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Dr. Luc S. Cousineau: Browser Tabs and Barbells: Masculinity, male supremacy, and the politics of belonging between care and control
Bio
Dr. Luc S. Cousineau is Program Director of Recreation Management at Dalhousie University. His research explores the impacts of involvement with masculinist groups online, gender, power, and feminist ethics of care, as well as how the structures camp settings impact the experiences of 2SLGBTQAI+ folk. Alongside media appearances with Canadian news outlets, his work has been featured in popular media (Busted Podcast and The Conversation) and academic publications Surveillance & Society, Leisure Sciences, Qualitative Inquiry, The Research Handbook on the Sociology of Leisure.
Description
The most recent report by Status of Women Canada (Confronting Antifeminist Ideologies in Canada, June 2026) demonstrates an awareness of the clear and present danger of antifeminist and anti-women ideological positions in Canada. It demonstrates the links between these ideologies, violent extremism, and other extremist ideologies. The deep seated and obstinate problem of male supremacism at the root of these issues, while often identified, is rarely explored, and discourse on the manosphere, it’s misogyny, and pathways into far-right and other violent extremism often does little in discussing the why. How do men so easily find their way into communities organized around surface-level masculinity and “self-improvement,” with cores of discipline, punishment, and supremacy?
Drawing on critical masculinities studies and the feminist roots of the men's movement, this talk explores how the dualistic roles of care and control, development and discipline, expansion and excommunication are always at play within the communities of the manosphere. This ongoing contestation in men’s lives means that while some men try to adapt to changing norms, others double down on a male supremacist gender “traditionalism” that also limits men's emotional, relational, and embodied lives.
Using gyms, active clubs, boot camps, and other “manosphered” spaces as a lens, this discussion explores how manosphere communities set themselves up as spaces of support and self-development while simultaneously functioning as sites of resentment, misogyny, and political mobilization. Integral to the success of these real-world spaces are how digital platforms, online influencers, and algorithmically mediated forms of communication circulate narratives about masculinity and direct participants toward increasingly interconnected networks of anti-feminist, reactionary, and extremist ideas. These developments are not separate phenomena, and this talk will consider how they emerge from broader social, technological, and political conditions.
Bringing together scholarship on masculinity, gender-based violence, digital culture, and social movements, this presentation seeks to provide some answers to a deceptively simple question: how do communities that promise belonging, support, and self-improvement become powerful vehicles for misogyny, male supremacy, and anti-feminist politics?
