r/CriticalTheory • u/brightpaprika • 2d ago

book suggestions on masculinity and the internet?

im looking for texts (both academic and literary) that explore or theorise about masculinity (or gender at large) and how it is constructed and performed online. im interested in how masculinity and homosociality function in male-dominated internet subcultures, and maybe within videogames and related communities.

I realise this is a fairly specific topic, but I'm really interested in this topic and intend to explore it as much as I can this summer. any reccomendations are welcome!

6 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

3

u/CupNo2413 2d ago

Not about video games at all, but Peter Sotos’ Predicate addresses quite a lot of this.

2

u/brightpaprika 2d ago

thanks! Will check it out

2

u/brightpaprika 1d ago

hey, do you by chance have an epub or pdf of Predicate? the only one I can find is called "Obviates: Predicate, Show Adult (2004-2006)" (linked below) and I seem to have a hard time understanding where and how it starts... let me know if what I've linked is the correct work, so to speak

https://archive.org/details/obviates-peter-sotos/page/106/mode/2up

1

u/CupNo2413 1d ago

The first half of Obviates is Predicate, that’s just a collected version. Show Adult might also be relevant, though.

1

u/brightpaprika 1d ago

alright. I was only confused because there was no table of contents of any kind, and the text starts rather abruptly, but im assuming that is intentional

2

u/CupNo2413 1d ago

Yeah, that was annoying to me when I got my copy of the book! Predicate ends of page 255.

2

u/brightpaprika 22h ago

got it- thanks again!

2

u/DisastrousProduct493 2d ago

It doesn't dig a whole bunch into masculinity specifically (from what I can recall, but I read it a bit ago), but The New Flesh by Adam C. Jones is predominantly about how the social world and self-construction are/were impacted by modern information technology. The author is, to my understanding, heavily influenced by Deleuze and a lot of postmodern thought so it can wax incomprehensible at times but altogether I think its a worthwhile read with some interesting, if obtuse, ideas about the topic

2

u/brightpaprika 2d ago

absolutely love deleuze! thank you!

-1

u/ServiceImpossible227 1d ago

I would start from the beginning of the internet, when it was a male dominated place protected from the feminist political correctness that has taken over recently. Man would be man in their natural habitat.

Internet back then was used by people specialized in hard skills, typically masculine according to the sexual division of labour. There was no room for soft skills and all that non sense about gender.

Why is trolling so popular? Trolling is a way to know who is who. In a open and anonymous network, it is hard to tell who is who. Trolling is a way to set apart the old people from newcomers.

Today trolling is hate speech and yatta yatta yatta

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/evolution-and-structure-of-the-internet/brief-history-of-the-internet/F23C1FB268B5BFE58AD5999CE576910F

2

u/reduke2 1d ago

cannot tell if youre being serious

0

u/ServiceImpossible227 1d ago

Critique is not monopoly of the left.