explore how best to categorize the Manosphere—as an ideology, a political formation or something else entirely. Keywords: Manosphere; Alt-Right; Digital Misogyny; Discourse; Populism; Fascism; Nationalism; MRM; Incels; Red Pill iii Acknowledgements Thanks to Stuart Poyntz for his support, guidance and many many edits over many many months. Endless thanks to my mum and dad for their love and belief in me. I couldn’t have done this without their generosity and encouragement. Thanks to my family and friends for pushing me to do my best in all things and always leading by example. Incredible gratitude to Bethany Brown for being my cheerleader, for her advice and love through the ups and downs of this project. iv Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................ ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v List of Figures...................................................................................................................vii Mapping the Alt-Right and the Manosphere: ................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Setting the Scene ......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Literature Review: History of the Modern Men’s Rights Movement ......................... 6 1.3 Situating the Manosphere ...................................................................................... 14 1.4 Networked Misogyny Online .................................................................................. 18 1.5 Theoretical Framework .......................................................................................... 24 1.6 Research Objectives ............................................................................................. 28 Chapter 2: Findings ...................................................................................................... 31 2.1 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 31 2.2 Discursive Customs of the Manosphere ................................................................ 44 2.3 Metaphor ............................................................................................................... 46 2.4 Hyperbole .............................................................................................................. 52 2.5 Enthymeme ........................................................................................................... 57 2.6 Dog Whistle politics ............................................................................................... 61 2.7 Misappropriation of feminist or leftist lexicon ......................................................... 67 2.71 Victimhood ........................................................................................................... 70 2.72 Rights .................................................................................................................. 72 2.73 Oppression .......................................................................................................... 73 2.8 Concluding Thoughts ............................................................................................. 74 Chapter 3: Analysis ....................................................................................................... 76 3.1 Introduction to Thematic Considerations ............................................................... 76 3.3 Mythologized Masculinity and Geek Masculinity ................................................... 84 3.4 Masculinity in the Digital Space ............................................................................. 87 3.5 Race and Religion ................................................................................................. 92 3.6 Disruptive Discourse .............................................................................................. 96 3.7 Summary of Findings ............................................................................................. 99 Chapter 4: Conclusion ................................................................................................ 105 4.1 Implications for the Hypothesis ............................................................................ 105 4.2 Limitations of the Study ....................................................................................... 107 4.3 Opportunities for Further Research ..................................................................... 110 4.4 Final Thoughts ..................................................................................................... 111 References ................................................................................................................... 114 v Appendix : Coding Dictionary .................................................................................... 122 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Diagram by Selena Neumark (2019) ............................................................... viii Figure 2: Text reads, America When Feminized “Why, Ma, These eggs will get all cold!” “Sit on them yourself old man, my country calls me!” Suffragist-Feminist Ideal Family Life. ..................................................................................... 50 Figure 3: The Home or Street Corner for Woman? ......................................................... 57 vii Mapping the Alt-Right and the Manosphere: The Manosphere is a broad formation, which doesn’t have a precise or stable definition. The following diagram is a rough approximation of how I conceptualize the Manosphere in relation to it’s proximal counterparts, including the Dark Enlightenment, Alt Right and sub-cultures within those broader groups. This is to hopefully assist the reader to better visualize where these factions lie in the context of other far right movements and online communities. The Alt Right is covered in more depth in future sectionsof this analysis, but the Dark Enlightenment and Neo-Reactionary movement or NRx is not. In brief, NRx is an explicitly anti-democratic, anti-liberal blogger community. Many consider the Dark Enlightenment to be an earlier school of thought that precipitated what is now known as the Alt Right. For this reason, I group them both together under the Alt Right label going forward. Figure 1: Diagram of the Alt-Right and Manosphere Eco-System viii Chapter 1: Setting the Scene 1.1 Introduction Online communication is a contentious topic among discourse theorists. It is both heralded for its “potential to democratize communication” (Halbern & Gibbs, 2013, p. 1160) while also criticized for increasing political polarization (Gruzd, 2012). Largely, it is credited (Walsh, 2004) with creating opportunities for involvement, while promoting social tolerance and increasing overall participation in public and civic discourse (Halbern & Gibbs, 2013, p. 1160). Central to this conception