Search Results (35)

This article reflects on the methodological and emotional dimensions of conducting ethnographic research on online misogyny through technology-mediated encounters. Drawing on research about online misogyny against climate justice activists, I explore how this format, following interlocutors’ preferences, enabled forms of connection and nuance that would not have been possible if we had met in person. I argue that it afforded participants greater control over the interview environment and the visibility they granted me, reshaping power relations, enabling more symmetrical interactions, and opening up spaces for reflections on online misogyny within a wider constellation of struggles. Methodologically, the paper examines both the opportunities and risks of technology-mediated conversations when researching sensitive topics, including the potential for over-disclosure and the danger of reproducing the power dynamics we seek to avoid. Reflecting on my own positionality as a woman researching online misogyny “at home”, I discuss how embracing my own vulnerability became part of building rapport, while continuous “emotional management” was necessary to process the emotional weight of the fieldwork. I suggest that technology-mediated interactions should not be seen as a replacement for face-to-face research but as a context-sensitive method that, in certain cases, uniquely facilitates engagement with sensitive topics and vulnerable interlocutors. Full article

There are discriminatory, structured, opaque human rights violations that keep the socioeconomically vulnerable subservient, a social problem that goes against the core Christian principle: humans are created in the image of God and all share equal dignity. Studies show that sociocultural, political, and economic elements are available in society, which form into clusters, namely social representations, helping people to categorize others and interact with her/him. They carry with them the historical consciousness, providing the people with social-living tools such as social identity and the like. The qualitative empirical research conducted among the Catholic youth of Tamil Nadu, India, showed that the enslaving semantic elements contained in the social knowledge facilitate the youth to affiliate with a group and to disaffiliate from another. Caste-ridden endogamic semantic elements are part of this knowledge. This affects individual as well as social cognition. Therefore, besides conceptual understanding, epistemological approaches are necessary to eliminate the enslaving elements contained in social knowledge. This is possible through the Ego–Alter dialogue. Ego stands for an individual, group, institution, movement, or anything similar. Alter can stand for social knowledge, which is available in society. Full article

This reflective essay presents some examples of overcoming challenges that can face academic researchers who study young people and far-right populism using qualitative methods. Misogyny and mistrust of elites are common features of far-right populism. Therefore, a challenge lies in the markers of age, gender and institutional status of the researchers themselves, which might prevent rapport from developing between an interviewer and interviewee. Moreover, there is the challenge of the digital generation to be faced in any such investigation. Young people today inhabit a fast-moving world of social media engagement which can be difficult for anyone older to comprehend. Suitably selected young people can assist research endeavours in the role of cultural brokers. Using examples of lived research experience, the author invites reader reflection on attuning research approaches to the lifeworlds of young people, especially young men, who engage with far-right populism. Full article

This paper considers the challenges facing qualitative researchers who study far-right populism and youth. First, there is the question of the method itself. Across the relevant literature, it seems more popular to use online methodologies rather than conduct face-to-face interviews. This is not surprising given the difficulties of talking face-to-face with a specific cohort of young people who are often suspicious of outsiders and who may even pose a personal security risk to the interviewer. Second, the age, gender, and institutional status of a researcher may constitute an obstacle to the effectiveness of a face-to-face interview. Common features of far-right populism are mistrust of elites and misogyny. Moreover, the online world of youth today is a dynamic technological sphere that may be hard to grasp for someone from a previous generation. This paper is a reflective essay that uses examples of research in action. It aims to invite reader reflection on attuning research approaches to the lived experiences of youth drawn to far-right populism Full article

