This document is the author's post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it. 'Mmm... I love it, bro!': Performances of Masculinity in YouTube Gaming ABSRACT:Despite being ubiquitous and embedded in everyday life, 'the centrality of the Internet is still under-theorized in much masculinities research'. Contributing to the knowledge base in this area, here we place under the microscope the performance of hetero-masculinities undertaken by the three most popular YouTube gaming vloggers in 2015-2016: PewDiePie, VanossGaming and Sky Does Minecraft. The focus of this paper thus sits at the intersection of YouTube vlogging and gaming cultures, a site that is of particular sociological interest given the latter's associations with the (re)production and function of hegemonic masculinity.In examining the performances and constructions of gender by male gamers on YouTube, our research adds to the growing body of work highlighting the emergence of increasing levels of complexity in the construction of contemporary masculine identities.

Building on research identifying sexting as an important aspect of contemporary youth cultures, this article critically explores the ways that homosocial bonding is bound up with, and produced in the context of, young adult men’s discussions of sexting. Drawing on a focus-group study with 37 undergraduate young men based in Melbourne, Australia, we find both deviations from and continuations with the literature that has emphasised men’s homosocial bonding as being predicated on women’s sexualisation and subordination. Discussions of sexting prove to be a site where young men navigate being ‘lads’ prioritising homosocial relations over relations with female partners and objectifying women to demonstrate masculine status, while simultaneously wanting to be respectful men who call out bad behaviour and emphasise trust and mutuality in their relations with women. We make sense of this by drawing on the concepts of ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ homosociality, and by attending to the symbolic boundary work that the young men undertake. In our concluding discussion, we consider the potentially productive, disciplinary role of – and limits to – digital technologies in regulating the production and performance of young masculinities that still rely on the articulation of hierarchies that legitimate gender inequality, even when young men espouse progressive views.

Online gaming cultures can be intense sites of affect. In this compelling account of the aftermath of the #GamerGate controversies concerning women in gaming, the authors trace how misogynistic discourses and feelings were expressed and contested. Devoting particular attention to discussions on the Reddit platform, this book tells an important story of how gendered harassment and hate speech against women can be both intensified and challenged via these kinds of online engagements.

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Through a textual analysis of three noted examples-Bioshock, Spec Ops: The Line, and Grand