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During the summer of 2022, Hockey Canada faced a reckoning regarding its outright denial of the ways in which gender-based violence is a part of hockey culture. This paper shares data from a study that involved qualitative interviews with semi/professional men's ice hockey players regarding their resistance to the expectations of hypermasculinity in hockey culture. Hypermasculinity is the elevated status of traits that promote violence, stoicism, and aggression and that privileges the locker-room code of silence. Participants spoke about the dangers of playing through pain as well as the precarity of their roles on their teams due to policing strategies that put the team before anything else. The participants were less direct about the ways sexism and misogyny are used as a means to improve team bonding and performance, yet stories of sexism and misogyny were riddled throughout the data. Our analysis brings together Bourdieu's concept of misrecognition to gain understanding as to why sexism remains/ed silent and Freire's conscientization to promote more dialogic encounters to clear the air of sexism in men's ice hockey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this paper is sex buyers’ (or punters’) reviews published on a popular and long-established escort review site in the UK. It examines these reviews in light of the legal definition of consent in England and Wales and within a framework of misogyny. The social implications of this online phenomenon are explored in relation to “review culture”, the gig economy, and the impact of big tech platforms. Through feminist digital ethnography, combined with large-scale discourse and corpus analysis, it reveals prominent discursive patterns within this online community, as well as ideological stances shared with other groups in the Manosphere. The findings show that reviewers express the most misogynistic sentiments when women disrupt their fantasies, thus pointing to the extent this digital technology grants them power over women’s freedom in the sex industry. This study contributes to existing research on sex buyers’ communities by conceptualising punters’ reviews as misogynistic tools that keep women subordinated to men, and by sparking a critical debate about the effectiveness of the consent framework, versus a misogyny-based framework, in determining sexual violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Plymouth shooting in August 2021 attracted worldwide attention after media outlets reported on it as 'incel violence'. By examining misogynist incels' discussions of the shooting, the perpetrator's YouTube videos, and media reportage by five UK newspapers, this article takes a critical look at newspapers' representations of the shooting. While the perpetrator did not unambiguously self-describe to the incel identity, and misogynist incels were divided on the perpetrator's incel status, the newspapers saw the attack as the spread of 'incel culture'. This indicates that the media plays a role in the public imagination of misogynist incels. The article argues that the concept of incel violence risks overshadowing other forms of misogynistic violence in society through how the misogynist incel is imagined in public discourse which, consequently, impacts our understanding of misogyny. This article contributes to our understanding of how public discourse forms representations of gender-based violence in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article centers on the pronounced misogynistic discourses in Chinese cyberspace. Based on online observation of national debates that revolved around the feminist proposal of removing the marriage restriction on birth registration in an attempt to restore "real" reproductive rights to women and extend social welfare coverage to unwed mothers, this paper identifies the tripartite misogynistic forces from wives, wives-to-be, and wives-seeking lower-class men, who respectively weaponized the feudal DiShu system, defended the Caili (bride price) convention, and redirected disaffections of class exclusion and marriage squeeze towards women. By terming the three strands of antifeminist sentiments as "wifeism," the article points out that the upholding of the heteropatriarchal marriage institution is actualized at the cost of vilifying women indiscriminately, oversimplifying the complexity of unwed childbirths, and precluding the possibility of nonheterosexuality. The interpretation of such "wifeist" antifeminism should be contextualized in the gendered structure of power in post-socialist China, where the framework of Confucian ethics persists and gender essentialism is rejuvenated and celebrated. Crucially, given the plunging birth rate in China, the proposal itself serves as a tool to mitigate the shrinking workforce and ageing population as it serves as a wellbeing promoter and equality deliverer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the legitimation of antifeminist ideology within the manosphere, based on qualitative analysis of posts from an antifeminist Reddit community. Taking a discourse-historical approach to CDS, I analyse the nomination and predication strategies used to represent feminists in addition to the argumentation strategies used to convince others of the illegitimacy of feminism. Overall, I find that users typically did not distinguish between 'good' feminists and 'bad' feminists, instead making negative generalisations about feminists as an entire group. Arguments against feminism typically relied on the topos of justice in order to portray feminism as an illegitimate movement for equality given that it supposedly does not treat men and women in the same way. Alternatively, feminism was argued to be a threat to the 'natural' social order and men and women's historical gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of Christine de Pizan's "The Book of the City of Ladies" is presented which explores the critical role of anger as a transformative force in literature. Topics discussed include anger as a "thinking-feeling" capable of dismantling misogynistic representations, the reworking of medieval literary canon to challenge dominant discourses on women and the subversive use of allegory to critique societal power structures.