Disempowering experiences of military service and transition for women veterans exist within an established, dominant, masculinised culture, in which their presence is highly visible, challenged, and often subject to institutional prejudice. Sexual abuse of women in the military, in particular, is a persistent finding in contemporary international research and national inquiries into military culture in countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (US), and Canada. This study sought to understand military service, transition to civilian life, and post-military experiences of Australian women veterans, specifically their experiences of discrimination, military sexual harassment and assault, and consequent military sexual trauma (MST). In-depth qualitative interviews were undertaken with 22 Australian women veterans that examined how women veterans manage their identity as women in the military. Issues included gender-based challenges in conforming to a masculinised culture, experiences of misogyny, sexual harassment and assault, systemic failures to recognize women’s specific health needs, and experiences of separation from the military and transition, including help-seeking and engagement with services to address their experiences of MST. Women veterans’ adverse experiences largely stemmed from an entrenched masculinised military culture, in which military sexual assault was enabled, ignored, and condoned. Military and veteran support services have been slow to recognize, acknowledge, and address this significant issue. Full article

The term incel is a neologism combining “involuntary” and “celibate”, describing men who experience involuntary absence from sexual and romantic relationships. Incels frequently espouse conspiratorial and misogynistic ideologies, often engaging in verbal aggression. The present study aimed at qualitatively exploring the emotional experiences and beliefs articulated within an online incel community, contributing to the formation of its collective identity. A thread (453 comments) sampled from an Italian “incel” forum was analyzed by two independent raters, using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: (a) “non-persons (i.e., women) are not like us” revealed perceived gender inequality and misogynistic beliefs, (b) “without experiences in adolescence you are ruined” reflected the belief that early romantic and sexual experiences are crucial for later relationship satisfaction, (c) “I have no life” captured expressions of profound distress and life dissatisfaction, and (d) “only ours is true suffering” highlighted a sense of unique victimhood. Incel group identity was shaped by gender role stress, primarily stemming from the perceived failure to meet socially constructed expectations of hegemonic masculinity. Suffering emerged as the dominant emotional experience, seemingly exacerbated by feelings of hopelessness regarding romantic and sexual prospects. The perceived subordinate status of men and male suffering were exploited to rationalize and perpetuate misogyny. The observed incels’ openness in discussing experiences of suffering and trauma may present an opportunity for the development of preventive interventions aimed at increasing help-seeking behavior in this population. Full article

Our research examines a unique case of the complex interplay between two wealthy brothers and their actions of gender-based violence. In presenting the case of the Tate brothers, British influencers who settled in Romania, we explore how they gained notoriety through their wealth, their online presence, and controversial ideas that promote misogyny. In a survey involving 56 young and young–mature participants, we highlighted perceptions of the Tate brothers alongside attitudes toward wealth, gender roles and norms, and misogyny. Our findings indicate a predominantly negative sentiment towards the Tate brothers, particularly regarding their wealthy class position and how their class power is unfolded through misogyny in their online presence. This study underscores the urgent need for national and international authorities and NGOs to improve the surveillance of misogynistic men’s discourses and practices to combat violence against women. Additionally, it highlights the importance of increasing awareness about the detrimental consequences of gender inequality created through the triadic nexus of class privilege, masculinity, and misogyny. Full article

Online misogyny is a significant societal challenge that reinforces gender inequalities and discourages women from engaging fully in digital spaces. Traditional moderation methods often fail to address the dynamic and context-dependent nature of misogynistic language, making adaptive solutions essential. This study presents a framework that integrates advanced natural-language processing techniques with strategic data augmentation to improve the detection of misogynistic content. Key contributions include emoji decoding to interpret symbolic communication, contextual expansion using Sentence-Transformer models, and LDA-based topic modeling to enhance data richness and contextual understanding. The framework incorporates machine-learning, deep-learning, and Transformer-based models to handle complex and nuanced language. Performance analysis highlights the effectiveness of the selected models, and comparative results emphasize the transformative role of data augmentation. This augmentation significantly enhanced model robustness, improved generalization, and strengthened the detection of misogynistic content. Full article

