Masculinity and Virtual Identity: Constructing Strong Moral Selves Online in the Anti-Immigrant Movement

• In Event: 3207 - Nations/Nationalisms I

Abstract

Yuval-Davis (1997) argues that the meaning of categories and identities related to gender, race, class, and nationalism are contested, shift and change. Thus, a hegemonic national identity must be understood as a social construction created in a specific socio-political historical period (Puri 2004; Yuval-Davis 1997). In the United States, nativist extremist groups engage in meaning making activities that specifically reinforce white men as representing the hegemonic ideal, thus reinforcing privileges associated with of the intersection those categories. Utilizing qualitative data from nativist extremist websites we examine how the groups engage in this meaning making process. We argue that the groups construct strong virtual selves, drawing from definitions of whiteness and masculinity to reinforce a nationalism that justifies privilege. To protect this privilege, immigrants are denigrated as inferior others who receive undeserved resources at the expense of white citizens. However, the perceived victimhood of white men is not necessarily compatible with the strength associated with masculinity. Thus, masculinity and whiteness become an important component of their dual presentation of victim and hero.

Authors

• Tiffany Taylor, Kent State University

• Karen Martinez, Kent State University

• Katrina R. Bloch, Kent State University at Stark