THE PROFESSIONALISATION OF NETWORKED AND REFRACTED MISOGYNY AMONG ESTONIAN MANFLUENCERS ON TIKTOK

Abstract

In recent years, a specific type of influencers has notoriously popularised – misogynist influencers, with Andrew Tate standing out as the most prominent one. While popular and networked misogyny (Banet-Weiser & Miltner, 2016) and various parts of the manosphere, together with related conceptualisations have been well studied, Andrew Tate and other misogynists as (aspirational) influencers have received little academic attention. This study will focus on these aspirational misogynist content creators, exploring the circulation of their misogynist content on social media, the professionalisation and monetisation of misogyny, and lastly, how these communities keep registering ‘under the radar’ (Abidin, 2021). Using a mixed-method approach, this study will focus on misogynist influencers in Estonia. Digital ethnography (Pink et al., 2016; Markham, 2017) will be the dominant method employed, exploring the strategic circulation, professionalisation (Greenwood, 1966; Trice, 1993) and monetisation aspects of misogynist content on various social platforms. Secondly, a combination of qualitative content analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) and socio-semiotic visual analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2020) is used to study the textual and visual methods of social steganography (boyd & Marwick, 2011). Very preliminary results show that in the process of professionalisation, ideologies of masculinities are created, each of which emphasises different aspects (e.g., financial, physical, sexual, etc). The results of this study are crucial for understanding the circulation and professionalisation of misogynistic content in the context of networked misogyny (Banet-Weiser & Miltner, 2016) – an important phenomenon related to the influencer industry.