Hegemonic Masculinity and Sexism Online

Since the inception of the modern day Internet, we have seen a drastic change in the way
we exist. The ways in which we contact one another, entertain ourselves and live out our
day to day lives have been dramatically altered by this new medium of communication.
Having said this however, certain prejudices and cultural stances have been carried over
into this virtual world, perpetuating their legitimacy. Hegemonic Masculinity is defined
by Connell as being a “configuration of practice, structured by gender relations”, that is,
hegemonic masculinity is a culturally relative label. Connell explains that hegemonic
masculinity is the label we give to the current dominant gender role; white, western,
upper-middle-class male. Other, non-hegemonic masculinities can be seen as
marginalized or subordinate (Ashe 2007, p145). It is important to note that a hegemonic
masculinity based society values emphasized femininity, that is, women who are
pleasantly submissive to men and complicit in their own subordination (Hughes 2002
p126). Despite the anonymity, the Internet, Web 2.0 and New Media technologies in
general, manage to perpetuate these cultural norms through a variety of forms. Internet
forums, social networking services, user-generated content based websites, such as
YouTube and Reddit, and online gaming communications can all be seen as avenues
where hegemonic masculinity is produced and reproduced. Naturally, the problems with
hegemonic masculinity online are comparable to those in the real world, with the major
issue being the degradation and lower social level of those not in the dominant position.

The most obvious victim of hegemonic masculinity is of course, women. What must be
said, first and foremost, is that whilst gender anonymity as an online choice is possible, it
is not always employed and can often be easily discerned from the truth (Berman &
Bruckman 2001). Furthermore, New Media writer danah boyd believes that gender roles
do not play out differently online; “we primarily reproduce our embodied identity in the
digital world” (O’ReillyNet 2007) With this being the case, the numerous problems
hegemonic masculinity creates in the ‘real’ world are going to exist in the ‘virtual’ world
too. However, there are several allowances for misogyny and sexism online that are
simply not present in an offline interaction. Despite mentioning above how gender
anonymity is easily discernable, this does not mean that Internet anonymity does not
grant the anonymous user certain liberties. Kathy Sierra is a writer, programmer and
game developer who also is an avid blogger and Twitter user. In 2007, she was subject to
a tirade of hate filled, sexist comments and diatribes on her blog and her private data,
such as social security number and telephones number, were being posted on numerous
blogs and forums. Whilst trolling on forums and blogs is hardly new or indeed localised
to one gender, the manner in which Kathy Sierra was threatened with death, rape and
combinations thereof, was a sign that Internet anonymity and the accompanying
democratisation of discussion are not without their drawbacks (Valenti 2007). This is not
an isolated incident either, feminist blogger ‘Alison’ on skirt!.com raises several
examples and speaks of her own experiences in sexist discussions online. Jill Filipovic,
another feminist blogger who has suffered sexist attacks online, raises a very valid point
in regards to trolling and gender. She says that “the harassment of women is far more
sexualised - men may be told that they're idiots, but they aren't called 'whores'” (Valenti
2007). It could be argued that anonymity online simply creates an environment where
people are not afraid to say what is on their mind; free from the judging eyes of society,
they need not double check their views for political correctness. If this is the case, are
there more sexist, bigoted misogynists amongst our society than we care to admit? If this
is true, what are the implications this has? If this is false, is the Internet creating an even
darker aspect of hegemonic masculinity, where this kind of speech is encouraged?
Postgraduate student Alice Marwick thinks this may be the case; “There's the disturbing
possibility that people are creating online environments purely to express the type of
racist, homophobic, or sexist speech that is no longer acceptable in public society, at
work, or even at home” (Valenti 2009)

These popularly cited examples often appear in mainstream media, often asking readers
what they think of sexism on the Internet, yet as an avid user of Internet myself, I believe
these attacks are not the main problem. These attacks, insulting and offensive as they may
be, are looked down upon by most every facet of the media and these people would not
be held in high regard should their identities ever be found out. I feel a larger problem is
the implicit hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity associated with modern
web2.0 sites and forums. To be more specific, I am deeply concerned with the attitudes
these largely male dominated sites take towards women as members and produsers.
Through primary research, I do not see the men acting vengeful or malicious towards the
women, rather, I see the men as acting faux-jokingly hegemonically masculine, towards
the women and proudly hegemonically masculine to the idea of women. Examples of this
are easily found on the comment pages on social bookmarking site Reddit.com. Reddit is
a community website where users post links and can then ‘up-vote’ or ‘down-vote’ links,
with the more popular pages appearing at the top of the list. Commenting is also possible
for members. One of the more popular discussion threads was born on the 7th of August
2009, when a user named tiffmck claimed to be an attractive, 18-year-old girl with over
100 sexual partners and counting. Comments like “Stupid whores! Fuck yeah!” and “that
is SO unbelievably fucking hot” were rife, and being up-voted often. The problem with
this, whether or not tiffmck is actually a promiscuous 18 year old girl or not, is that these
comments’ popularity perpetuates the idea that they are not offensive. Redditor tffmck, if
she is indeed female, is the ultimate result of Simone de Bouvier’s fears of women being
complicit with their own subordination, (Chaner 2007, p10). Furthermore, Reddit offers
several ‘Sub-Reddits’ that act like different boards on a forum. Sub-Reddits such as
NSFW, JailBait, Sex, Sexy and particular Women of Color all help to popularise and
normalise the notion of hegemonic masculinity in the online sphere. These are all tagged
as being for 18-years-and-over visitors to the site, but it is the ‘Women of Color’ Sub-
Reddit that is of particular concern for me. Despite only having 715 active members, the
Sub-Reddit exclusively posts sexual pictures of women who do not fit into the hegemonic
discourse of emphasised, white femininity for any number of Reddit visitors to view. Not
that I am one who believes that free speech should be controlled, the issue here, I feel, is
education. Those who perpetuate this do so, largely, without Internet anonymity, showing
that they either do not realise they are lowering the female gender, or they do not mind
that they are doing so. Still, this raises the same questions as the academic research; are
these products of the Internet? Or, is just the private becoming public, as Travis Holland
(2009) says?

