In 2018, Alek Minassian killed 11 and injured 15 people in Toronto in a terrorist attack, later stating to police and on social media that his actions were motivated by manosphere ideologies, misogynist terrorism, and a revenge for perceived sexual and social rejection by women. In Canada and internationally, this example of “misogynistic extremism” (Regher, 2022, p. 1) is not unique. Manosphere masculinity and technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) are increasingly prevalent with the evolution of digital technologies. Reproducing gender inequity, both phenomena have captured the Canadian imagination as great social challenges of our time. Schools are inadequately prepared to respond to these evolving public crises, in turn revictimizing survivors (Pepler & Milton, 2013).
This SSHRC funded investigation employs feminist intersectional theory and qualitative methodology to investigate student, teacher, and administrator experiences of manosphere masculinity and TFSV in and around Ontario secondary schools. TFSV is defined as “a range of behaviors where digital technologies are used to facilitate both virtual and facetoface sexually based harms” (Henry & Powell, 2018, p. 195). Manosphere masculinity is defined in relation to antifeminist rhetoric and extreme misogyny propagated in online communities such as the incel movement (Ging, 2017). The connection between normative and harmful masculinities and genderbased and sexual violence is well established in decades of literature (Peretz & Vidmar, 2021). Schools have long been identified as key spaces in which people perform, police, and negotiate gender identities through acts of violence (Ringrose & Renold, 2010). Less understood is how the evolution of harmful masculinities propagated by manosphere ideologies intersects with the evolution of sexual violence online. This project will help to develop this emerging line of inquiry in context of secondary schools.
The research questions framing this inquiry include: (1) How do secondary students, teachers, and administrators experience manosphere masculinity and TFSV in and around school? (2) What suggestions do secondary students, teachers, and administrators offer to challenge manosphere masculinity in and around school? (3) What supports are needed to prevent, resist, and support individuals who experience incidents of TFSV in and around school?
The study seeks to meet the following objectives: (1) Create new knowledge and build an emerging theory on secondary student, teacher, and administrator experiences of manosphere masculinity and TFSV in the context of secondary school, (2) Inquire into secondary student, teacher, and administrator perspectives on how to challenge manosphere masculinity in and around schools and on what supports are needed to prevent, resist, and support individuals who experience incidents of TFSV, and (3) Provide insights into how educators, schools and school boards, and community organizations can better support students and staff who experience various forms of harm related to manosphere masculinity and TFSV. Among its expected outcomes is to expand the reach and effectiveness of sexual violence prevention work in and around schools and to inform ongoing discussions on the role of education in reproducing and resisting online sexual violence and harmful forms of masculinity.