ETERNAL SUNSHINE TO THE FAPLESS MASCULINITY:A DIGITAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE R/NOFAP COMMUNITY ON REDDIT PROMOTING ABSTENTION FROM PORNOGRAPHY CONSUMPTION AND MASTURBATION.
This study examines the NoFap phenomenon, a homosocial digital movement promoting abstinence from pornography and masturbation to overcome self-diagnosed porn addiction and “compulsive sexual behaviors”. Critical literature on the topic has identified heterosexist, patriarchal, and misogynistic discourses associated with this practice, dominated by evolutionary narratives on gender and sexuality, men’s sexual entitlement to women, and the imperative of heteronormative coital sex. Building on this literature, this research offers three key contributions to deepen our understanding of the widespread NoFap phenomenon and provide analytical tools for examining the reproduction of contemporary masculinities and the heteropatriarchy in digital spaces. First, NoFap is conceptualized as a Foucauldian technique of internalized biopower that seeks to discipline a body constructed as hetero-masculine, reinforcing regulatory ideals of hetero-masculinity and contributing to the (re)production of a heteropatriarchal society. Second, I introduce the concept of “affordances of the (gendered) self”, which conceptualizes the embodied use of affordances in r/NoFap as Foucauldian technologies of the self, integral to men’s self-improvement and self-optimization in pursuit of a post-masturbatory heteromasculinity. Third, I argue that r/NoFap can be understood as a form of a “diluted manosphere”, where manosphere content is “watered down”. In this context, NoFap presents itself as a space that appears to promote equality while still allowing participants to engage “safely” with ideologies, practices, and discourses that protect male privileges and uphold gendered power relations. This study is based on a year-long ethnographic investigation of r/NoFap, Reddit’s central hub for the movement, which had 1.1 million members in 2022. To navigate Reddit’s vast, real-time, networked, and algorithmically structured environment, a novel approach to digital ethnography was developed. This approach integrates computational tools within the ethnographic continuum, not to impose rigor on qualitative findings but to support, guide, and inform them throughout their production. By doing so, it subverts the platform’s algorithmic logics, ensuring that less visible content, suppressed by Reddit’s algorithms, is also considered.
Settore GSPS-05/A - Sociologia generale, Settore GSPS-06/A - Sociologia dei processi culturali e comunicativi
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