This study examines the AI imaginaries surrounding Lee Luda 1.0, a female AI companion designed by Scatter Lab, a start-up company based in South Korea. While the company envisioned its AI companion to become everyone’s best friend, Lee Luda became a controversial figure after it was reported that a subset of male users had sexually harassed the chatbot. In response, Scatter Lab evaded questions about Lee Luda’s sexual harassment as a gender problem and many users of online male communities denied the possibility of sexual abuse against a chatbot, thus not considering it as an ethical problem. Moving beyond questions that query whether sexual harassment of AI is real, this study examines how people shape the terms of acceptance surrounding gendered AI abuse and their ethical implications. Through an examination of the discourses surrounding Lee Luda’s sexual harassment, this study argues that Scatter Lab and a subset of users advance technoliberal imaginaries, mainly imaginaries of a post-violent AI world, which perceive violence against AI as unreal and abstracted from misogynistic violence in real life. This study concludes by discussing the consequences of technoliberal imaginaries surrounding gendered AI abuse and how we can challenge them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have examined misogynistic and anti-feminist media. Since misogyny manifests in platform-specific ways, we add to this scholarship by discussing Instagram. Using the Depp-Heard trial on Instagram as a case study, we ask: How do misogyny and anti-feminism manifest through the specific branding culture and affordances of Instagram in the context of #JusticeForJohnnyDepp? What can this case study tell scholars about misogynistic and anti-feminist strategies more broadly? We outline five themes that characterized anti-feminist discourse on Instagram. Beyond Instagram, this work contributes by demonstrating how branding, which is often discussed as gendered labor that puts women at disproportionate risk, is also used by anti-feminist and misogynistic collectives. However, anti-feminists are rarely subject to those same risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of Boy's Love (BL) drama in recent years has challenged China's everlasting state-manipulated heteronormative ideology and patriarchy hegemony. However, it remains unknown whether exposure to BL drama makes female audiences more feminist or misogynistic. This study approached cultivation theory from a perspective of an active audience to investigate the relationship between genre-specific media exposure, the female gaze, fandom engagement, and female audiences' gender ideologies. Based on a survey in China, this study found that exposure to BL drama related to both increased feminism and misogyny. However, the female gaze and fandom engagement can moderate their relationships. For audiences with high-level female gaze or fandom engagement, exposure to BL drama was associated with increased feminism. Based on these findings, this research raised a concept of 'active feminist fan audience' to depict the female audiences who view BL dramas from a feminist perspective of desire and actively engaged in fandom activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the relationship between parent resilience, couple burnout, and misogyny of fathers with disabled children, while also investigating the mediating effect of parent resilience on the relationship between misogyny and couple burnout. This study included a sample of 120 fathers whose children were attending a special education and rehabilitation center. Couple Burnout Scale Short Form, Misogyny Scale, Family Resilience Scale, and Personal Information Form were used as instruments in the study. The findings revealed a significant relationship between couple burnout and levels of misogyny, as well as a negative relationship between couple burnout and perception of parent resilience. Additionally, a negative relationship was observed between the level of misogyny and parent resilience. Importantly, parent resilience was found to mediate the relationship between level of misogyny and couple burnout, explaining 24.5% of the total variance. Based on these findings, it is recommended to prioritize psychological interventions that strengthen resilience of fathers with disabled children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes violence against women in the novel "Páradais" by Fernanda Melchor. It examines physical and sexual violence against female characters, as well as sexist cognitive schemas and socialization agents that contribute to these behaviors. The objective is to understand how macho violence is represented in the work and compare it to Mexican social reality. The importance of the feminist perspective in understanding these manifestations of violence and power is highlighted. Additionally, the objectification of women in sexual relationships and the influence of culture and pornography on the perception of rape are mentioned. [Extracted from the article]

The Film 'Moxie' raises the issue of gender inequality between men and women. This film depicts teenage girls who dare to rebel against the inequality of androcentrism towards women and fight for gender equality in their school, which is still biased towards male norms. This research question concerns the critical discourse on the inequality of androcentrism between men and women in the Film 'Moxie'. What are the subject and object of the story? Betty Friedan's feminist theory uses the concept of androgyny as a reference because of the similarity in roles between men and women. Sara Mills' critical discourse analysis research method focuses on how women are presented in the text and divided based on the subject-object of the story and the viewer's position related to the issue of androcentrism inequality: critical research paradigm and qualitative descriptive approach. The results of these findings are, first, the inequality of androcentrism between men and women in this film, namely the presence of Misogyny, namely hatred and dislike of women, negative stereotypes, and double standards. Second, in the Film 'Moxie', the subject position of the story is Vivian, and the object position of the story is Vivian's female and male friends at Rockport High School and Principal Shelly. The viewer is positioned as the woman. Androcentrism means male-centered. Androcentrism refers to the pattern that everything related to men is the general guideline, while everything related to women is only an exception. The theoretical implications of this research strengthen the concept of androgyny and criticize the inequality of androcentrism for showing the distribution of equal roles in masculine and feminine characters simultaneously at various levels of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first quarter of the 21st century is witnessing an efflorescence of right-wing populism that is flourishing in a period of heightened precarity, global trauma, anxiety, and gross inequalities. One branch of right-wing populism, neoconservatism, aims to restore patriarchy; entry into organizations would help it achieve those ends. This article uses an extreme case study of a profession in which chauvinism flourishes to examine organizations' receptivity, at "shop-floor" level, to neoconservative political ideologies and the restoration of patriarchy as an entry-route. Using Judith Butler's work and psychoanalytical theory for theoretical inspiration we develop a theory of "chauvinizing"—that is, the performative constitution of chauvinism. This incorporates a contrast between "old" and "new" chauvinism and the conscious and unconscious allure of misogynistic practices to practitioners. We argue that chauvinizing practices may offer neoconservatism both a means of entry into organizations and opposition to its infiltration. This article contributes to political organization studies an understanding of how organizations may