Cohort: SOMET 41
Topic of the thesis: Of Muscles and Masks: Effigies of Contemporary Masculinities in Gym Environments
Abstract: My project is interested in investigating how subordinate performance of masculinity reshape hegemonic standards within fitness spaces, both online and offline. This study explores how subordinate masculinities are enacted in digital fitness environments, how they disrupt hegemonic gym performances, and whether subordinate fit aesthetics can empower alternative representations of hegemonic masculinity. My research traces how human and non-human actors co-produce masculine aesthetics, revealing the material-discursive processes behind the construction of the fit male body. Subordinate masculinities are considered as active agents in the reconfiguration of hegemony as they act within the boundaries of a third space situated on the outskirts of hegemonic performance that challenges the socially accepted binary logics of dominance and subordination. Furthermore, this project interrogates the extent of fluid masculine performance online while foregrounding regimes of algorithmic visibility as the principal gatekeepers that privilege hegemonic norms. Focusing on gyms as key sites of embodied masculine performance, this project maps the permeation of digital aesthetics into bodily capital and their role in sustaining, or destabilising, homosocial hierarchies. By analysing how subordinate masculinities intersect with fitness cultures, this research offers a working framework to understand how marginalised performances reshape dominant ideals through both networked socio-technical practices and physical bodily efforts.
Research interests: Masculinities, Digital Cultures, Media Studies, Queer Cultures
Graduated from: Università degli Studi di Milano
Degrees obtained: BA: Mediazione Lingustica e Culturale (Cinese e Inglese); MA: Public and Corporate Communication (Curriculum: DigiPop)
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