The Black Manosphere and Digital Crisis Masculinity: From Grievance to Reactionary Politics

• In Event: Gender and Class: Privilege and Precarity

Abstract

The manosphere consists of online communities where men share racialized and gendered hierarchical and anti-feminist ideas about culture, politics, gender, and society in general, blaming women for their frustrations with society. The Black manosphere is an offshoot of the larger (white) manosphere with a specific focus on misogynoir and Black culture and issues. This paper examines to what extent does crisis masculinity performed by the Black manosphere emulate existing white hegemonic masculinity portrayed in the broader manosphere and to what extent does it constitute a specifically Black racialized form of masculinity. Using a qualitative content analysis of 220 videos across 22 channels, I argue that creators construct what I call digital crisis masculinity, where perceived racialized status loss is interpreted through red pill ideology and expressed through emotions such as humiliation, resentment, nostalgia, and anger.
Across videos, these beliefs help define who to blame and how masculinity should be reclaimed. I show that creators often interpret inequality less as structural racism or economic precarity and more as a crisis of masculinity that all men are experiencing, framing men’s problems as gendered grievances that offer reactionary politics as the solution to reclaiming their masculinity. The Black manosphere not only replicates the larger, white red pill discourse to achieve credibility in the digital space, but also assert themselves as authorities as Black men who can critique Black culture, further distancing themselves from their Blackness and justifying Black reactionary politics.

Authors

• Tya M Smith, University of Cincinnati

• Oneya Fennell Okuwobi, University of Cincinnati