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This work aims to explore the discursive strategies of inclusion/exclusion in the Spanish trans-exclusionary space and their reproduction in social media by far-right influencers.

Paper long abstract

In December 2022, the Spanish Parliament passed a new legislation on trans rights. The possibility of changing one’s sex in the Civil Registry without the need for treatment or a medical report (known as “gender self-determination”) was a new trans right that sparked the most discussion and debate. Conservatives, far-rightists, antifeminists, and trans-exclusionary feminists have built a common discursive front against this new right. Although they differ profoundly in their strategies and arguments, this strange political conglomerate converges in its exclusion of trans people through an understanding of “female sex” in nativist terms. This common discursive front was transferred to the public sphere through social media and the promotion of the nativist-sexual framework by far-right influencers.

This work aims to explore the discursive strategies of inclusion/exclusion in the Spanish trans-exclusionary space and their reproduction in social media by far-right influencers. First, I analyze political acts against the Spanish Trans Law where trans-exclusionary feminists, far-right politicians and antifeminist activists participated. Then, I conduct a digital ethnography of different Spanish far-right accounts to observe the degree to which the trans-exclusionary message is reproduced. Based on this material, I observed the use of the nativist framework in Spanish trans-exclusionary discourse and its reproduction in social media. Trans-exclusionary front raises a (cis)gender border that understands cis women as natives of femininity, trans women as illegal immigrants who are potential sexual aggressors, and trans men as infected with “queer ideology.”

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Using methods from digital ethnography, we examine the experience of becoming and being a Tradwife or Softgirl in Sweden. This research addresses how global trends circulate and are adapted to local contexts, in this case Sweden – a welfare state traditionally characterized by high gender equality.

Paper long abstract

Tradwives have emerged as an online trend led by influencers who claim to live by traditional gender norms and document their daily lives on social media. Most do not work outside the home but rather work at home with cooking, cleaning and childcare. The trend overlaps with Soft Girls — Generation Z women who want to focus less on their careers than previous generations and who espouse a traditional feminine aesthetic. Many critics of these trends have expressed concern over the association between Tradwives and far-right political movements; that is, that Tradwives lifestyles are part of wider anti-feminist, anti-immigrant and general anti-left backlash. In Sweden, specifically, further criticism is related to the welfare state: that women who do not work outside the home will have little entitlement to sick leave or pensions.

We look at two groups in the Swedish context: (1) social media influencers who identify as Tradwifes and (2) ‘everyday Tradwives’ – women who are not social media influencers but who aspire to or live in traditional relationships, and consume Tradwife media. Using methods from digital ethnography, we examine the experience of becoming and being a Tradwife, asking (1) What motivates women to adopt a Tradwife lifestyle? (2) How do Tradwives define ‘traditional’ gender roles? (3) How do Tradwives describe their daily lives? (4) How do Swedish-speaking Tradwives position themselves in relation to the wider trend in (primarily) English-language social media? Overall, we explore how global trends circulate and are adapted to local contexts, in this case Sweden.

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This study analyzes Spain’s Red Pill Podcast on TikTok, focusing on manfluencer Jota Vallenilla. It shows how viral content reproduces hegemonic masculinity and discredits feminism through gendertrolling, while also highlighting the active participation of both antifeminist and feminist women.

Paper long abstract

This study examines the narratives emerging from the Red Pill Podcast on TikTok, a manosphere space where antifeminist discourses are reproduced in short and highly viral formats. Through digital ethnography and a dual analysis—of content and discourse—of the twenty most popular videos, it explores how hegemonic masculinity is represented and feminist perspectives are discredited. The results reveal a communicative structure centered on the manfluencer Jota Vallenilla, who constructs a narrative based on male victimization, the ridiculization of feminism, and the systematic use of gendertrolling. The study argues that the podcast functions as a mechanism of control and a patriarchal pedagogy, reproducing gender hierarchies and organizing its discourse around three thematic axes: romantic relationships, masculinity, and feminism. Additionally, the case study raises questions about whether the manosphere is ceasing to be a space exclusively dominated by men, as women—both antifeminist and feminist—actively participate, sharing protagonism and influencing discourse. Overall, the paper offers a critical perspective on the expansion of the manosphere in Spain and its adaptation to new digital media, highlighting, for example, feminist women’s participation, which raises the question of whether their involvement effectively challenges these spaces or inadvertently amplifies their antifeminist messages.

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This paper examines the figure of the Spanish influencer Amadeo Llados and proposes an analysis of the masculinity promoted by viral “mentors” via its ritualistic dimension, providing a virile cartography where contemporary and past imaginaries of rampant masculinity collide.

