Creating and Challenging Populist Masculinities

The research project critically approaches right-wing, conservative populist politics where conservative gender views and importance of male leaders with strong masculine images are emphasized. The project analyzes the ways in which public images of populist masculinities are both created, and challenged in media and popular culture, and how these two opposing approaches to gender collide and create a participatory public discussion in the contexts of the United States, in particular. The project has three main objectives: 1) To study the representational logic and values of populist masculinities, 2) to approach questions of media participation through the use of digital and social media, 3) to take the populism debate that is mainly discussed in political theory and political studies to the sphere of popular culture and widen the perspective of how populism is debated.