Comunicación y Género [Communication and Gender]

Emotional habitus through media: toxic romance and the rise of “malaise” in intimate relationships

Brigida Orria — 2025-07-02

This study investigates the role of emotional habitus in contemporary media, focusing on the portrayal of toxic masculinity in the Italian TV series “Mare Fuori” and its influence on digital culture, particularly on TikTok. Emotions, rather than being solely individual experiences, are examined as socially constructed phenomena embedded within gendered power structures. Through an analysis of the "malaise" (malessere), a character romanticized for his dominance, jealousy, and possessiveness, this research reveals how patriarchal norms are reproduced and legitimized via popular culture and social media trends. The emotional habitus of "malaise" is shaped by emotions such as jealousy and anger, manifesting in control and dominance, key traits of hegemonic masculinity. Meanwhile, the women associated with this figure internalize emotions of suffering and fear, reinforcing narratives of submission and affective dependence. Moreover, the study underscores the heuristic and practical value of the concept of emotional habitus in understanding the intersection of social norms, emotions, and power dynamics in intimate relationships

The impact of song lyrics on young people's social dynamics: a critical discourse analysis perspective

Paloma Bravo-Fuentes — 2025-07-02

This research investigates the influence of urban music genres on the configuration of identities and the dynamics of youth social relations. It focuses on the lyrics of these music genres, which often contain references to violence, promiscuity, consumerism, machismo and substance abuse. In an environment dominated by technologies and social networks, it is postulated that these lyrics can have a significant impact on youth behavior, affecting their social development. The aim is to discern how these genres stereotype and normalize behavior in young people. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, we examine the content of these lyrics and their relationship to social dynamics, seeking to understand their integration into social norms and their effect on youth perceptions and behavior. The findings reveal a correlation between exposure to these genres and youth behaviors, highlighting their influence on the formation of identities and social practices.

Between feminist visibility and anti-feminist backlash: exploring the Twitter discussion of the Le Monde “anti-#MeToo” letter

Vittoria Bernardini — 2025-06-26

The present study analyses a controversial case study in the #MeToo campaign: the publication of an “anti-#MeToo” letter in Le Monde in January 2018. Through content analysis of a sample of social media posts in the week that followed the publication of the letter, the study explores how users interpret a high-profile instance of backlash against #MeToo at the height of its visibility. This analysis brings to light a number of themes that are useful to understand many tensions between “popular feminism” and “popular misogyny” in current debates on gender politics, including anti-feminist backlash, witch-hunt and moral panic discourses, and women’s and men’s claims to victimhood.

A Girls’-Eye View: Italian female adolescence and girlhood media representations

Romana Andò — 2025-06-26

Over the last few years, production companies and streaming platforms in Italy have enriched their catalogues with films and TV series targeting adolescents, where the topoi of this age are addressed in order to build identification and engagement: conflict with parents, school, self-discovery in terms of identity and sexuality, body changes, friendship, love, rule breaking and so on.

In the plethora of adolescent-themed films and TV series, the experience of girlhood is narrated with its own specificity, and not necessarily within the frame of post-feminist girl power culture, but in more nuanced ways, representing all the issues and contradictions of being a girl.

In order to understand the degree of identification with such products, the A Girls’ Eye View research project has interviewed girls from ten different schools across Italy on themes such as media consumption, adolescence, body issues, gender issues.

This article focuses on three main aspects of girlhood and how it is narrated by both interviewees and media products: parent-adolescent conflict, the relationship with one’s own body especially once it enters the regime of heterosexist society, and mother-daughter relationships. What the research has discovered is that, even though streaming platforms and production companies have made significant effort in portraying relatable experiences of girlhood, some topics are addressed in ways that are very different from the responses of the girls interviewed. Nonetheless, the multiplication of girlhood narratives has led to a higher degree of appropriation, adaptation, and negotiation between media products and audience.

Incels vs. Femcels: Dissecting the Gendered Realities of Involuntary Celibacy

Fabrizia Pasciuto — 2025-07-01

The aim of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis between two web subcultures: Incels (male involuntary celibates) and Femcels (female involuntary celibates), both marked by a radical view of social reality and strong feelings of envy, anger, and resentment toward the opposite sex. Focusing on the /r9k/ (Incels) and Crystal.cafe (Femcels) imageboards, it examines how derogatory language fosters group identity and homophilic networks, fueling emotional polarization. Through Digital Media Ethnography, we investigate how these dynamics unfold, exploring whether such interactions deepen exclusion and resentment, with potential implications for real-world social relations.

What color is your Bugatti? Gym bros and the neoliberal narrative of the manosphere

Rosa Marquez de la Orden — 2025-06-23

There is a growing number of fitness influencers on the Internet, popularly known as gym bros, who use physical exercise to reinforce a masculine ideal based on control, strength and money as symbols of status and power. The most famous Spanish-speaking figure is Spaniard Amadeo Lladós, with over one and a half million followers on his social media platforms. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the ideological connection of gym bros with the manosphere, for which 25 videos published by Lladós on Instagram were reviewed using the Critical Discourse Analysis technique. The results show how their narratives share language and connect with the masculinist and neoliberal ideals of the manosphere.

Communication and Experiences of Street Sexual Harassment: Impact on Women's Lives in Spain

Alba Adá Lameiras — 2025-06-26

The unwanted interactions that women suffer in public spaces have historically been ignored. This is the most normalized gender violence, masked as courtship, which has become one of the most common human rights violations. In order to analyze and deepen the impact of Street Sexual Harassment in the lives of women in Spain, a qualitative research was conducted through in-depth interviews. The results show that Sexual Street Harassment is a social problem that affects the majority of women in Spain, especially the youngest ones. This type of violence is perpetrated by unknown men, provoking negative feelings and changes in the lifestyle of the victims, such as restrictions in their mobility. In short, public space has become a threat to women, where they suffer different types of violence that threaten their freedom and physical and moral integrity, but which is still not given sufficient importance.

The female journalist in #MeToo cinema: analysis of She Said (2022) & Bombshell (2019)

Carlos Serrano Martín — 2025-07-01

This study examines the cinematic representation of the events that led to the emergence of the #MeToo movement through two of its most emblematic films: She Said (2022) and Bombshell (2019). By watching and analyzing these films, the research explores the events that sparked the #MeToo movement on October 15, 2017, a pivotal initiative in denouncing abuses against women in both professional and personal spheres.

La incomodidad hecha palabra. Lecturas contemporáneas sobre identidades femeninas

María Ángeles Chavarría Aznar — 2025-06-26

Reseña sobre el libro La rosa incómoda.

Trabajo en el que se presentan propuestas relacionadas con la revisión del canon literario, la eliminación de estereotipos de género y la búsqueda de identidades a través de la lectura de obras escritas por mujeres.