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Paper short abstract

My research seeks to understand how masculinities are shaped in this context of tension and uncertainty. Using a feminist ethnographic approach, the study combines digital ethnography in online spaces where male youth gather and express their views with in-person workshops with young men.

Paper long abstract

In a time of increasing polarization and with far-right movements recruiting especially young men, understanding how adolescents are becoming men is urgent. My doctoral project explores how Chilean teenage boys are experiencing and responding to feminist movements, particularly in the wake of Chile's powerful feminist mobilizations (May 2018), and to far-right discourses and practices in a postdigital context (i.e., where no clear distinction between online and offline can be drawn). This context is further intensified by Chile's current political landscape, with far-right leader José Antonio Kast elected as president. In recent years, a growing number of young men have expressed resistance to gender equality, sometimes turning to radical and antifeminist discourses online with offline effects. This research seeks to understand how masculinities are shaped in this context of tension and uncertainty. Using a feminist ethnographic approach, the study combines digital ethnography in online spaces where male youth gather and express their views with in-person workshops with young men (aged 12-17). The project draws on anthropology, critical masculinity studies, feminist new materialisms, and posthumanist theory to examine masculinities and radicalization not as fixed categories, but as dynamic processes co-created by cultural, affective, technological, and social forces. The research is being conducted in urban areas of Chile and pays close attention to how young men negotiate power, belonging, and vulnerability. By exploring how masculinities are formed in relation to feminist critiques and radical ideas, this project aims to contribute to global conversations on anti-gender and anti-feminist radicalization among youth from Latin America.