Masculinity Brief PDF

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Summary

What are briefs? They are an analysis of the readings for the week. They summarize main points and argument(s) from the readings (instead of merely noting disparate interesting points) and discuss them in terms of the theme(s) the readings address. Briefs demonstrate that you have completed all of t...

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Masculinities Online #Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures by Adrienne Massanari focuses on how Reddit has been a large platform where anti-feminism and harassment towards women has been happening. As told by the article Reddit is mainly used by geeks since all interestests are able to be discussed and most are focused on the topics of common geek interest. Expertise and knowledge is very valued within the geek community and sharing what each other know is positively reinforced. Most Reddit users are while males and masculine. Spaces where there is alot of geek culture on display usually has a common trend of only mentioning women when it comes to sex and only seeing women for their bodies. A situation where one woman was a target was GamerGate, a blog created by a man who was broken up with his girlfriend completely exposed their messages with each other. After the post was released the girlfriend, Zoe Quinn became the victim of and target of a campaign where all women and womenin the gaming community were minimized and spoken severely about. This of course is not the only time this has happened, there have been many times where a single woman was singled out objectified and harassed on Reddit. ‘That pony is real sexy’:My Little Pony fans, sexual abjection, and the politics of masculinity online by John Bailey and Brenna Harvey is about how the show My Little Pony has become sexualized by a group of young adult men known as the bronies. 4chan is a large imageboard where there discussions about many topics including My Little Pony, the site is know for its constant racism, sexism and hateful posts towards certain groups. Most of the ponies from the show are made as characters in erotic stories created by “writefags” on 4chan. Sexualizing these animals from a children’s show breaks a moral boundary and is a type of bad sex. These mens attraction towards these creatures are only discussed on posts and never discussed publicly for they tend to be too embaressed to do so. They are so afraid that the masculinity will be questioned “I remember when something similar happened to me...My buddy asked why I was watching a show about princesses and unicorns. Almost committed suicide”. Most of the guys are very anti-feminism and hate that women are able to make any decisions themselves yet they are sexualizing ponies. When these males begin to watch these arrotic films they have already come to terms with their failed masculinity. Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere by Debbie Ging explains how antifemininism has become more expressed on media platforms. Beta masculinity is introduced and in comparison to alpha males those who are beta are seen as less dominant, assertive and seen as the “nice guy”. The study conducted is to observe how antifeminism men act but online, samples from antifeminism websites were collected and observed. One of the samples were comments from under an aricle from Tech News Today and linked on KokatuInAction “Not a day goes by that I don’t get called a cunt on Twitter, and threatened with death. The affect on my health has likely been positive since I laugh at the idiots who send me death threats and correct their grammar. Perhaps attempting to navigate the world as an adult would help Neetie”. Comments similar to these were found under other articles written by victims of cyberbullying, and harassment. Under a youtube video about the Cologne attacks in January 2016 comments saying the victim was to be blammed and that they should be grateful were found. The following is an example “These women are not just getting non-con’d (raped), they’re copping it in a truly diverse fashion—in the ass, mouth, and vag. And its all on

themselves. Lube up, ladies, it’s time for the diversification you’ve been asking for”. I was personally shook by how cruel these antifeminism men can be. I was wondering what the psychology behind why these males act the way they do. It must be possible jealousy or they had a bad experience with a woman or had a bad relationship with their mother figure....