(Re)configuring the sexual violence imaginary from an antifeminist perspective: the ideological work of the Spanish manosphere

el trabajo ideológico de la manosfera española

Abstract

For some years now, we have been experiencing a polarization of the public debate regarding the issue of gender equality, with sexual violence committed against women being a hot spot in this discussion. Parallel to the advance of a feminist "fourth wave", an antifeminist movement has been consolidated that is articulated around the vindication of the rights of men and the denial of the existence of violence with a specific gender component, which it has been articulated primarily on and from the Internet. The depth of affective-ideological discourses in society in general (and in certain groups in particular), is being evidenced in studies that show the growing tendency among young men to affirm that violence with a gender component does not exist, but rather it is an “ideological invention”. In this article, we provide explanations about the emergence, configuration and pollination of anti-feminist discourses that arise from misogynist communities on the Internet (from the so-called Spanish manosphere) and that are decisive in shaping the social perception of sexual violence committed against women. in Spain. We have obtained the results through a multi-technical qualitative research that combines multi-platform digital ethnography, qualitative interviews with experts and the socio-hermeneutic analysis of memes. In our study we conclude that through memetics and other digital social practices in the Spanish manosphere, a fundamental ideological work is being carried out that contributes to the trivialization, normalization and legitimization of sexual violence committed against women in its various forms.