Uncertain Masculinities: Hyperpolymediation and the Advent of (the) Post-Particular Man among Well-Dressed Men on Instagram

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In an increasingly digitized modernity, traditional societal tropes are vulnerable to rapid and substantial change. Social media platforms such as Instagram allow for digital selves to be constructed in a landscape made up of networks of like-minded individual actors. This article examines how traditional Western notions of masculinity are beginning to change through this enactment of digital relations. Built on 24 months of digital ethnographic fieldwork with sartorially inclined men on Instagram, this article examines how the consumption and production of digital images can alter notions of self, and what this means for those of us who compulsively use social media. This leads to a call for a radical reassessment of masculinity by asking whether the concept of specific forms of masculinity has begun to shatter. If, as this article claims, masculinity has lost specificity in the digital age, then a new type of man has been born: the post-particular man.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)32-53
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of Bodies, Sexualities, and Masculinities
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2022

Keywords

  • digital anthropology
  • hyperpolymediation
  • Instagram
  • masculinity
  • post-particular man
  • social media

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Anthropology
  • Cultural Studies
  • Gender Studies

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