Tobias Raun
Biographic Data
| ID | 319009 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tobias Raun |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tobias |
| FAMILY NAME | Raun |
| SIGNATURE | RAUN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Roskilde University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3551-2818 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Educate yourself! Exploring feminist politics and self-development in Danish online fat activism
This article explores Danish fat activism and feminist politics on Instagram. Based on a 6-months ethnographic and digital fieldwork among Danish fat activists on Instagram, the article investigates the social implications of challenging normative body ideals online. Through ethnographic examples, the article illustrates how learning about fat acceptance through a fat accepting community is a liberating, deeply personal and transformative process…
Selling manhood online. Cultural imaginaries of testosterone in the marketing of the nutritional supplement T8
In this article, we analyze the marketing of T8, a nutritional supplement sold to the Danish market on the promise of raising (cisgendered) men’s natural production of the sex hormone testosterone. T8 is one out of many testosterone enhancing supplements that have resurfaced and are marketed online, and we understand T8 as an example of the current bio-medicalization paradigm, which increasingly frames men’s health in terms of hormone levels. In …
Masculinity as plasticity: Exploring Masculinity in Times of Mediatization and Biomedicalization
The article presents and engages with key conceptual developments within men and masculinity studies, while also highlighting queer and trans theoretical critiques of assumptions that position masculinity as inherently tied to cis male identity. The prevalent tendency to analyze cis and trans masculinities as separate and distinct identities is, as argued, unproductive. Conceiving masculinity through the lens of plasticity instead enables both a …
‘We belong to something beautiful’: Julie Vu’s and Madeline Stuart’s use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram
This article analyses the use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram. Zooming in on the internet celebrities, Julie Vu, a Canadian transgender model, beauty queen and makeup artist, and Madeline Stuart, an Australian photo/runway model with Down syndrome, we explore the ways in which they both engage in building and strengthening their self-branding practices by actively drawing on their own self-representa…
The mediatization of self-tracking: Knowledge production and community building in YouTube videos
This article investigates a community of men who use the pharmaceuticals Minoxidil and Finasteride to enable and restore beard and hair growth, and who track and trace the effects on YouTube. It argues that the traditional positions of expert and patient are deterritorialized by the digitalization of health discourses and practices, and that the camera in these YouTube videos acts as a mediating/performative factor. The article seeks to answer th…
Medicalized Masculinities
While studies of masculinities often trace processes of either medicalization or mediatization, few interrogate masculinities at their very intersection. Doing so is the main contribution of this panel, which brings together cases that illustrate the effects these large-scale changes in digital and medical technologies have on masculinities today. Theoretically, the panel is based on the notion that society and everyday life are increasingly inte…
Capitalizing intimacy: New subcultural forms of micro-celebrity strategies and affective labour on YouTube
This article is a redevelopment of my previous studies, characterizing the media genre of – and community building through – transgender video blogging. Focusing on one of the most famous video bloggers at the moment, the Canadian Julie Van Vu, I investigate new forms of transgender vlogging that embrace money making/self-commodification in a degree not seen before. Here, activism/advocacy co-exists with and goes through an explicit self-commodif…
Interview with Blogger/Vlogger FinnTheInficible
TSQ's “New Media” section editor Tobias Raun interviews the British blogger/vlogger FinnTheInficible, who has been very open online about the physical and emotional process of having phalloplasty. He started video blogging in 2012, when he came out as trans on YouTube. His social media presence has since then increased and spread across media platforms (YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In this interview, Raun and FinnTheInfic…
Mediated Intimacies: Connectivities, Relationalities and Proximities
Social media, characterized by user-generated content, interactivity, participation and community formation, have gained much research attention in recent years. At the same time, intimacy, affectivity and emotions are increasingly growing as fields of study. While these two areas are often interwoven, the actual interconnections are rarely studied in detail. This anthology explores how social media construct new types of intimacies, and how prac…
"Talking about his dead child, again!" Emotional self-management in relation to online mourning
This paper explores a group of Dane’s motives for and experiences with using their personal Facebook profile to cope with the death of a close relative, based on extensive semi-structured media-go-along interviews. The focus of the article is on what I label emotional self-management, which came up repeatedly during the interviews as an integrated part of mourning online. It is argued that Facebook is used as an outlet for expressing thoughts and…
Introduction to gender and media revisited
Gender is not a new concept in media studies.However, its uses and connotations have changed over time to include diff erent types of problems such as the position of women in media industries, gendered stereotypes in mass media or, more recently, the fl uidity and performance of gender inspired by queer studies.When, back in 1986, MedieKultur ran a special issue on "Women and Electronic Mass Media", the focus was specifi cally on women in media …
