I Never Liked Him”

Ryan Adams and the Toxification of Masculinity in the Post-MeToo Digital Era

Bibliographic Data

ID12098934
AuthorsBrenton J Malin (0000-0003-3610-3768, University of Pittsburgh, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume46
Issue2
Pages160-178
Publication date2023-04-03
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWomen s Studies in Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0749-1409 • E-ISSN: 2152-999X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07491409.2023.2188622
OpenAlexW4362549969
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited32

This article explores the Twitter response to reports of abusive behavior by U.S.-based singer-songwriter Ryan Adams. Using a combination of quantitative data analysis techniques and close textual and contextual analysis, I analyze an archive of more than 130,000 tweets taken from the week prior to the initial reporting of Adams’s behavior in February 2019 and continuing until March 2021. On one hand, this archive of tweets illustrates the general value of Twitter as a component of “networked feminism,” in the sense that these tweets generally call attention to and criticize Adams’s inappropriate behavior. However, the overall response to Adams’s allegations also demonstrates both the limitations of Twitter for addressing MeToo-related stories and the problems of the frame of “toxic masculinity” in approaching these issues. Stressing the “toxicity” of these behaviors can serve to reinforce a normative, hegemonic understanding of “healthy” masculinity that masks the institutional forms of oppression that allow hegemonic masculinity to function

Feminism · Function (biology · Hegemonic masculinity · Hegemony · Masculinity · Media studies · Normative · Oppression · Political science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sports, Gender, and Society

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