‘How do I become blue pilled?’: Masculine ontological insecurity on 4chan’s advice board

Abstract

Through an analysis of 4chan’s /adv/ or ‘advice’ board – in which predominately male users seek advice on life matters – here we examine masculine ontological insecurity and its implications for understanding how ‘toxic’ masculine identities emerge, and how young men more generally struggle to make sense of their lives. Advancing extant scholarship, our findings uncover an ‘on the cusp’ masculine identity – subject to the anxieties and self-perceived failures which act as preconditions of toxic ideologies and outcomes, but also seemingly yet to practice such (il)logics. Responses from the community suggest three ways of addressing, or making sense of, the problems users faced. Finally, and of relevance to both the theorising of contemporary masculinities and related socio-positive interventions, we highlight the (seemingly) odd paradox of vulnerable male users being drawn to express their vulnerabilities on a platform notorious for its insensitivities.

No Space for Reddit Spacing: Mapping the Reflexive Relationship Between Groups on 4chan and Reddit

“…Instead, differentiation with transgender identities reflexively stimulates imaginaries of 4chan and /pol/ as rigidly adherent to conservative gender categories. /pol/'s transphobia in this sense can be read as a fascist response to the same "male ontological insecurity" that runs throughout 4chan (Maloney et al, 2022) and that has historically contributed to its users' misogyny and self-loathing (Beran, 2019). Ironically, however, /pol/'s transphobic discourse, which uses Reddit as a reference point to affirm its own gender traditionalism, emphasizes exactly what its users ideologically mean to disavow: that gender identities are performative and discursively constructed (Fathallah, 2021;Pascoe, 2011, p. 5).…”

“…/pol/ users have eagerly promoted gender traditionalism by coating it with new Internet slang: virile “chads” and “alphas” stand above failing “virgins” and “betas,” while submissive “tradwifes” 23 contrast with feminists and “SJWs,” the latter which can be seen as a reformulation of the old fascist stereotype of the “too ‘modern’ woman, Americanized, independent and masculinized” (Bellassai, 2007, p. 329; see also Beran, 2019; Massanari & Chess, 2018). Such cross-site transphobia reflexively positions /pol/ as much more reactionary and orthodox compared with the “plurality of masculinities” featured on other 4chan boards (Maloney et al, 2022; Phillips, 2015, p. 75) and in “geek masculinity” and “nerd culture” more generally (Kendall, 2011; Salter, 2018). Instead, differentiation with transgender identities reflexively stimulates imaginaries of 4chan and /pol/ as rigidly adherent to conservative gender categories.…”

‘We the people, not the sheeple’: QAnon and the transnational mobilisation of millennialist far-right conspiracy theories

“…Broadly, the methodological approach adopted for this research was modelled on the work of Maloney, et al (2022), in that it blends computational and qualitative analysis. In terms of computational analysis, this research conducted a posting frequency analysis, used to understand patterns of participation within two Australian QAnon communities and captured how content moderation affected their ability to conduct activism.…”