MISOGYNY AND GENDERED AND RACIALIZED - MYCOURSES

Misogyny
[… and Gendered and Racialized
  subcultures on Manosphere]
                  Aalto University, 8 Oct 2018
                   PhD, Docent Tuija Saresma
         Department of Music, Art, and Culture Studies,
Research Centre for Contemporary Culture, University of Jyväskylä

                                   Pic: h'ps://www.inverse.com/ar4cle/44569-what-is-incel-manosphere-glossary-defini4ons

Cultural context/
poli>cal climate
(right-wing populism)

Martha Nussbaum (2018) on ”The roots of male
rage, on show at the Kavanaugh hearing”

 Photo: AP.

                                      Pool/Ge(y Images

The Manosphere and the Alt-Right

“Websites and blogs where men express opinions about issues concerning contemporary masculinity and male
rela4onships with women, especially those associated with views that are hos4le to feminism and women's rights.” OED

Return of Kings – Male Supremacy

Incel

The current societal context behind these phenomena
● The rise of the populist climate in the aNermath of the economic recessions
● An4-immigra4on minded views and ’cri4cal’ voices promote xenophobic,
  homophobic, misogynous, and racist opinions
● Conserva4ve, an4-progressive thoughts affected by far right ideologies are
  aggressively propagated especially in social media
● Digitalisa4on of informa4on and propaganda
● Social media and discussion fora as sites of agency and tools for communica4ng,
  influencing, and networking

                                                                              Vihreä lanka

Misogyny
• Etymology: From Ancient Greek
  μισογυνία (misogunía) and μισογύνης (misogúnēs, “woman hater”),
  from μισέω (miséō, “I hate”) + γυνή (gunḗ, “woman”); synchronically, miso- +‎
  -gyny.
• Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls
• Misogyny is manifest in numerous ways, including social exclusion, sex
  discrimina4on, hos4lity toward females, androcentrism, patriarchy, male
  privilege, beli'ling of women, violence against women, and sexial objec4fica4on
• Misogyny can be found within sacred texts, religions, mythologies, and Western
  Philosophies (Wikipedia)
• MISOGYNY = feelings of haMng women, or the belief that men are
  much bePer than women (Cambridge English DicMonary)

Psychology: individual misogyny
“Men who hate women may not consciously realize it.
But their ac4ons reveal them”
“In most cases, misogynists do not even know that they hate women. Misogyny is
typically an unconscious hatred that men form early in life, oNen as a result of
a trauma involving a female figure they trusted. An abusive or negligent mother,
sister, teacher or girlfriend can plant a seed deep down in their brain’s subcor4cal
ma'er.
“Once planted, this seed will germinate and begin to grow, the 4ny root working its
way into the fear processing and memory areas of the brain as its 4ny stem works
its way into frontal areas of the brain, affec4ng emo4on and ra4onal
decision-making.

h'ps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mysteries-love/201502/12-ways-
spot-misogynist, 12 Ways to Spot a Misogynist, Berit Brogaard (2015)

Hatred towards/fear of the Other’s body
”Behind fear, anger, envy, and … a more            ”The vagina is the perfect representa4on of the
primi4ve emo4on: disgust at women’s animal         nature of the females. An empty vessel, a hole,
bodies. Human beings are probably hard-wored       a void with no iden4ty of its own. Without a
to find signs of their mortality and animality      man to fill her with his essence, she is as useless
disgus4ng, and to shrink from contamina4on by      as a crappable ro{ng on the sidewalk.”
bodily fluids and blood. But in every culture
something worse kicks in: the projec4on of         (Alt Right blogger Ma' Forney cross-posted this
these feared and loathed characteris4cs onto a     sen4ment to the MRA website Return of Kings)
vulnerable group or groups from whom the
dominant group wishes to distance itself. In the
United States, we observe this dynamic in
racism, in homophobia and even in revulsion
toward the bodies of people who are aging. But
in every culture male disgust targets women, as
emblems of bodily nature, symbolic animals by
contrast to males, almost angels with pure
minds.”
(Nussbaum 2018, The roots of male rage, on
show at the Kavanaugh hearing, p. 2.)