be permeated by unwelcome political activities, and a warning for organizations of the need for both wariness and strategies of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on a feminist critical discourse analysis, this study reveals the mechanism of the continuous reproduction of hegemonic masculinity in a Chinese manosphere, Hupu, the biggest sports fandom platform in China. As an ideological foundation on Hupu, hegemonic masculinity directs misogynistic practices (e.g. sexualization of women and misogynistic lexicon development) and shapes an imagined community of toxic brotherhood. In turn, the misogynistic practices and this community of brotherhood also reproduce hegemonic masculinity, ensuring a cycle of the maintenance of a toxic manosphere. We further consider the socio-political context in contemporary China to criticize how state power, platform affordances, and hegemonic masculinity are intertwined and jeopardize Chinese feminism both online and offline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of a misogynistic political establishment, the Iranian state's approach to women has become increasingly securitised in recent years. The Islamic Republic state, in fact, sees women as one of its biggest security threats, further deepening its securitisation of women and women's issues. This is most evident in relation to the official imposition of mandatory hijab, which vividly symbolises state ideology. The securitisation of women has occurred within the context of pervasive state misogyny and other officially sanctioned cultural notions that have accorded women second-class positions in the Islamic Republic's society. Despite its expansive system of state-sanctioned legal, political, ideological and cultural misogyny, however, the Islamic Republic has been unable to counter women's nonconformity to its dictates. Developments concerning and led by women themselves have challenged the official misogyny and its supporting ideological narrative. The state's inability and unwillingness to show ideological flexibility in this regard, and women's determined refusal to comply with the state, have combined to transform Iranian women into a national security threat to the state, one that it has so far been unable to effectively counter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the profound sexualization of seventeenth-century English religious polemic by examining the history of the popular "holy sister" stereotype as it evolved during the English Revolution (1640–60) from a relatively tame element of contemporary religious satire into a regular feature of obscene antipuritan print by the 1660 Restoration. In particular, it argues that the erotic evolution of the sisterhood was primarily a function of the English civil wars, which witnessed an unprecedented crisis in post-Reformation politics and a concurrent explosion in partisan print. Together with the endemic misogyny enflamed by the transgressive activities of actual puritan women, those factors inspired a dramatic escalation in sexually explicit confessional polemic during the period—a process spurred on by the long-standing early modern association between lust and lechery as well as the commercial motivations of contemporary printers and publishers. Eventually, royalist writers during the early 1650s purposefully made graphic sexuality a staple of their antipuritan polemic, reasoning that godly moralists would find nothing more offensive than obscene depictions of human sexuality. The essay goes on to assert that this novel association between antipuritanism and explicit sexual description continued well into the Restoration, when its continued success may have encouraged London publishers to greenlight new erotic genres in print for the first time in English history. Not only, therefore, did the English Revolution spark an unprecedented sexualization in contemporary religious polemic; it may also have contributed to the much-studied erotic renaissance that characterized late Stuart culture after Charles II's accession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ramayana penned by Valmiki around 200 BCE is regarded as his magnum opus and is held in esteem as one of the greatest epics in history. Consisting of 24,000 shlokas or verses, it has served as a basis for moral conduct and gallantry for humans around the world. However, in recent times, there have been concerns about its supposed promotion of patriarchy. With feminists feeling that the epic has suppressed the voices of its female characters, numerous adaptations have emerged. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is one such work, which aims to advocate the suffering of its female lead, Sita. The aim of this article is to analyse instances of feminism, gynocentrism and misogyny in the above-mentioned work and also to argue and support the claims that the condition of women since all those years ago has not changed. It critically examines the actions and thought processes of the author's myriad characters, extracts the values from them and endeavours to relate it with the condition of women in the twenty-first century. The article does not make a comment on the original epic written by the revered Valmiki, all conclusions drawn are based on The Forest of Enchantments alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mating represents a suite of fundamental adaptive problems for humans. Yet a community of men, called incels (involuntary celibates), forge their identity around their perceived inability to solve these problems. Many incels engage in misogynistic online hostility, and there are concerns about violence stemming from the community. Despite significant media speculation about the potential mating psychology of incels, this has yet to be formally investigated in the scientific literature. In the first formal investigation of incel mating psychology, we compared a sample (n = 151) of self-identified male incels with non-incel single males (n = 149). Findings revealed that incels have a lower sense of self-perceived mate-value and a greater external locus of control regarding their singlehood. Contrary to mainstream media narratives, incels also reported lower minimum standards for mate preferences than non-incels. Incels (and non-incel single men) significantly overestimated the importance of physical attractiveness and financial prospects to women, and underestimated the importance of intelligence, kindness, and humor. Furthermore, incels underestimated women's overall minimum mate preference standards. Our findings suggest that incels should be targeted for interventions to challenge cognitive distortions around female mate preferences. Implications for incels' mental health and misogynistic attitudes are discussed, as well as directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the resurgence of right-wing regimes in the Global South have lately offered more evidence for how misogynistic attacks against dissenting voices constitute important elements of populist rhetoric online. A significant recent trend is the active incorporation of gendered narratives within digital influence and disinformation strategies aimed at securing political gains for sponsoring interest groups. Based on the case of online misogyny in Brazil under Bolsonaro, this article probes the promise and limitations of technological solutions, touted especially in the latest wave of excitement around artificial intelligence, in addressing emerging forms of gendered speech. It suggests that a far-reaching approach to misogynistic political campaigns requires that nuanced message-level intervention in terms of community-centric artificial intelligence-assisted moderation systems should be combined with measures to disrupt online and offline networks that right-wing regimes have raised to spread disinformation and extreme speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2023, the U.K. government announced that misogyny would not