Despite these obvious, and perhaps obviously offensive, examples of hegemonic

masculinity, they are not the only ones at play. Personally, I am guilty of perpetuating this
hegemonic attitude, even if only in passing. This is discussed at greater length in this
26/8/2009 blog post. In regards to my fictional New Media persona of Stace Kingford the
ex-retired Bush Poet, the comparisons are more difficult. Since I created the fictional
persona as a means of parodying a time of yore, the few posts he ‘authored’ have been in
that voice. Take these two tweets, for example. Here, I’ve implied that Stace does not
care for the skinny, non –bush familiar men and suggested that his wife washes his
clothes exclusively. These are both decidedly hegemonic statements, yet does the fact that
I’ve said them in jest make them OK? I, like Randall Munroe of xkcd, deride many
Internet users (and produsers) for similar faux-joking, ironic statements. There is, of
course, no answer for this question, and it should largely be without concern, owing the
small number of people who will actually read these statements. Nevertheless, I am
definitely guilty of perpetrating what I hate.

Stace Kingford’s comment in regards to a skinny man not understanding the bush, whilst
deriving from my own experiences ‘out west’, promotes thought on the other notions of
masculinity in New Media. It is no secret how blatantly masculine games such as Fallout
and Halo, and their accompanying online communities, are. As someone who can be, and
has been, labelled a ‘nerd’ for their enjoyment of video games, I am secretly resentful of
the jocks who are socially allowed to revel in Halo. In other words, I am feeling the brunt
of hegemonic masculinity myself, albeit in a very minor way. This role reversal relates to
the much older than the modern day Internet arguments regarding masculinity and the
different roles men construct in different social situations (Messerschmidt 1993). For
example, a male who is neither a ‘nerd’ nor a ‘jock’ would relate to his football playing
friends much differently to the way he would relate online to his online gaming friends.
Whilst this does step beyond the boundary of online hegemonic masculinity, it is still
most definitely an interesting point worth thinking about when discussions such an issue.

Connell’s idea of Hegemonic Masculinity being a configuration of practice, rather than a

static definition, allows the theory to be applied to a variety of situations and times. As
the Internet, web2.0 and so-called new media technologies in general are at the forefront
of many of discussions; it is little wonder then, that the hegemonic masculinity theory has
been placed over so many of these discussions involving gender politics. The problem, of
course, is that hegemonic masculinity has been a prevalent issue in the real world since it
was defined (and, according to Connell, much before). Naturally, this makes the notion of
‘solving’ the problem online seem a nigh-impossible task. Nevertheless, reflecting on my
own hegemonic traits online, I will attempt to not perpetuate the stereotype, but it raises
problems. I prefer black and I prefer more masculine music, so perhaps in small isolated
instances, hegemony online is simply a reflection of it in the non-virtual world.

Sources Cited
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Berman, Joshua and Bruckman, Amy 2001, ‘The Turing Game’, Convergence, vol.7,
no.3, pp83-102, http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/papers/convergence-tg-01.pdf
Chanter, T 2007, Gender, Contiuum, London
Holland, Travid 2009, Week 5 Blog, tumblr.com, accessed 25/8/2009,
http://tah727.tumblr.com/post/171762829/digc101-week-5-blog
Hughes, C 2002, Women’s Contemporary Lives, Routledge, England
Messerschmidt, JW 1993, Masculinities and Crime: Critique and Reconceptualisation of
Theory, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham Maryland
O’ReillyNet 2007, Interview with danah boyd, by danah boyd and Tatiana Apandi,
accessed 24/8/2009,
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/womenintech/2007/09/07/interview-with-danah-
boyd.html
Parsons, Chad 2007, ‘The Halo Effect: Hegemonic Masculinity in Online Gaming’, Paper
presented at The Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York,
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http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/3/8/6/p183869_inde
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Valenti, Jessica 2007, How The Web Became a Sexists’ Paradise, Guardian.co.uk,
accessed 24/8/2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging
Valenti, Jessica 2009, The End of Anonymous Trolling?, Feministing.com, accessed
25/8/2009, http://www.feministing.com/archives/017322.html