Beyond the Manosphere: Exploring the Wider Phenomenon of Male-Centred Online Communities

Event details

The ‘manosphere’ is a loose network of antifeminist and more broadly reactionary male-centred online spaces, influencers and communities. Increasingly popular among boys and young men, the misogynistic narratives perpetuated within these spaces are seeping into the mainstream, with the rise of controversial ‘manfluencers’ such as Andrew Tate publicly championing male supremacism. Concerns around the increasing spread of manosphere discourses have reached fever pitch among scholars, activists, practitioners and policy makers with a commitment to addressing gender-based harms and reactionary ideologies.

Indeed, a range of stakeholders have increasingly turned their attention to generating strategies and initiatives aimed at countering the manosphere. While great work is being undertaken in this nascent space, what if there are also answers to this worrying phenomenon in the wider landscape of male-centred online community-building? Are there other male-centred online communities at the margins of, adjacent to, or actively seeking to counter, the manosphere that might hold keys to better understanding and combating its rise? How might thinking through the wider phenomenon of male-centred online communities inform new imaginaries that challenge, rather than perpetuate, male supremacy?

In this curated conversation - convened by Marcus Maloney and Kate Babin (Coventry University), and featuring Debbie Ging (Dublin City University), Craig Haslop (University of Liverpool), Saba Hussain (University of Birmingham) and Joshua Thorburn (Monash University) - we bring together key scholars whose work on masculinities, the manosphere and the wider phenomenon of male-centred online community building might help us to better understand, and more effectively counter, the manosphere.

Back to events