Misogyny as a social/structural
                 • Misogyny should not be understood
                   primarily in terms of the hatred or hos4lity
                   some men feel toward all or most women
                 • It is primarily about controlling, policing,
                   punishing, and exiling the ”bad” women
                   who challenge male dominance, and
                 • compa4ble with rewarding ”the good
                   ones”, and singling out other women to
                   serve as warnings to those who are out of
                   order

Kate Manne 2018 (con>nues)

• Misogyny is ”hos4le, demeaning, shaming, and puni4ve treatment of
  women”
• Misogyny is defined ”in terms of what it does: it polices and punishes
  women for not fulfilling theif 4me-honored role of catering to men’s needs
  and desires”
• It emerges as the law enforcement branch of patriarchy and thus as a
  concept deserves a place alongside ’patriarchy’ and ’sexism’ as a
  funddamental tool of feminist analysis
• Misogyny (as an enforcement strategy) should be separated from sexism
  (as a set of beliefs)
• Misogyny pits women against each other: the good wife vs. ”feminazis”

Manne (2018; reviews)
• Misogyny is everywhere
• It has woven its way into the very thread of
  society
• Misogyny is so ingrained in our culture that
  people of both genders rarely seem aware
  of it, much less cri4cal of it; oNen it
  becomes a norm in our society and we fail
  to recognize its extensive effects
• It is a cultural-wide system, not just a
  ma'er of individual bigotry
• Much-debated high-profile events (from
  the 2016 elec4ons to Isla Vista killings) but
  also everyday experiences; many forms of
  misogyny

Misogyny permeates our culture

Disclaimer: Patriarchy as a societal condi>on /
structure
                               Patriarchy
• This is not to lay a guilt   NOUN

                               1 A system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of
  trip to men in general       the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.
                                        1.1 A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.
  or white heterosexual        ‘the dominant ideology of patriarchy’
                                        1.2   A society or community organized on patriarchal lines.
                               ‘we live in a patriarchy’

  men in par4cular!            Origin
                               Mid 17th century: via medieval Latin from Greek patriarkhia, from patriarkhēs ‘ruling father’ (see patriarch).

• I am talking about
                               (Oxford English Dic4onary)
  structures and power
  rela4ons, not
  individuals

Time for a break?
                    Photo: Hulu

My posi>on: Cri>cal Cultural Studies
& Gender Studies

The workings of misogyny & patriarchy on
social media à hate speech
• Hate speech is a very broad concept
• Has no commonly shared meaning or
  defini4on
• Has become more frequent with the
  popularity of internet and social media
• Related to the aggressive, affec4ve tone of
  discussion due to mainstreaming of populist
  rhetoric and atmosphere
   1. Discourse, way of speaking: Discussion forums
      such as Hommaforum, 4Chan, Ylilauta,
      Suomi24, Vauva.fi…; is spread to media more
      broadly, also in the interac4on between people
   2. Hate mail targeted at individuals or groups
      (Saara Särmä)

General concepts: Gender (gender order)
• Gender = performed, not (only) biology
• The bipolar gender order that sets women and men as opposite, yet
  complementary to each other, is only one possible way of organizing
  socie4es
• Gender order (gender system)à under nego4a4on (performed in the
  internet); e. g. tradi4onal or modern (the posi4on of women in the society)
• Femininity/masculinity as a con4nuum in which we as individuals are
  posi4oned and posi4on ourselves in various and changing posi4ons
• Intersec4onality: gender is linked with other hierarchical subject posi4ons/
  posi4ons of power and subordina4on (ethnicity/racializa4on; sexuality;
  social class) (Crenshaw 1991; Lowe 1996; Davis 2008; Karkulehto &
  Saresma & Harjunen & Kantola 2012)

Concepts/contexts of contemporary misogyny
on the internet
• Manosphere
• Mens’ Rights Ac4vism (MRAs), masculinism (Blais & Dupuis-Déri 2011)
• Sense of en4tlement; male privilege; white privilege
• Nostalgia: wis„ulness or longing for some indefinable, una'ainable past (Pickering &
  Keightley 2006; Boym 2001; Saresma 2017); an ideal, that is polished from all
  unpleasant features or those that do not fit with one’s own views
• Sexism as a historically and globally pervasive form of oppression against women
  (Cudd & Jones 2005)
• Rape as a violent act of power (Nordstom 1996, 147)

Theore>cal framework
• Resentment speech as a prevailing structure of feeling (Williams) in the
  contemporary discussion on/nego4a4on of gender orders (Saresma
  2016)
• Affec4ve community (Berlant 2007; Koivunen 2012)
• Affec4ve rhetoric that aim at affirming and mobilizing the readers
• Cultural poli4cs of emo4on (Ahmed 2004; Kuntsman 2012)
• Resentment (Saresma 2012; 2014; 2016)
• S4ckiness of emo4ons, affec4ve economy of fear (Ahmed 2004)
• Poli4cs of fear (Wodak 2015): threats; scapegoats
• The gendered logic of the masculine protector of the “weak” (women
  and children) (Young 2003)
• Rhetorical analysis and the poli4cs of blogging in the wider cultural/
  social context

