Making men : community building and masculinity online

Abstract

Contemporary masculinity comprises a complex landscape of patterns, contradictions, and diversity. This landscape is made all the more visible through the digital communities in which men discuss and cultivate varieties of masculine identity. I begin this dissertation with a preliminary exploration of these key concepts, followed by an overview of the literature on media and cultural studies, as well as the affordances of digital communication. I then outline the literature on gender, with specific emphasis on masculinity studies through theory and history. These approaches are applied to a case study, The Red Pill community, in two ways: by exploring the content of Red Pill ideology and practices, and by analyzing the affordances and constraints of the online networks in which The Red Pill thrives. I conclude with a discussion of The Red Pill as a community and a burgeoning social movement, as well as an examination of the role of scholarship in the public sphere in the context of contemporary political, economic, and social relations.