Department of Informatics and Media Media & Communication Studies Two-year Master’s thesis ‘Female Nature, Cucks, and Simps’: Understanding Men Going Their Own Way as part of the Manosphere. Student: Zhané Hunte Supervisor: Kerstin Engström Spring 2019 Abstract The main aim of this thesis was to examine the ‘Men Going Their Own Way’ (r/MGTOW) community on Reddit. This aim was carried out by exploring (1) the themes perpetuated in the community, (2) how r/MGTOW fits in the contemporary ‘manosphere’, (3) the linguistic identity of its users, (4) the presence of hegemonic and inclusive masculinity, and lastly (5) the role of social media logics on r/MGTOW. The theoretical framework was comprised of theories about the characteristics of the manosphere, linguistic identity, hegemonic masculinity theory and inclusive masculinity theory, discourse, and social media logics. The analysis was comprised of research tools from Thematic Analysis, Content Analysis, and Foucauldian discourse analysis. The Content Analysis was facilitated by qualitative and quantitative software, WordStat. Through the use of these tools it was found that female nature, feminism, masculinity, society, and self-improvement were common themes in the community. Furthermore, masculinity, the dismissal of femininity, and a distinct lingua franca were elements that created a common antifeminist identity among the r/MGTOW users. Alleged scientific theories and beliefs about female nature and feminism were used as means to justify the position of men as victims. And lastly, most of the ideals of hegemonic masculinity, except for stoicism, were accepted. Taking social media logic into account, we see that users on certain platforms can boost certain content. This principle also applies to Reddit, which is the platform that hosts r/MGTOW. Therefore, research should further explore if online platforms can be held accountable for user- generated content. Additionally, further research should look into other methods for conduction the analysis, such as interviews, and should consider cross-fertilization of ideas between different manospherian communities. And ultimately, concepts such as victimization and identity formation online ought to be examined in this setting to acquire a broader understanding of the manosphere. The limitations of this thesis are the short timeframe of study and the lack of data triangulation. Keywords Manosphere, masculinities, identity, misogyny, antifeminism, hegemony, discourse, social media logic. 2 Table of Contents Preface .............................................................................................................................................6 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................6 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................7 1.1 Men and Online Communities .............................................................................................7 1.2 The Manosphere: Relevance and Contribution to the Field ................................................8 1.3 Aim and Research Questions ...............................................................................................9 1.4 Disposition .........................................................................................................................11 2. Reddit and r/MGTOW ....................................................................................................12 3. Literature Review ............................................................................................................15 3.1 Silencing ‘Disruptive’ Women ..........................................................................................15 3.2 Men as Victims ..................................................................................................................17 3.3 Conspiracy Theories ..........................................................................................................19 3.4 Crisis of Masculinity ..........................................................................................................21 3.5 Concluding Remarks ..........................................................................................................23 4. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................24 4.1 The Manosphere.................................................................................................................24 4.1.1 Traditional Femininity ..............................................................................................25 4.1.2 Masculinity as a Characteristic .................................................................................26 4.1.3 Misogyny and Antifeminism ....................................................................................26 4.1.4 Online Ideology ........................................................................................................26 4.2 Linguistic Identity ..............................................................................................................26 4.3 Foucauldian Discourse .......................................................................................................29 4.4 Theories on Masculinity ....................................................................................................30 4.4.1 Hegemonic Masculinity Theory ...............................................................................30 4.4.2 Inclusive Masculinity Theory ...................................................................................32 4.5 Social Media Logic ............................................................................................................32 5. Data, Methods, and Methodology...................................................................................35 5.1 Data ....................................................................................................................................35 5.2 Procedure of the Analysis ..................................................................................................36 5.2.1 Methodology .............................................................................................................37 3 5.2.2 Methods.....................................................................................................................39 5.3 Limitations .........................................................................................................................40 5.4 Ethical Concerns ................................................................................................................40 6. Analysis .............................................................................................................................42 6.1 Themes and Keywords .......................................................................................................42 6.2 Women ...............................................................................................................................46 6.2.1 Appropriation of Evolutionary Psychology ..............................................................46 6.2.2 Femininity .................................................................................................................49 6.2.3 Relationships .............................................................................................................53 6.2.4 Feminism...................................................................................................................55 6.3 Men ....................................................................................................................................57 6.3.1 Alpha Masculinity .....................................................................................................59 6.3.2 Beta Masculinity .......................................................................................................61 6.4 Society................................................................................................................................64 6.5 Self-Improvement ..............................................................................................................66 6.6 Language ............................................................................................................................67 6.6.1 Disagreement and Contradictions .............................................................................68 6.6.2 Linguistic Identity .....................................................................................................69 6.7 MGTOW on Reddit ...........................................................................................................71 6.8 Summary and Concluding remarks ....................................................................................74 7. Discussion and Conclusion ..............................................................................................75 7.1 Findings on r/MGTOW................................................................................................75 7.2 Further Research ..........................................................................................................79 7.3 r/MGTOW Implications and Conclusion.....................................................................79 8. References .........................................................................................................................82