be categorized as a hate crime stating that this "may prove more harmful than helpful." This article argues that before and beyond hate crime, misogyny, understood as the hatred of women (from the Greek misein [hate] gynae [women]), is the foundational logic of our legal, social, and political order in the west. This constitution of hate relies on the active dehumanization, exploitation, and ownership of women's bodies by the institution of white men through making women the object of the "colonization of the everyday." This exhausting hatred is enacted through repetitive, unceasing, and everyday violence toward women. Simply put, patriarchal, colonial, capitalist democracy is only sustained through violence against women. Hating women is, therefore, not a pathology of society but rather is the necessary existence condition of our legal-political constitution, clear to see yet hiding in plain sight. Misogyny ensures the precarity of women's bodies and women's status as trespassers in everyday spaces that are deliberately always already misogynistic. Given the foundational nature of misogyny, did the government have a point in excluding endemic violence against women from hate crime as "more harmful than helpful?" Is hate crime merely constitutive of a cultural matrix of misogyny? This paper enacts a decolonial feminist prism to disrupt the cultural condition of misogyny by thinking hate crime together with legal-political constitutional and cultural change. The paper explores violence against women set against the historical emergence of misogyny from Greek dehumanization, to medieval persecution of "witches," the muzzling and banning of women from public spaces, Shakespeare's "Taming," to contemporary femicide rates. Interrogating hate crime through this prism offers nuanced routes for how to disrupt the legal-political constitution of misogyny that is neither hidden nor new. Misogyny is enduring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between privacy concerns and women's empowerment in the context of India's growing Smart Cities Movement and prevalent smartphone use. Using feminist ideas and legal frameworks to address cyberbullying, online harassment, cyberfraud and misogyny, it addresses cybersecurity and data privacy issues. The study emphasises the value of gendered implications of urban security and participatory design principles in smart city efforts. It suggests examining cyberfeminism and highlights the need for women to take an active role in developing safe online environments. Findings point to weaknesses in the legal systems that exist today as well as the possibility that technological improvements will exacerbate gender disparity. Legislative mandates should be strengthened, gender gaps in digital literacy should be closed, gender-sensitive design should be incorporated into smart city initiatives and women working in activism and digital technology should be encouraged to collaborate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joanna Walsh is an author and activist whose texts typify the contemporary synergy between life writing and technology. Here, I present an interview with Walsh, keynote speaker at the Life's Not Personal Conference. I precede our conversation with an extended introduction exploring the breadth of her works, attending to the themes of life writing, technology, and the slippery boundaries of sharing in a digital age. In my reading, Walsh's use of technology allows her to experiment with form to circumnavigate the limiting scripts that allow the popularised misogynistic descriptor 'oversharing' to operate, while creating new writing and reading communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has shown there is a relationship between body image, sexual behavior, and pleasure. However, the majority of this research has centered on heterosexual participants. In this analysis, the author considers how this relationship between body image, sexual behavior, and pleasure may look within women and genderqueer individuals who are all AFAB (assigned female at birth) with 26 out of 30 participants identifying as LGBTQIA+. The author examines perceptions of body size, body hair, and genitals to consider how intersections of social structures - specifically internalized sexism, racism, and misogyny - influence the participants' experience of sexual interactions. Both resistance and embodiment of traditional gender norms, even as queer women and genderqueer individuals, were examined in these narratives. The majority of the moments where traditional gender norms are examined describe situations when the participants were sexually interacting with cis-gendered men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the A&E docuseries Born behind Bars (2017) to explore how misogynoir affects the construction of motherhood in the Leath Unit Prison Nursery Program, one of ten prison nurseries in the United States. These gender-responsive programs intervene in the epidemic of mother-child separation by allowing pregnant incarcerated mothers to live with their babies for a finite period. This article applies misogynoir as a framework to analyze white mothers’ efforts to regulate Donyell, the one Black mother on the unit, whom they label lazy, dirty, and a thief. Using a standard of whiteness and a discourse of maternal criminality, white mothers position themselves as the pinnacle of motherhood despite being incarcerated and, in turn, position Donyell as deviant. Grounding white mothers’ depictions of Donyell as unfit in stereotypical images pathologizing Black motherhood, this article argues that white mothers in Born behind Bars perpetuate misogynoir through language to replicate the systemic criminalization of Black motherhood and uphold patriarchal definitions of motherhood that exclude Black mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Gendered disinformation undermines women’s rights, democratic principles, and national security by worsening societal divisions through authoritarian regimes’ intentional weaponization of social media. Online misogyny represents a harmful societal issue, threatening to transform digital platforms into environments that are hostile and inhospitable to women. Despite the severity of this issue, efforts to persuade digital platforms to strengthen their protections against gendered disinformation are frequently ignored, highlighting the difficult task of countering online misogyny in the face of commercial interests. This growing concern underscores the need for effective measures to create safer online spaces, where respect and equality prevail, ensuring that women can participate fully and freely without the fear of harassment or discrimination. This study addresses the challenge of detecting misogynous content in bilingual (English and Italian) online communications. Utilizing FastText word embeddings and explainable artificial intelligence techniques, we introduce a model that enhances both the interpretability and accuracy in detecting misogynistic language. To conduct an in-depth analysis, we implemented a range of experiments encompassing classic machine learning methodologies and conventional deep learning approaches to the recent transformer-based models incorporating both language-specific and multilingual capabilities. This paper enhances the methodologies for detecting misogyny by incorporating incremental learning for cutting-edge datasets containing tweets and posts from different sources like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, with our proposed approach outperforming these datasets in metrics such as accuracy, F1-score, precision, and recall. This process involved refining hyperparameters, employing optimization techniques, and utilizing generative configurations. By implementing Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME), we further elucidate the rationale behind the model’s predictions, enhancing understanding of its decision-making process.

