Revenge bodies and antisocial media ecologies

Bibliographic Data

ID24226823
AuthorsAnthony P Mcintyre (0000-0002-8189-9577, University College Dublin), Diane Negra (0000-0001-8400-6239, University College Dublin), Odin O’sullivan (0000-0002-4138-9898, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway)
Year2026
Publication date2026-10-08
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01634437261481086
OpenAlexW7221155784
LanguageEN
References cited26

The present article theorises the emergence and persistence of a notable cultural archetype prevalent across 21st century media forms: the revenge body. The promise of personal inviolability offered by this corporeal project is compelling in an era marked by an increasingly insistent discourse of gender polarisation and conflict. Given a contemporary public culture in the global North in which social and political antipathies prevail, we note the emergence of revenge as a public affect that crosses ideological divisions and thrives in a media ecosystem that algorithmically stokes the flames of antisocial feeling. The article tracks this corporeal type across reality television makeover show Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian (2017–2019) as well as online message boards for the Looksmaxxing community, highlighting the differently gendered manifestations of the revenge body and the wider social conditions that seed such corporeal projects. By couching a self-making project in antisocial rhetoric the revenge body indexes the fraying of bonds of interpersonal intimacy, variously exhibited through the production of heteropessimistic and heteronihilstic cultural texts, and the emergence of post-intimate digital communities.

interpersonal intimacy · online message boards · Revenge · self-creation · Cultural, Social, and Media Studies · Gender and Feminist Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media