White Warriors and Weak Women: Identifying Central Discourses of Masculinity in Neo-Nazi Telegram Channels
Author(s):
Building on calls for more analyses of constructions of gender within extremist groups, this study examines Australian neo-Nazis’ construction of hegemonic masculinity on the digital media platform, Telegram. Undertaking a keyword co-occurrence analysis of 3,279 posts and a qualitative analysis of 624 posts from 6 Australian neo-Nazi Telegram Channels, we empirically validate how Australian neo-Nazis use this media platform to idealise a strong, white and combat-ready masculinity. This masculinity is centred on protecting ‘vulnerable’ white women and girls from non-white men and simultaneously casts alternative masculinities, in particular those associated with the LGBTQIA + community, as weak and deviant.