Nurturing ‘a youth of steel’: Violence, embodiment, and the promise of remasculinization

Whereas the far-right extremists of the late 20th century often combined street fighting with heavy drinking, there has been a recent, renewed emphasis on combat sports, bodybuilding, outdoor activities, and healthy lifestyles in training young men for violent activism. These developments in far-right culture are tied to a changing aesthetics where white supremacists are expected to embody ‘toned, muscular, masculine physiques’ (Miller-Idriss, 2020, p. 107) and realign with historical fascisms’ fetishization of the well-trained young male body. Drawing on data from a larger digital ethnography of Nordic far-right social media conducted in 2024, this paper analyses far-right activist accounts which encourage young men to engage in body-building and mixed-martial arts. We argue that these accounts use sports and political violence as a ‘remasculinization’ strategy that serves two purposes simultaneously: as a tool for individuals attempting to meet masculinity standards and as a means for broader political projects aimed at restoring male supremacy through a racial war (Gottzén, 2025). By studying these intersections of gender, the body, and white supremacy we offer novel insights into sports as a cultural milieu through which young people are exposed to and recruited into far-right extremist groups.