Paper long abstract

Drawing on a methodology rooted in cultural studies and informed by a post-Warburgian perspective, this paper examines the figure of the prominent Spanish influencer Amadeo Llados. It proposes an analysis of the masculinity promoted by such viral “mentors” through its ritualistic dimension, providing an initial outline of a Landkarte –a complex virile cartography where contemporary and past imaginaries of rampant masculinity collide. The study aims to demonstrate that contemporary remasculinisation (Gótzen 2024) constitutes a replica: a serial repetition of a “phratry” (Parrini 2016) that is perpetually summoned. Such symbolical Wiederkehr represents a regressus to a masculine “point zero,” in which personal renunciation and the accumulation of wealth and assets form the anomalous recipe intended to salvage a supposedly eroded virility. Through an analysis of visual apparatuses on social media, this study links the masculine mentorship advocated in this case study to a broader digital and offline masculine constellation. In doing so, it draws parallels with subcultures such as the “prepper” milieu –a survivalist trend that seeks a kind of magical formula aimed at restoring an independent, autonomous, and plenipotentiary masculinity in times of emergency and uncertainty.

The results presented herein are associated with the Research Accelerator project BODYBOYCOMM: Masculine Restoration, Bodies and Digital Imaginaries (UOC), led by Dr. Miguel Rivas Venegas and Prof. Dr. Begonya Enguix Grau.

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Four-year team-based digital ethnography of China’s tipping-based livestreaming (as streamer and room manager) shows how gendered polarisation becomes platform governance: rankings and patrons institutionalise informal authority (“jianghu”) as vernacular legitimacy.

Paper long abstract

Scholarship on polarisation often centres ideological confrontation and formal political camps. Based on a four-year longitudinal, team-based digital ethnography of China’s tipping-based live video platforms, this paper conceptualises polarisation as a platformised mode of gendered governance within popular and youth cultures.

Methodologically, the study combines participant observation with role-differentiated immersion (“labouring participation”). The first author participated as a streamer and performer, while the second author worked as a room manager (live-stream moderator responsible for chat moderation and community management). This dual positioning enables analysis of how polarised alignments are produced through platform infrastructures and interactional labour.

Polarisation here centres less on overt political issues than on disputes over intimacy and legitimacy: who counts as a “respectable” female performer, what constitutes “professional” labour, and which forms of male participation are recognised as legitimate. Platform mechanisms (leaderboards, intimacy metrics, competitive live battles) translate relational claims into visible, comparable scores, intensifying moral evaluations and producing durable community splits.

We show how high-spending male patrons gain status through rankings and intervene through protection claims and moral discipline. We conceptualise this as platformised jianghu masculinity, a culturally resonant form of informal male authority rooted in loyalty, moralised charisma, and symbolic hierarchy. Here, jianghu refers to an informal order historically associated with opaque, weakly regulated interaction beyond state-centred authority. Platforms institutionalise such authority by rendering it visible and rankable, turning polarisation into a governance mechanism that stabilises platform order and provides a vernacular infrastructure of legitimacy in China’s digital economy.

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Far-right conspiracies hinge not only on race but on gender. Using framing analysis of far-right influencers we show how birth rates, abortion, intermarriage and trans-issues become evidence of Western decline, casting feminists and LGBTQIA+ people as enemies.

Paper long abstract

Far-right conspiracies are often approached through race and ethnicity, yet their persuasive force also relies on gendered plots. This paper argues that gender, sexuality, and ideals of masculinity and femininity are not secondary motifs but core mechanisms through which far-right conspiratorial narratives render demographic anxiety intelligible and morally charged. Building on scholarship on hegemonic gender relations, we analyze how demographic discourse and policy talk are mobilized to translate declining birth rates, abortion, intermarriage, and gender transitioning into “evidence” of civilizational collapse. Drawing on qualitative discourse analysis of far-right propaganda, online texts, and selected extremist writings, we show how these narratives position feminists, progressive actors, LGBTIQ+ people, and gender scholars as existential enemies who allegedly engineer population decline and cultural decay. These targets are frequently woven into older antisemitic and anti-Muslim storylines, producing an integrated threat imaginary that links sexuality, reproduction, and racialized belonging. We further look into how gendered grievance, status loss, and promises of restored patriarchal order help move conspiratorial thinking from interpretation to justification, including in the language of far-right terrorists. By centering gender, the paper clarifies how demographic “crisis” talk becomes an affective and political hinge in contemporary far-right conspiracy ecosystem