Militant masculinity, male grievance, and the politics of democratic decline

Bibliographic Data

ID5893711
AuthorsJoshua M Roose (0000-0002-7689-9652, Deakin University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-21
Publication date2025-10-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589236.2025.2576811
OpenAlexW4415513437
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

This article introduces militant masculinity as a decentralized, affectively charged, and ideologically driven response to perceived male disempowerment. Unlike hegemonic, toxic, or protest masculinities, militant masculinity does not merely express resentment but weaponizes it. By framing feminism, gender equity, and pluralism as existential threats to male sovereignty, it mobilizes symbolic, ideological, and at times physical reassertion as necessary responses. Drawing on a triangulated dataset comprising 80 interviews with Australian men (2019 to 2024), critical discourse analysis of anti-feminist and extremist digital networks, and longitudinal national survey data, this article traces how masculine grievance has evolved into a coherent insurgent logic and infrastructure. Findings reveal a hardening affective architecture built around humiliation, betrayal, and retributive entitlement, which underpins new justifications for violence and anti-democratic action among young men. Militant masculinity is not confined to extremist fringes; it is a trans-ideological mobilization strategy circulating across extreme-right, populist, and jihadist contexts. By conceptualizing militant masculinity as both ideology and emotional infrastructure, this article intervenes critically in debates on gender, extremism, and democratic resilience. Countering this insurgent masculinity requires more than policy reform. It demands a fundamental rethinking of how gender is politicized, mobilized, and weaponized in the twenty-first century

Democracy · Feminism · Militant · Politics · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media