Discussants: Maria João Faustino (CES) and Tiago Lapa (ISCTE-IUL)

Moderator: Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho (CES)

Over the past six years, the ‘manosphere’ — an informal network comprising a multitude of anti-feminist groups and individuals who, to a greater or lesser extent, advocate ideals of male supremacy in the virtual space — has been reshaped by the technological affordances of social media. Once associated with English-speaking digital communities and subcultures, found mainly on blogs and forums — such as Pick-Up Artists (PUAs), Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOWs), Involuntary Celibates (Incels) or Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) —, the ‘manosphere’ now has a significant presence on social media, having become popular amongst boys and men across both the global north and south.

This popularity is due, in part, to the emergence of digital influencers — known as ‘manfluencers’ — whose business model is based on exploiting the ontological insecurity of their followers, particularly the insecurities and vulnerabilities inherent in neoliberal society, by presenting self-improvement strategies as a solution to these insecurities. From fitness and wellness to financial advice and motivational content, manfluencers disseminate, in a more or less subtle manner, masculinist discourses that propagate reactionary and anti-feminist ideologies, linking financial success, physical fitness and stoicism to the construction of an idealised (cis)heteropatriarchal masculinity.

The seminar is the result of the work carried out by the researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, under the supervision of Prof. Sofia José Santos, during her six-month secondment as part of the project “MANOS – The Manosphere Pill: Pathways of Boys and Men into Male Supremacism Online in Portugal and Ireland”, funded by the Horizon Europe programme, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships (No. 101153494), whose main objective is to understand how young Portuguese men, aged between 15 and 25, engage with social media content (re)produced by digital influencers from the ‘macho sphere’. To this end, content from the Portuguese ‘machosphere’ was analysed, and surveys, focus groups, and interviews were conducted with young men to gain an in-depth understanding of both the discourses in circulation and these young men’s experiences with such content..

Bio note

Verónica Ferreira holds a PhD in ‘Discourses: History, Culture and Society’ from the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. She is currently working on her postdoctoral research project, ‘MANOS - The Manosphere Pill: Pathways of Boys and Men into Male Supremacy Online in Portugal and Ireland’, funded by the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral European Fellowships programme (GA 101153494) and based at the Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities at Dublin City University, Ireland. The project examines how young Portuguese and Irish men engage with male supremacy in the ‘manosphere’.