Gendered disinformation undermines women’s rights, democratic principles, and national security by worsening societal divisions through authoritarian regimes’ intentional weaponization of social media. Online misogyny represents a harmful societal issue, threatening to transform digital platforms into environments that are hostile and inhospitable to women. Despite the severity of this issue, efforts to persuade digital platforms to strengthen their protections against gendered disinformation are frequently ignored, highlighting the difficult task of countering online misogyny in the face of commercial interests. This growing concern underscores the need for effective measures to create safer online spaces, where respect and equality prevail, ensuring that women can participate fully and freely without the fear of harassment or discrimination. This study addresses the challenge of detecting misogynous content in bilingual (English and Italian) online communications. Utilizing FastText word embeddings and explainable artificial intelligence techniques, we introduce a model that enhances both the interpretability and accuracy in detecting misogynistic language. To conduct an in-depth analysis, we implemented a range of experiments encompassing classic machine learning methodologies and conventional deep learning approaches to the recent transformer-based models incorporating both language-specific and multilingual capabilities. This paper enhances the methodologies for detecting misogyny by incorporating incremental learning for cutting-edge datasets containing tweets and posts from different sources like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, with our proposed approach outperforming these datasets in metrics such as accuracy, F1-score, precision, and recall. This process involved refining hyperparameters, employing optimization techniques, and utilizing generative configurations. By implementing Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME), we further elucidate the rationale behind the model’s predictions, enhancing understanding of its decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, while there has been some attention to the issues online harassment in higher education, the impacts of online sexual harassment have been lost within the broader focus. There is negligible research looking at these specific experiences within Indian universities. To address this gap, this paper explores three different but interconnected forms of online sexual harassment—image-based sexual abuse, online chat rooms, and trolling in the context of Indian universities. Following the works of Liz Kelly (1987) and Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley and Ruth Houghton (2017), this paper establishes the importance of understanding online sexual harassment as a continuum of other forms of offline sexual violence having physical, mental, and financial impacts on survivors, deeply affecting their sense of safety. In doing so, this paper attempts to develop a materialist understanding of online sexual harassment in Indian universities in turn demonstrating the confluence of India's patriarchal and casteist society and an authoritarian state who use technology as a powerful disciplining tool to push women and queer people out of digital public spaces. This research attempts to establish that this disciplining and silencing of women and queer people are essential for the spread of both techno-capitalism and Brahmanical Hindutva nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the field of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) male clients are overwhelmingly represented, which reflects the key and complex significance 'masculinity' has for understanding susceptibility to violent extremism, processes of radicalisation and related issues. This article analyses the perspectives of 12 CVE Intervention Practitioners (n = 8 female, n = 4 male) in Australia and their views on the role gender plays in their work. We focus on the practitioners' experiences with male clients and how they understood the relationship between gender, rapport building and (de)radicalization. The practitioners highlight how a common aspect of their clients' ideology involved either explicit misogyny or quite rigid opinions regarding the roles of men and women in society. They often mentioned their male clients experienced difficulties in expressing and understanding their own masculinity. However, while it is important to identify commonalities within the gendered dynamics present in CVE work, the data suggest the interaction between practitioner and client continues to be quite varied. We argue that this highlights not only how masculinities are discursively produced, but how male clients may shift between identity positions during deradicalization depending on their interpersonal interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the intersection between feminism and the digital era in Africa, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that arise. It explores how digital platforms have become pivotal for amplifying women's voices, challenging misogyny, and driving social change. However, it also delves into the gendered digital divide, privacy concerns, algorithmic biases, and new forms of media manipulation that disproportionately impact women in Africa. The article concludes by underscoring the potential of digital tools in empowering women in Africa while emphasising the urgency of addressing prevailing challenges to ensure inclusive digital participation and advancing gender justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Proteus effect is a phenomenon found in over 60 studies where people tend to conform behaviorally to their avatars’ identity characteristics, especially in virtual reality. This study extends research on the Proteus effect to consider organization-representing avatars and misogynistic behavioral outcomes. Male participants (N = 141) in a lab experiment embodied a set of pretested avatars which varied in level of association with a university mascot (i.e., color and body type) in a bespoke virtual reality simulation designed to elicit misogynistic behavior. Namely, participants were directed to place a hand on virtual agents’ body parts, including the buttocks (i.e., a transgressive misogynistic act). Time delay in complying with directions to touch the agents’ buttocks served as an implicit measure of resistance to this misogynistic behavior. Results suggest that within moderately masculine body-size avatar users, those who embodied a university-color-associated avatar exhibited more misogynistic behaviors (i.e., faster buttocks-touching). Unexpectedly, this effect of avatar color was not apparent within the hypermasculine body-size avatars, and within the university-associated color condition, hypermasculine body-type was associated with less misogynistic behavior. These findings suggest that organization-representing avatars may induce behavioral conformity to implicit attitudes associated with the organization, such as misogyny.

