MEDUSA Seminar: “The Manosphere and its Political (Dis)Affects” by Silvia Díaz Fernández

To close the 2024-25 academic year, next July 3rd at 4 pm, we will have the opportunity to talk with Silvia Díaz Fernández about one of her latest works. The seminar will be online.

If you wish to attend, please register in the following form: https://forms.gle/MKfDLRqPXBGuBEuo7

Here you have the details:

The Manosphere and its Political (Dis)Affects
Silvia Díaz Férnandez (UCM)
Date: July 3rd, 2025, 16h. Online
Registration: https://forms.gle/MKfDLRqPXBGuBEuo7

This seminar explores the affective politicization of the manosphere, analyzing how a discourse of (dis)affect structures political imaginaries within these digital subcultures. While existing literature has addressed the radicalization processes and affective dimensions of the manosphere, the intersection between affect, digital practices, and politicization remains underexplored. To address this gap, the study draws on digital ethnography data collected between 2021 and 2022 on the Spanish manosphere. Conceptualizing the manosphere as an affective space within a broader digital culture of affect, the article investigates how a discourse of (dis)affect operates in the process of politicization. Specifically, it analyzes how (dis)affect is mobilized in three key stages: (1) affective awakening through redpilling, where men begin to see themselves as wounded subjects; (2) the solidification of disaffection through the rejection of feminist affective norms and a turn toward nihilism; and (3) the rearticulation of (dis)affect in the form of camaraderie and counterrevolutionary mobilization. By theorizing (dis)affect as a political discourse, the seminar highlights the dynamic role of emotions in shaping political subjectivities, reproducing reactionary gender imaginaries, and sustaining the affective politics of the manosphere in digital culture.

Bio: Silvia Díaz Fernández is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science and Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as professor in the Department of Applied Sociology at the same university. Her lines of research are framed in political anti-feminism, digital cultures, masculinities and affect studies. She is co-author of the first scientific report on the manosphere in Spain, funded by the Centro Reina Sofía. She is currently working on a European project on anti-gender movements and feminist responses.