The manosphere goes to school: Problematizing incel surveillance through affective boyhood

Abstract

Educators continue to struggle with how masculinities are performed and regulated in spaces of learning. In a time of rapid social change, there is a renewed impetus for gender justice reform in schooling, though these approaches themselves remain a shifting picture. Adding a new layer of complexity, we are now witness to educational policy recommendations around surveillance which are designed to counteract boys’ and young men’s vulnerabilities to be radicalised into the misogynies of the ‘manosphere’. These recommendations exist despite limited research and significant gaps in our understanding regarding both the manosphere as well as the emotional lives of young men. The article intentionally shifts the conversation from reactive surveillance in schools to educative gender justice approaches. We focus, in particular, on the significance of ‘pedagogic discomfort’ in terms of fostering gender transformative dialogue which is critical of ideas associated with the manosphere. We consider how a constructive dialogue might be fostered with a particular focus on pedagogies that recognise the emotional intensities of gender justice work.

Keywords:

• Affect
• boyhood
• masculinities
• incel
• manosphere
• schooling

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 It is acknowledged that the use of Kimmel’s work in current gender justice research is contentious following the allegations of sexism and transphobia directed at him in the post #MeToo period.

2 Arguably, as a society, we condemn the results of extreme/toxic masculinities and, as a result, they manifest online in places like the incel communities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Garth Stahl

Garth Stahl, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland. His research interests lie on the nexus of neoliberalism and socio-cultural studies of education, identity, equity/inequality, and social change. Currently, his research projects and publications encompass theoretical and empirical studies of learner identities, gender and youth, sociology of schooling in a neoliberal age, gendered subjectivities, equity and difference, and educational reform.

Amanda Keddie

Amanda Keddie, Ph.D. is a Professor of Education within the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Strategic Research Centre at Deakin University. Her published work examines the broad gamut of schooling processes, practices and conditions that can impact on the pursuit of social justice in schools including student identities, teacher identities, pedagogy, curriculum, leadership, school structures, policy agendas and socio-political trends.

Ben Adams

Ben Adams is a Research Assistant at University of Queensland, having contributed to a number of projects focused on the sociology of schooling in a neoliberal context, gendered learner identities and subjectivities, masculinity studies, educational inequalities, countering violent extremism and restorative practices in schools.