Most of the existing histories of Western philosophy are to be considered incomplete and even incorrect because of an inherent andro*-superiorist bias. The (epistemic) violence of this exclusion has been irrefutably demonstrated by mostly female* philosophers. This study analyzes the nature of the misogyn*y of the male* philosophers and suggests new concepts to describe this (epistemic) violence more precisely, namely the concept of superiorism and the superhuman fallacy. Superiorism is understood as an inability and/or unwillingness to accept the Other. Superiorism arises when the fallacy is committed, i.e. when a normative difference between human beings is introduced. In the final section, the practice of desuperiorization is outlined. Desuperiorization is to be understood as the philosophical practice allowing us to develop the capability and willingness to accept otherness sui generis. To desuperiorize philosophy means to consciously and practically unwant all privileges which derive from the pseudo-superiority of the male* human being.

The Proteus effect is a phenomenon found in over 60 studies where people tend to conform behaviorally to their avatars' identity characteristics, especially in virtual reality. This study extends research on the Proteus effect to consider organization-representing avatars and misogynistic behavioral outcomes. Male participants (N = 141) in a lab experiment embodied a set of pretested avatars which varied in level of association with a university mascot (i.e., color and body type) in a bespoke virtual reality simulation designed to elicit misogynistic behavior. Namely, participants were directed to place a hand on virtual agents' body parts, including the buttocks (i.e., a transgressive misogynistic act). Time delay in complying with directions to touch the agents' buttocks served as an implicit measure of resistance to this misogynistic behavior. Results suggest that within moderately masculine body-size avatar users, those who embodied a university-color-associated avatar exhibited more misogynistic behaviors (i.e., faster buttocks-touching). Unexpectedly, this effect of avatar color was not apparent within the hypermasculine body-size avatars, and within the university-associated color condition, hypermasculine body-type was associated with less misogynistic behavior. These findings suggest that organization-representing avatars may induce behavioral conformity to implicit attitudes associated with the organization, such as misogyny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incel community—which is characterized by an anti-feminist misogynistic ideology and has been linked with terrorist attacks—has become an increasing focus of attention among social scientists, policy makers, and professionals involved in preventing radicalization and extremism. In this systematic review we provide an up-to-date account of scientific research on the incel phenomenon. Using PRISMA guidelines, we initially identified 593 records, primarily through online database research. After full screening and duplicate removal, 78 articles remained. We divided the analyzed records into four macro-categorizations, covering theoretical, technological, violent, and personality-related components of the incel ideology. We examined the clinical implications of the analyzed findings, focusing on the potential criminological and pathological consequences related to the incel status—on a personal, interpersonal, and societal basis. Finally, suggestions regarding clinical intervention and future research foci are provided based on the knowledge gaps identified through the review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the rise of “reactionary feminism” within popular culture, suggesting a possible departure from, or mutation of, the hegemony of neoliberal and postfeminisms of recent decades. It locates reactionary feminism as key to the growing backlash against “liberal feminism,” pointing to emergent popular feminist discourses of “brutal truths,” “material conditions,” and women as a “sex class.” I analyse three seemingly diverse iterations of the reactionary feminist turn: its political-intellectual articulation by anti-progressive, “post-liberal” feminists; secondly, its manifestation within the “femosphere” - the online, female-centric communities which mirror those of the manosphere—focusing specifically on the “Female Dating Strategy;” and thirdly, “dark feminine” dating influencers on TikTok and YouTube, sometimes framed as “Andrew Tate for girls.” Reactionary feminism appears to have certain similarities with leftist, intersectional feminism; it has a strong critique of liberal feminism, and explicitly centres issues such as misogyny, the devaluation of women’s work, gendered economic inequality, and the politics of care. However, I argue that while it purports to oppose misogyny and the manosphere, it mirrors many of its regressive logics, and is characterised by an aggressive sense of fatalism, bio-essentialism, and a deep animosity towards liberationist feminism and any form of social hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's invisibility in political spaces is a glaring reality, particularly in patriarchal polities characterized by misogynistic attitudes towards feminine leadership. This article unpacks the socio-cultural variables that hinder women's participation in politics and other masculinized spheres of influence. The article focuses on the advocacy efforts of Women's Institute for Leadership Development in Gwanda, Zimbabwe. The article also details the successes and challenges scored by the lobbying effort. The article uses a qualitative research approach. It discusses the extent and effectiveness of women's involvement in local governance and how their participation relates to Sustainable Development Goal 5. It was established that the project has greatly improved ordinary women's participation in local governance in Gwanda Central. Capacity-building strategies implemented improved participation, competence, confidence, and effectiveness of women's local governance processes. Women are increasingly participating in leadership at various levels. The training and mentorship programmes inspired some women to contest in the 2018 elections. We recommend the government of Zimbabwe and civil society organizations facilitate the implementation of structural reforms that address systemic and institutionalized gender-based discrimination.00263 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine the emergence of "meme-feminism" on Iranian social media, which