Are Manfluencers Renegotiating Hegemonic Masculinity?: Processes of Globalisation and Glocalisation in the Neo-Manosphere - Public Keynote

Abstract

In recent years, the manosphere has become increasingly commercialised and mainstreamed, reaching substantially larger audiences thanks to recommendation algorithms and the ability of masculinity influencers to exploit a range of male grievances under the guise of self-optimisation coaching. This ‘neo-manosphere’ has also expanded well beyond the anglophone world, with influential male supremacist figures now emerging across Europe, India, Asia, and South America. Despite this, scholarship on manfluencers continues to focus predominantly on the Global North, and in particular on the Anglophone ecosystems of North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Drawing on perspectives from masculinity studies, globalization studies, and cultural translation (or glocalization) studies, this keynote examines the rhetorical and visual strategies employed by various glocalised manfluencers in a range of cultural settings. In doing so, it seeks to identify whether, to what extent and how local cultures and economic conditions, as well as political, historical and religious factors influence the evolution of manosphere figures and rhetoric in different geographical contexts.

This event is the public keynote of the first Nordic Manosphere Research Conference. More info can be found here: https://nordicmanospherenetwork.com/

Bio

Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities. She teaches and researches on gender and digital media, with a focus on online anti-feminist men’s rights politics, the manosphere, and boys’ and men’s engagement with male supremacist spaces. Debbie’s research also addresses youth experiences of the manosphere and of technology facilitated abuse, as well as the development and delivery of educational interventions to tackle these issues