Gendering Web2.0 Sociotechnical Affordances of Far-Right Metapolitics

Abstract

This study examines the ways in which Web2.0 sociotechnical affordances of far-right metapolitics are gendered. Specifically, I focus on a key Swedish far-right entity that is not only an extensive publisher of far-right intellectual output, but also organizes a political salon that unites various actors from the European transnational far-right ecosystem. My explicit interests are in the performances of far-right masculinity at work in this metapolitical project. Consequently, the article makes both empirical and theoretical contributions to the field. Empirically, the study provides a digital ethnography of the manner in which far-right performances of masculinity consolidate digital fraternities around a shared transnational far-right ethos of the underdog “us.” In so doing, they exploit Web2.0 sociotechnical affordances, presenting their capability of skillfully weaponizing the digital landscape for their metapolitical project. These performances of masculinity aim to re-naturalize the domination, hierarchy, and privilege of White cis heterosexual masculinities across such intersectional axes of inequality as gender, sexuality, race, and social class. This is underpinned by a syncretic theoretical construct, at the heart of which lies the concept of masculinity of crises, buttressed by a superordinate intersectionality perspective. This combination enables a more sophisticated analysis of Web2.0 sociotechnical affordances, highlighting the intersectional underpinnings of the co-constitutive dynamic between far-right performances of masculinity and crises.