This article examines a single figure from Christian history, the reformed sinner known as Musa of Rome (d.c. 593). Tracing the evolution of Musa from Gregory the Great’s Dialogues to early modern pastoral texts, this study explores processes of condemnation, recalibration, and negotiation regarding dance in premodern Christianity. The first section analyzes medieval portrayals of Musa as expressions of “choreophobia,” a term borrowed from dance studies scholar Anthony Shay that denotes cultural anxiety surrounding dance. Here, I argue that choreophobic renditions of Musa sedimented medieval misogyny and conceptualized sin. The second section turns to late medieval sources that assess dance differently vis-à-vis dance studies scholar André Lepecki’s concept of “choreopolice” or “choreopolicing”. For this study, choreopolicing highlights how ecclesiastical authorities refashioned Musa as a moralizing vehicle to articulate and implement clerical agendas. The third and final section explores Musa’s inspiring aura as a sacred muse. In this vein, her kinesthetic afterlives helped Christian laity apprehend Marian piety, visualize the resurrected body, and communicate hope for redemption. Methodologically, this study embraces the frameworks of religious studies, medieval studies, and dance studies. However fictional and embellished retellings of the Musa story were, this article—the first in-depth scholarly study dedicated to Musa of Rome—demonstrates how the medieval dancing body manifested a site of political contestation, ecclesiastical control, and individual redemption. Full article

Background: The evolution of women’s football over the past three decades has been remarkable in terms of development, visibility, and acceptance, transforming into a discipline with growing popularity and professionalization. Significant advancements in gender equality and global visibility have occurred, and the combination of emerging talent, increasing commercial interest, and institutional support will continue to drive the growth and consolidation of women’s football worldwide. Methods: The purpose of this study was to present a bibliometric analysis of articles on the evolution of women’s football in terms of scientific production as well as its causes and motivations over the past 30 years (1992–2024). A total of 128 documents indexed in the Web of Science database were reviewed. Outcome measures were analyzed using RStudio version 4.3.1 (Viena, Austria) software and the Bibliometrix data package to evaluate productivity indicators including the number of articles published per year, most productive authors, institutions, countries, and journals as well as identify the most cited articles and common topics. Results: Scientific production on women’s football has shown sustained growth, particularly since 2010. Key research areas have focused on injury prevention, physical performance, psychosocial factors, motivation, and leadership. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain have emerged as the most productive countries in this field, with strong international collaboration reflected in co-authorship networks. Conclusions: The study revealed a clear correlation between the evolution of women’s football and the increase in scientific production, providing a strong foundation for future research on emerging topics such as the importance of psychological factors, sport motivation and emotional well-being on performance, gender differences at the physiological and biomechanical levels, or misogyny in social networks, thus promoting comprehensive development in this sport modality. Full article

The growing popularity of social networking platforms worldwide has substantially increased the presence of offensive language on these platforms. To date, most of the systems developed to mitigate this challenge focus primarily on English content. However, this issue is a global concern, and therefore, other languages, such as Spanish, are involved. This article addresses the task of identifying hate speech, racism, and misogyny in Spanish within the Colombian context on social networks, and introduces a gold standard dataset specifically developed for this purpose. Indeed, the experiment compares the performance of TLM models from Deep Learning methods, such as BERT, Roberta, XLM, and BETO adjusted to the Colombian slang domain, then compares the best TLM model against a GPT, having a significant impact on achieving more accurate predictions in this task. Finally, this study provides a detailed understanding of the different components used in the system, including the architecture of the models and the selection of functions. The best results show that the BERT model achieves an accuracy of 83.6% for hate speech detection, while the GPT model achieves an accuracy of 90.8% for racism speech and 90.4% for misogyny detection. Full article

