Misrecognising men? The politicisation of men's issues across the UK men's movement

Abstract

Mainstream feminist movements such as #MeToo have ignited popular criticism of men and masculinity in the UK. At the same time, public narratives highlighting men’s suffering and vulnerability are increasingly commonplace, especially regarding the male suicide rate. The popular assumption underlying many of these campaigns is that encouraging men to seek support enables them to inhabit alternative ‘healthy masculinities’ – leading to a better world for everyone. However, the political consequences of increased help-seeking among men are not harmonious: pro-feminist groups support men to develop more meaningful male friendships, while men’s rights groups support bereft fathers who have lost custody of their children. These contemporary men’s movement groups mobilise and resist narratives of men’s vulnerability in support of mutually opposing political projects. In this context, ‘men’s issues’ have become salient in political discourse. In response, there has been a recent surge of academic research, especially into the online manifestations of ‘incels’, men’s rights activists and others collectively referred to as the ‘manosphere’. This research relies primarily on interpretive frameworks from counter-extremism, violence prevention and de-radicalisation, and has focused mostly on online extremism. There is a lack of up-close, in-person research that looks across the spectrum of men’s movement groups rather than focusing on the extremes. The field lacks an emic perspective on the meanings of men’s movement groups to group members themselves. Little is known about the political discourses surrounding men’s suffering that are emerging outside these extremes. Focussing on men’s movement groups in the UK, this thesis provides a multi-sited ethnography of the contemporary political space for discussion of men’s issues. It proposes an alternative framework for researching the ‘grey areas’ outside the extremes. The findings reveal a wide range of men’s issues raised across men’s movement groups. Some men’s issues are highly contested and represent areas of division and political polarisation. Others represent areas of partial consensus or non-partisan agreement between ostensibly polarised groups. The members of these diverse groups largely foreground personal, rather than political, reasons for group membership. Group participation functions as a form of interpersonal, gendered consciousness-raising in which men feel their personal struggles are recognised in ways that allow them to live more ‘authentically’ and ‘courageously’. These personal investments are understood by group leaders. Leaders selectively embrace and resist narratives of men’s suffering and mobilise mutually oppositional political discourses as they endeavour to mobilise members towards outward-facing political action. In turn, group members – politically ambivalent and deeply curious – often resist these oppositional leadership narratives. Operating in the ‘grey areas’ between and beyond the extremes, members participate meaningfully in the emerging gender politics of men’s movement groups.

Date of Award	13 Apr 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Hilary Pilkington (Main Supervisor) & Angelia Wilson (Co Supervisor)