Archiving the Wonders of Testosterone Via YouTube
The article engages with trans male video blogs on YouTube, framing them as living archives that offer unique opportunities to access and share embodied trans knowledges—which have previously been limited or inaccessible—such as information about and visual accounts of medical transitioning processes. It is argued that archiving one's transition works through a kind of performative documentation, partly documenting and partly instantiating the tr…
Ph.d.-omtaler
Video blogging as a vehicle of transformation: Exploring the intersection between trans identity and information technology
This article explores the intersection between trans identity and technology as it manifests in trans video blogs on YouTube. Taking my point of departure in eight case-study vloggers I analyse the different ways that the vlog can work as a medium of transformation. The vlogs engender the ongoing process of ‘becoming’ man/woman/trans by inscribing the vlogger in multiple and intersubjective reflections, being visible to themselves and others as a…
Hornsleths un/fair trade – æstetisk evangelisme og nykolonialistisk etnografi i samtidskunsten
This article takes the Danish artist Kristian von Hornsleth’s controversial art project Hornsleth Village Project Uganda (2006-2007) as a starting point for a discussion of the relation between aesthetics and ethics in contemporary art. Far from advocating that art must be ethically ‘good’ to be of importance, the authors question why transgressive and provocative socially engaged art projects frequently perform, repeat and consolidate patriarcha…
Kulturkanoner
Video blogging as a vehicle of transformation: Exploring the intersection between trans identity and information technology
This article explores the intersection between trans identity and technology as it manifests in trans video blogs on YouTube. Taking my point of departure in eight case-study vloggers I analyse the different ways that the vlog can work as a medium of transformation. The vlogs engender the ongoing process of ‘becoming’ man/woman/trans by inscribing the vlogger in multiple and intersubjective reflections, being visible to themselves and others as a…
Archiving the Wonders of Testosterone Via YouTube
The article engages with trans male video blogs on YouTube, framing them as living archives that offer unique opportunities to access and share embodied trans knowledges—which have previously been limited or inaccessible—such as information about and visual accounts of medical transitioning processes. It is argued that archiving one's transition works through a kind of performative documentation, partly documenting and partly instantiating the tr…
The mediatization of self-tracking: Knowledge production and community building in YouTube videos
This article investigates a community of men who use the pharmaceuticals Minoxidil and Finasteride to enable and restore beard and hair growth, and who track and trace the effects on YouTube. It argues that the traditional positions of expert and patient are deterritorialized by the digitalization of health discourses and practices, and that the camera in these YouTube videos acts as a mediating/performative factor. The article seeks to answer th…
Educate yourself! Exploring feminist politics and self-development in Danish online fat activism
This article explores Danish fat activism and feminist politics on Instagram. Based on a 6-months ethnographic and digital fieldwork among Danish fat activists on Instagram, the article investigates the social implications of challenging normative body ideals online. Through ethnographic examples, the article illustrates how learning about fat acceptance through a fat accepting community is a liberating, deeply personal and transformative process…
Interview with Blogger/Vlogger FinnTheInficible
TSQ's “New Media” section editor Tobias Raun interviews the British blogger/vlogger FinnTheInficible, who has been very open online about the physical and emotional process of having phalloplasty. He started video blogging in 2012, when he came out as trans on YouTube. His social media presence has since then increased and spread across media platforms (YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In this interview, Raun and FinnTheInfic…
Introduction to gender and media revisited
Gender is not a new concept in media studies.However, its uses and connotations have changed over time to include diff erent types of problems such as the position of women in media industries, gendered stereotypes in mass media or, more recently, the fl uidity and performance of gender inspired by queer studies.When, back in 1986, MedieKultur ran a special issue on "Women and Electronic Mass Media", the focus was specifi cally on women in media …
Kulturkanoner
Hornsleths un/fair trade – æstetisk evangelisme og nykolonialistisk etnografi i samtidskunsten
This article takes the Danish artist Kristian von Hornsleth’s controversial art project Hornsleth Village Project Uganda (2006-2007) as a starting point for a discussion of the relation between aesthetics and ethics in contemporary art. Far from advocating that art must be ethically ‘good’ to be of importance, the authors question why transgressive and provocative socially engaged art projects frequently perform, repeat and consolidate patriarcha…
Video blogging as a vehicle of transformation: Exploring the intersection between trans identity and information technology
This article explores the intersection between trans identity and technology as it manifests in trans video blogs on YouTube. Taking my point of departure in eight case-study vloggers I analyse the different ways that the vlog can work as a medium of transformation. The vlogs engender the ongoing process of ‘becoming’ man/woman/trans by inscribing the vlogger in multiple and intersubjective reflections, being visible to themselves and others as a…
Archiving the Wonders of Testosterone Via YouTube
