The Spornosexual

The Affective Contradictions of Male Body-Work in Neoliberal Digital Culture

Bibliographic Data

ID3636763
AuthorsJamie Hakim (0000-0001-6767-6564, University of East Anglia, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume27
Issue2
Pages231-241
Publication date2018-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589236.2016.1217771
OpenAlexW2484342643
LanguageEN
Citations received40
References cited29

Since 2008 there has been an empirically observable rise in young British men sharing images of their worked-out bodies on social media platforms. This article draws on interviews with men who engage in this popular cultural practice to suggest that it is an embodied and mediated response to the precarious structures of feeling produced by neoliberal austerity. It begins by arguing that as young men’s traditional breadwinning capacities are being eroded in a post-financial crisis austerity economy, increasing numbers of them are turning to sharing images of their worked out bodies as a way of feeling valuable. Moreover, by speaking to men who engage in this practice, it becomes possible to map the affective contradictions of inhabiting the precarious spaces of austerity culture. The article concludes by suggesting that within these affective contradictions lies the potential of resistance to neoliberalism’s ongoing territorialisation of everyday life

Digital culture · Media studies · Political economy · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Engineering · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology