[Hamsini - Non-core post 3] The Manosphere

Not to keep harping on influencers, but this BuzzFeed piece is interesting (and horrible): https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adeonibada/andrew-tate-fresh-fit-podcast-kevin-samuels-toxic-male

The "manosphere" and the ways misogyny (and misogynoir) seems ever-present in digital culture: to what extent have misogyny and responses to it structured platforms, in terms of design, moderation, entanglement with practice? From the early days of the internet (e.g., Dibbell's "A Rape in Cyberspace" article from 1993) to Gamergate to incels to whatever is going on here with Andrew Tate. The Anable piece reminds us to connect the materiality of technologies with the materiality of bodies; the stories in this article are all as much stories of race, gender, and class as they are of platforms, influence, and deplatforming. I think it also shows the need to study phenomena across platforms: the way actors who cause harm (often in the pursuit of profit as much as ideology) move opportunistically and fluidly across Reddit, YouTube, IG, TikTok, podcasting, the chans, etc... I suppose the manosphere could be thought of as ecosystemic (though I think that metaphor runs the risk of "naturalizing" deliberate and opportunistic behavior...).