Women’s experiences of military service and transition occur within a highly dominant masculinized culture. The vast majority of research on military veterans reflects men’s experiences and needs. Women veterans’ experiences, and therefore their transition support needs, are largely invisible. This study sought to understand the role and impact of gender in the context of the dominant masculinized culture on women veterans’ experiences of military service and transition to civilian life. In-depth qualitative interviews with 22 Australian women veterans elicited four themes: (1) Fitting in a managing identity with the military; (2) Gender-based challenges in conforming to a masculinized culture—proving worthiness, assimilation, and survival strategies within that culture; (3) Women are valued less than men—consequences for women veterans, including misogyny, sexual harassment and assault, and system failures to recognize women’s specific health needs and role as mothers; and (4) Separation and transition: being invisible as a woman veteran in the civilian world. Gendered military experiences can have long-term negative impacts on women veterans’ mental and physical health, relationships, and identity due to a pervasive masculinized culture in which they remain largely invisible. This can create significant gender-based barriers to services and support for women veterans during their service, and it can also impede their transition support needs. Full article

Over the years, the field of forensic anthropology has become more diverse, bringing unique perspectives to a previously homogeneous field. This diversification has been accompanied by recognizing the need for advocacy and activism in an effort to support the communities we serve: marginalized communities that are often overrepresented in the forensic population. As such, forensic anthropologists see the downstream effects of colonialism, white supremacy, inequitable policies, racism, poverty, homophobia, transphobia, gun violence, and misogyny. Some argue that advocacy and activism have no place in forensic anthropological praxis. The counterarguments for engaging in advocacy and activism uphold white, heterosexual, cisgender, and ableist privilege by arguing that perceived objectivity and unbiased perspectives are more important than personally biasing experiences and positionality that supposedly jeopardize the science and expert testimony. Advocacy and activism, however, are not new to the practice of anthropology. Whether through sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, or other areas of biological anthropology, activism and advocacy play an important role, using both the scientific method and community engagement. Using a North American approach, we detail the scope of the issues, address how advocacy and activism are perceived in the wider discipline of anthropology, and define ways in which advocacy and activism can be utilized more broadly in the areas of casework, research, and education. Full article

On the fifth of February 2022, a man gruesomely murdered his seventeen-year-old wife, Mona Heydari, in a city in a southern province of Iran. The man then shocked bystanders by strolling in public spaces while carrying his wife’s severed head. This paper focuses on the case of Mona’s killing and investigates the state, media, and online user-created reactions to the incident. The paper aims to (i) offer an in-depth exploration of himpathy with the perpetrator and (ii) investigate the role of the law and the state in the normalization and perpetuation of violence committed by men against women in the name of ‘honor.’ This paper extends the usage of the concept of himpathy (by Manne, 2017) as a cluster of biases that direct sympathy towards men who commit violence against women to the institutional and legal realms. It also draws on the traditional notion of gheirat, referring to protecting one’s ‘honor,’ and explores its role in Iranian law to show that the Iranian legal system hinges upon it, therefore legitimating misogyny and femicide. Full article

“Who can find a virtuous woman?” (Prov. 31:10 KJV). My entire life, I have heard and read messages about the “virtuous” woman, as depicted in Proverbs 31:10–31. Though many herald this character as the standard for godly women, I find her portrayal problematic. She is depicted as a one-dimensional worker bee, never engaged in rest, recreation, or relationship building. Further, her spiritual location and formation go unmentioned. How did such a limited illustration become the religious paradigm by which women and girls are measured? At its root is white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalistic misogyny (WSPCM), employed in churches to consign women to “safe”, secondary status while still using them as workhorses and sources of income to keep institutions viable. Once internalized, women and girls bear the crushing weight of an unhealthy, unattainable achievement, struggling to become a fictitious, unrealistic figure. In this article, I refute the WSPCM interpretation of the Proverbs 31 woman as the standard for faithful, Spirit-filled women, offering instead a liberative paradigm grounded in womanist hermeneutics, ethics, and spirituality. This approach provides a critique of and corrective for the oppressive, erroneous, and dangerous interpretations of “virtue” and “womanhood” that do violence to female personhood, especially in the name of religion. Full article