Doing masculinities online: defining and studying the manosphere
In the last decade we have witnessed the expansion of a cyberspace network of social media communities, websites and blogs defined as the “manosphere”, comprised mainly of men who focus on issues concerning men and masculinity.
This Special Issue aims at critically addressing the processes of construction and reproduction of the manosphere by questioning its own definition and boundary-making as part of the current doing of online masculinities.
The Call is open to theoretical and empirical contributions engaging with the following issues:
1) How can the contents and boundaries of the manosphere be defined theoretically?
2) Which gendered configurations of practices may empirically be included within the manosphere to explore the complex interconnections between online/offline, global/local, intergender/intragender and intersectional processes, discursive practices and practices of masculinity?
3) What fruitful methodological approaches and techniques can be used in investigating the manosphere? What is the potential for cross-disciplinarity and methodological innovation?
4) How can we pursue a more comprehensive approach to the manosphere which moves beyond North American-focused literature and includes theoretical and empirical research from other contexts?
5) How are online and offline contexts/practices of doing/constructing masculinities interconnected (e.g. through the use of specific jargon/language, participation in political activism, …), and how is it possible to explore such interconnection?