Performa>vity – words as acts with consequences
à gendering and racializing as ac>ve processes
• J. L. Aus4n 1962, How to do things with words
• Judith Butler: Doing gender (1990, Gender Trouble. Feminism and the
  subversion of idenFty
• Gender is constructed, performed, produced; its produc4on should be
  analysed instead of taking gender as the star4ng point (”men are like
  this, women are like that”
• Racializa4on: also a process
     • Racializa4on is the ac4ve form of exis4ng structural racism that is
         embedded in the media
     • Racializa4on is performa4ve; an act with consequences
     • Whiteness is also a ”race” that is produced
• Language generates, produces things and circumstances
• E. g. affec4ve, aggressive hate speech that relies on stereotypes,
  crea4ng enemies and hatred, oNen bursts as physical violence
  (Saresma 2015)

Misogyny and white supremacy
(a report by ADL, 2018)
• Symbiosis between misogyny and white supremacy
• To fully comprehend either, we have to a'empt to
  understand both
• The alt right is defined by its white supremacist and an4-
  Semi4c ideology; their language is virtually
  indis4nguishable from MRA or incel message boards
• MRAs believe that men are being vic4mized by
  employment and family law; incels believe that all men
  deserve to have sex with women on demand and
  without regard for women’s interest or preference
• The misogyny of the manosphere is very much at home
  in the alt right world
• ADL considers misogyny a dangerous and
  underes4mated component of extremism

Digital spaces occupied by intertwining, hos>le and violent ideologies (misogyny,
racism, an>feminism, xenophobia, homophobia)

From men’s movements to red pill communi>es
 and alt-right
                                                                             “Manosphere”
                          Feminist
                          movements
Construc4onism
Essen4alism        1960’s
                                                                                     Red pill rooms
 Profeminist              Men’s libera4on             Mythopoe4c
 movements                movement                    movements
                 1980’s                      1980’s
                                                                           A voice for men
                                                                                                      ALT RIGHT
                            Men’s right                    Men going on
                            movement (MRA)                 their own way
                                                                              Return of Kings
                                                           (MGTOW)
                                                2000’s

 Mediakohu/Maria Ruotsalainen

Misogyny, Populism, and
Poli>cs of fear (Wodak 2015)
• Right-Wing populism is based on crea4ng and inci4ng fears
• The poli4cs of fear is built on an alleged threat and incorrect accusa4ons
• People are either friends or enemies, either perpetrators or vic4ms (Wodak
  2015, 5)
• Homogenous ”us” against the Other, ”them”
• Women as (the allies) of the ”Others” deserve to be punished à (threat of) rape
• The economy of fear refers to the emo4onal atmosphere that the more or less
  imaginary threat of terror causes (Ahmed 2004)
• The s4ckiness of fear: it does not follow ra4onal logic, but is easily spread: fear is
  contagious
• The dispropor4on of the actual threat and the threat constructed pervasively is
  the ground where the poli4cs of fear is fueled

The logic of masculine protec>on (Iris Marion
Young)

Gendered and racialized hate (speech):
sense of en>tlement, misogyny and racism
• Showing the place for women and other Others (racialized/
  immigrants)
• An effort to restoring the gender order and racial order of the
  nostalgic ”past” (which never was)
• Sense of en4tlement:
white privilege, male privilege
• Hate speech, doxing online
• The affec4ve and aggressive atmosphere of the
manosphere spreads to social media and tradi4onal print media

Conclusion: misogynous white supremacist
    manosphere
-   Circula4on of alt-light and alt-right narra4ves and discourses
    in the transna4onal manosphere                                   Picture: Misogyny report
-   Yearning for the imaginary white na4on & nostalgia fused
    with explicit rhetoric of vic4mhood and betrayal (Kelly 2017,
    73; Saresma 2012; 2014)
-   White heteronostalgia in the manosphere mobilised to
    engender poli4cal and social stability (conserva4sm) and
    reac4onary ideologies
-   The success of alt-right is measured in terms of their ever-
    increasing dissemina4on of extreme right-wing ideals and
    their ability to project an updated rhetoric of an4-leN
    antagonism into acceptable poli4cal discourse (Kelly ibid.)

How to resist misogyny?
“How can women combat this
onslaught of fear-driven rage?
[Chris4ne Blasey] Ford gave an
example: with courage, dignity and
truth. I believe that if we have
courage (---), we will ul4mately
prevail and reshape our
society.“ (Nussbaum, 2018)
“Understanding misogyny is an
important first step, so we can
recognize it and break the silence
that enables it” (Skye Cleary 2018)
                                      Picture: Skynews