Enraged: emotions at the Center of Online Anti-feminist Reactions in Argentina

Abstract

For several decades, sociological analysis has been providing a critical reading to understand the political dimension of emotions. In this framework, in public discussions involving issues of gender, sexualities and feminism, it is important to analyze the role played by emotions such as anger, indignation, resentment and hatred, especially in online spaces. For the analysis proposed here, we conducted a digital ethnography in the six most popular anti-feminist YouTube channels in Argentina. We focus on three axes: the cross-accusations between feminists, pointed out as women who hate men and the family, and anti-feminists, characterized as misogynists and conservatives; the characterization of feminism as an authoritarian and censorship discourse, which opposes truth and common sense; and the appeal to the link between masculinity, anger and indignation as a driver of anti-feminist reaction and political action. The analysis shows how this articulation manages to establish a powerful discourse that neutralizes tensions with the demands of rationality while constituting a common enemy that would justify this reaction, which appears as "rebellion" against the "gender dictatorship".