Ethics, Gendered Risk and Research Practices in the Dutch Manosphere

This article explores the construction of gendered selves and reflects upon care ethics and positionality in the context of our ongoing research in the Dutch ‘manosphere.’ Reflecting on our empirical work, in this article, we develop an argument for taking seriously the impact of studying violent, digital content and how it constructs gendered selves in the research encounter. Inspired by Laura Shepherd’s article, ‘Research as Gendered Intervention: Feminist Research Ethics and the Self in the Research Encounter’ (2016) this paper reflects on the ways in which ‘I’ is constituted, disciplined, and silenced through research practices (2016, 2). Expanding on our research on violent extremism in the Dutch Manosphere we ask questions of ourselves and each other about our research encounters with racist and misogynist content in online forums. We reflect on the ways in which the ‘I’ was constructed by and through our data collection practices and how it informed our analytical strategies. While our empirical data draws from the ‘far corners of the internet,’ to suggest that the violence we find online is unique to these spaces downplays and erases the everyday experiences of gendered and racialized violence both on and offline. Following this line of argumentation, we suggest that digital research practices should acknowledge and be curious towards how exposure to this content spans the on and offline worlds of researchers. We focus on gendered and racialized encounters with violent digital content and how this interacts with our research strategies. This, we suggest prompts reflection on risk, intersectionality, agency, care ethics as well as the relational and emotional contours of our research practices.