Beyond Antifeminist Discourses: Analyzing How Material and Social Factors Shape Online Resistance to Feminist Politics

Abstract

Abstract Online platforms present new challenges to feminist politics since they provide antifeminist groups with additional possibilities to come together and advocate their claims towards wider publics. This article argues that new analytical perspectives are needed to understand how antifeminist discourses are successfully produced and promulgated online. In particular, it suggests that in addition to analyzing the content of antifeminist discourses we need to pay attention to how the design and governance of online platforms, as well as the resources among antifeminist activists, shape online resistance to feminist politics. Two analytical dimensions are introduced that help to specify how the design and governance of online platforms, as well as the social composition of antifeminist groups, enable these to come together online and influence mainstream publics. To demonstrate the usefulness of this analytical approach, a study of an influential antifeminist blogosphere in the Swedish context is used as an illustrative case.