The article engages with trans male video blogs on YouTube, framing them as living archives that offer unique opportunities to access and share embodied trans knowledges—which have previously been limited or inaccessible—such as information about and visual accounts of medical transitioning processes. It is argued that archiving one's transition works through a kind of performative documentation, partly documenting and partly instantiating the tr…
Ph.d.-omtaler
Introduction to gender and media revisited
Gender is not a new concept in media studies.However, its uses and connotations have changed over time to include diff erent types of problems such as the position of women in media industries, gendered stereotypes in mass media or, more recently, the fl uidity and performance of gender inspired by queer studies.When, back in 1986, MedieKultur ran a special issue on "Women and Electronic Mass Media", the focus was specifi cally on women in media …
Mediated Intimacies: Connectivities, Relationalities and Proximities
Social media, characterized by user-generated content, interactivity, participation and community formation, have gained much research attention in recent years. At the same time, intimacy, affectivity and emotions are increasingly growing as fields of study. While these two areas are often interwoven, the actual interconnections are rarely studied in detail. This anthology explores how social media construct new types of intimacies, and how prac…
"Talking about his dead child, again!" Emotional self-management in relation to online mourning
This paper explores a group of Dane’s motives for and experiences with using their personal Facebook profile to cope with the death of a close relative, based on extensive semi-structured media-go-along interviews. The focus of the article is on what I label emotional self-management, which came up repeatedly during the interviews as an integrated part of mourning online. It is argued that Facebook is used as an outlet for expressing thoughts and…
Capitalizing intimacy: New subcultural forms of micro-celebrity strategies and affective labour on YouTube
This article is a redevelopment of my previous studies, characterizing the media genre of – and community building through – transgender video blogging. Focusing on one of the most famous video bloggers at the moment, the Canadian Julie Van Vu, I investigate new forms of transgender vlogging that embrace money making/self-commodification in a degree not seen before. Here, activism/advocacy co-exists with and goes through an explicit self-commodif…
Interview with Blogger/Vlogger FinnTheInficible
TSQ's “New Media” section editor Tobias Raun interviews the British blogger/vlogger FinnTheInficible, who has been very open online about the physical and emotional process of having phalloplasty. He started video blogging in 2012, when he came out as trans on YouTube. His social media presence has since then increased and spread across media platforms (YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In this interview, Raun and FinnTheInfic…
Medicalized Masculinities
While studies of masculinities often trace processes of either medicalization or mediatization, few interrogate masculinities at their very intersection. Doing so is the main contribution of this panel, which brings together cases that illustrate the effects these large-scale changes in digital and medical technologies have on masculinities today. Theoretically, the panel is based on the notion that society and everyday life are increasingly inte…
‘We belong to something beautiful’: Julie Vu’s and Madeline Stuart’s use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram
This article analyses the use of minority identity as a popular feminist self-branding strategy on Instagram. Zooming in on the internet celebrities, Julie Vu, a Canadian transgender model, beauty queen and makeup artist, and Madeline Stuart, an Australian photo/runway model with Down syndrome, we explore the ways in which they both engage in building and strengthening their self-branding practices by actively drawing on their own self-representa…
The mediatization of self-tracking: Knowledge production and community building in YouTube videos
This article investigates a community of men who use the pharmaceuticals Minoxidil and Finasteride to enable and restore beard and hair growth, and who track and trace the effects on YouTube. It argues that the traditional positions of expert and patient are deterritorialized by the digitalization of health discourses and practices, and that the camera in these YouTube videos acts as a mediating/performative factor. The article seeks to answer th…
Educate yourself! Exploring feminist politics and self-development in Danish online fat activism
This article explores Danish fat activism and feminist politics on Instagram. Based on a 6-months ethnographic and digital fieldwork among Danish fat activists on Instagram, the article investigates the social implications of challenging normative body ideals online. Through ethnographic examples, the article illustrates how learning about fat acceptance through a fat accepting community is a liberating, deeply personal and transformative process…
Selling manhood online. Cultural imaginaries of testosterone in the marketing of the nutritional supplement T8
In this article, we analyze the marketing of T8, a nutritional supplement sold to the Danish market on the promise of raising (cisgendered) men’s natural production of the sex hormone testosterone. T8 is one out of many testosterone enhancing supplements that have resurfaced and are marketed online, and we understand T8 as an example of the current bio-medicalization paradigm, which increasingly frames men’s health in terms of hormone levels. In …
Masculinity as plasticity: Exploring Masculinity in Times of Mediatization and Biomedicalization
The article presents and engages with key conceptual developments within men and masculinity studies, while also highlighting queer and trans theoretical critiques of assumptions that position masculinity as inherently tied to cis male identity. The prevalent tendency to analyze cis and trans masculinities as separate and distinct identities is, as argued, unproductive. Conceiving masculinity through the lens of plasticity instead enables both a …
Sociology (11 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Masculinity (4 works)