adopts innovative tactics to combat gendered hate online. I propose the concept of "memeing back" at misogyny and numerous gendered inequalities as not only a unique feminist tactic but also a political and satirical world-building practice. With a detailed analysis of theorizations of (digital) feminist activism and mediated visual humor, I demonstrate how the adoption of memes can, through anonymity and visual community-building, extend beyond dominant forms of popular feminism to combat the pervasion of anti-feminism on Iranian social media. I further unpack how this tactic mobilizes feminist memes by utilizing shared aesthetic visualization, a feminist politics of exposure, and visual nagging as embodied and mediated interventions to critique socioeconomic inequalities impacting women-identifying individuals in Iran. On this basis, I argue for the significance of online memes and the "memeing back" tactic in advancing feminist demands under suppressive, violent, and capitalist states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With social media technologies, feminist perspectives have reached parts of society traditionally uninterested in or fundamentally opposed to them. While feminist activists and allies have employed technological affordances for support, belonging, and justice, the same tools are used by actors of the alt-right to gag feminist voices. As it circulates, anti-feminist content sustains heteropatriarchy and damages women beyond the symbolic by means of trolling, doxxing, and meme wars. We address this through a review of feminist visual methods applied to the analysis of imaginaries of digital gendered hate in four case studies: (1) Greta Thunberg memes in the DENY Facebook group; (2) "Fanquan Girls" meme wars in the Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement; (3) visual artefacts shared under the Twitter hashtag #SisterIDoBelieveYou; and (4) cartoons of Grace Mugabe relating to presidential succession produced in seven African countries. By reflecting on the ethos behind these four cases, we identify specific benefits to be gained from working with feminist visual methods, and contour a novel phenomenon: platformed visual misogyny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years Incel1 has become a regularly cited example of extreme contemporary misogyny and antifeminism. This paper develops existing understandings of the phenomenon and contextualises Incel as in important ways the product of a painful embrace of neoliberal ideas about market outcomes and social value, expressed through the practices and rhetoric associated with gender relations in this era, with an emphasis on its gendered metapolitical constitution and vision. This is achieved in two steps. Based on a close thematic analysis of textual data collected from the main hub of Incel discourse, other Incel texts, and elements of digital ethnography, I first draw attention to the Incel worldview's interpretation of the neoliberal era as uniformly pro-feminist and note how in doing so collapses the distinction between women, feminists, and elite power. Second, I highlight how this interpretation informs the self-ascription of transgressive and emancipatory qualities, which serve as additional animating logics in Incel hatred of feminism, feminists, and women. I conclude by suggesting that this approach allows for a more productive understanding of the Incel phenomenon and the role of antifeminism and misogyny within it, which includes complicating Incel's purported parallels with the far-right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the relationship between young women's attitudes towards dating violence and internalized misogyny. This study used descriptive and relational design. The target population of the study was all young women aged between 18 and 24 years who lived in Turkey. A total of 288 individuals were accessed in the study. Data were collected through the "Personal Information Form" developed by the researchers, "Attitudes towards Dating Violence Scales", and the "Internalized Misogyny Scale". Participating young women's Attitudes Towards Male Psychological Dating Violence Scale mean score and the Internalized Misogyny Scale mean score demonstrated a positive and medium level relationship (p<0.01. r:0.412), and a positive and weak correlation was detected with Devaluing of Women (p<0.01. r:0.374), Distrust of Women (p<0.01. r:0.341), and gender bias in favor of men (p<0.01. r:0.321) sub-scale mean scores. This study found that although the level was weak, there was a correlation between internalized misogyny and dating violence, and the increase in internalized misogyny increased the acceptance of dating violence in young women. • No study has been found in the literature examining the relationship between internalized misogyny and dating violence. • This study revealed a significant relationship between internalized misogyny and dating violence. • Determination of the relationship between attitudes towards dating violence and internalized misogyny could provide an important contribution to the solution to the problem by providing young women with education/consultancy as well as change/empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several men committed mass violence in the past decade because they believed women were denying them the sex they felt they deserved. In the wake of their attacks, investigators found references to an online community known as Incels in their manifestoes and social media posts. Members of this community typically adhere to misogynistic beliefs that deny women their autonomy, deride sexually active men, and condone violence against both. Using Hamm and Spaaij's lone-wolf radicalization model, this article argues that the most violent members of the Incel community engaged in lone-wolf terrorism based upon their grievances with women. Furthermore, this article suggests that the influential impact of misogyny as a political element can contribute to lone-wolf terrorism. Accounting for these aspects will require modifications to the radicalization model that include factors such as domestic violence and misogyny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amy Morris Homans Cotillion, held annually from 1982 to 2014, was a safe space for lesbian professionals in kinesiology, as well as a challenge and a disruption to the misogyny, homophobia, and heterosexism that pervaded the field in the mid- and late 20th century. In this article, we highlight the lived experiences of the broader Cotillion community. We conducted oral-history interviews with American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAPHERD) convention attendees about their memories of the Cotillion and Pre-Cotillion. Through these stories, we convey the significance of these events for the women and lesbians in kinesiology/physical education departments who attended them. The article begins with descriptions of interviewees' lives within the field, progresses to how attendees discovered and experienced the Cotillion and/or Pre-Cotillion, and then explores the impact of the Cotillion, both at AAPHERD and beyond the convention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our understanding of history reveals far more about ourselves than the subjects analyzed. Within this Viewpoint, the six wives of King Henry VIII become a case study for each generation’s identities and how it plays a role in the interpretations of women’s histories. Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr are some of the most instantly recognizable historical British women, and yet primary sources are mainly void of their personal voices, lost to history amongst a wave of political agendas, misogyny, and religious vendettas. At different periods, they have been victims, sluts, saints, and feminist icons. This article attempts to analyze some of those most iconic interpretations of these women and what influences from that specific era played a role in the depiction. In the end, the practice of history itself is fallible, meaning that the real identities of the six wives of Henry VIII have been lost to us. However, the act of analyzing them, no matter how imperfect, ensures that their memories live on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the resurgence of deviant leisure cultures in football, with a focus on virtual football violence. Despite advancements in curbing violence in UK football stadiums, new challenges emerge online. By analysing social media discourse from three English Premier League matches in 2022, the study reveals the prevalence of several forms of virtual violence, including threats of physical and sexual violence, emotional violence, and discriminatory violence. The research highlights the resurgence of ‘traditional’ norms of masculinity, aggression, and misogyny facilitated by anonymity in online spaces. Paradoxically, the results show that fans engage in derogatory language while simultaneously condemning similar actions by others. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the category of discriminatory violence, where comments are frequently challenged, indicating a ‘raising of consciousness’ and a growing intolerance to certain forms of discriminatory language. However, despite some evidence of social consciousness and pushback against discriminatory language, the prevalence of virtual violence remains concerning on multiple levels. This underscores the need for continued efforts to promote respectful discourse and foster inclusive environments online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of what seems like a perpetual cycle of crisis for policing in modern day England and Wales, this introduction synthesises some of the core challenges facing the police. A catalogue of crimes committed by serving officers, missed opportunities for reform, and a scathing review of the internal culture of the Metropolitan Police culminating in a recommendation for a 'complete overhaul', might initially leave some readers with the view that there is little hope for fixing an outdated and buckling police service. Yet this collection of articles, authored by academic experts, senior police—both current and former—and commentators, not only summarises some of the problems facing policing as the new Government beds in. The contributions also brim with a diverse set of ideas for changing policing for the better and rebuilding trust and confidence. We conclude with the idea that a fundamental review and reconceptualization of the police role, of the type that might be provided by a Royal Commission, is needed if we are to meet the challenges that lie ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing ingrained behaviours linked to sexism and misogyny in policing cannot be achieved by a quick fix. There are numerous barriers to change within the policing system, which require multiple targeted interventions running in parallel to tackle sexism and misogyny successfully. A behavioural science approach was applied to 'diagnose' the problem and identify interventions systematically. This approach does not seek to explain behaviour in terms of the characteristics of individual officers or staff. It combines insights from a range of disciplines to understand how people act in particular contexts. There is no single intervention that can shift ingrained behaviour; a package of targeted interventions is needed. Using the 'behaviour change wheel' as the underpinning framework, four target behaviours, seven key influences on behaviour and twelve interventions for change were identified. The connections between the behaviours, influences and interventions illustrate how a holistic package of interventions is required to change culture across the policing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jesus' response to the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7.27 is sometimes seen as sexist, racist, or abusive. The force of his response depends in part on the diminutive form κυναριον, which is often dismissed as a faded diminutive that lacks true force. But a statistical, semantic, and contextual analysis of the word indicates that it does, in fact, have diminutive force in Mark 7:27. Because of this, the pejorative force found in direct insults employing the word 'dog' is lacking in Jesus' response. In addition to failing to recognise the diminutive force of κυναριον, interpreters sometimes assume a social context in which Jews routinely referred to Gentiles as dogs. Finally, the analogy that Jesus makes is often read allegorically, assuming that 'children' and 'dogs' have direct counterparts in 'Jews' and 'Gentiles'. These assumptions are found to be dubious. The point of Jesus' analogy is about the proper order of events: children eat before the puppies; Jews receive the benefits of his ministry before Gentiles. The Syrophoenician woman outwits Jesus by arguing that the puppies may eat simultaneously with the children. The interpretive upshot is that Jesus' saying is unlikely to be misogynistic or abusive, but simply asserts Jewish priority, a priority that admits of exceptions and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]