Working Toward Sovereign Masculinity: Reactionary Care of the Self in the Order of Man Podcast

Abstract

This paper discusses Order of Man (OoM), a thrice-weekly podcast and “digital brotherhood” of men aspiring to “become better in every area of their lives,” as a case study for theorizing masculine practices of “care of the self” in the realm of digital audio content. Conducting a discourse analysis that examines several episodes that were released during the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic, I consider how the OoM project leverages a predominantly White culture of dispossession and entitlement to articulate a specifically reactionary form of self-care in which self-improvement figures as a means of combatting perceived gender oppression. In particular, I interrogate OoM founder and host Ryan Michler’s concept of sovereign masculinity as a framework for resisting the cultural influence of feminism and of government overreach, and for reinstating patriarchy as a fundamental social good.

Keywords

podcasting self-care COVID-19 politics sovereignty

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bakardjieva

Gaden

(2012). Web 2.0 technologies of the self. In Bolin

(Ed.), Cultural technologies: The shaping of culture in media and society (pp. 153–169). Routledge.

Bederman

(1995). Manliness & civilization: A cultural history of gender and race in the United States, 1880–1917. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226041490

Berry

(2006). Will the iPod kill the radio star? Profiling podcasting as radio. Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 12(2), 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856506066522

Bly

(1990/2004). Iron John: A book about men. Da Capo Press.

Bridges

Anthony

(2024). On the crisis of (White) masculinity: Victimization discourse and transformations in racialized forms of gender inequality. Paris Institute. https://parisinstitute.org/on-the-crisis-of-white-masculinity/

Butler

(2016). Frames of war: When is life grievable? Verso.

Carpenter

(2023). The male loneliness epidemic and how it affects fathers. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/18/health/male-loneliness-epidemic-wellness

Carroll

(2011). Affirmative reaction: New formations of white masculinity. Duke University Press.

Cassino

Besen-Cassino

(2022). Gender threat: American masculinity in the face of change. Stanford University Press.

10.

Connell

R. W.

(2005). Masculinities. The University of California Press.

11.

Connell

R. W.

Messerschmidt

J. W.

(2005). Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639

12.

Coontz

(1988). The social origins of private life: A history of American families, 1600–1900. Verso.

13.

Edwards

(2006). Cultures of masculinity. Routledge.

14.

Emba

(2023). Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/10/christine-emba-masculinity-new-model

15.

Euritt

(2020). “Within the Wires” intimate fan-based publics. Gender Forum, 77(1), 34–50. https://doi.org/10.18716/ojs/gefo/2020.2528

16.

Faludi

(2006). Backlash: The undeclared war against women. Three Rivers Press.

17.

Foucault

(1986). The care of the self: Vol. 3 of the History of Sexuality (R. Hurley, trans.). Vintage.

18.

Foucault

(1990). The use of pleasure: Vol. 2 of the History of Sexuality (R. Hurley, trans.). Vintage.

19.

Foucault

(1997a). The ethics of the concern for self as a practice of freedom. In Aranov

McGrawth

Rabinow

(Eds.), Michel Foucault: Ethics, subjectivity, and truth (pp. 281–302). The New Press.

20.

Foucault

(1997b). Technologies of the self ( Aranov

McGrawth

Rabinow

(Ed.) Michel Foucault: Ethics, subjectivity, and truth (pp. 223-252). The New Press.

21.

Gee

J. P.

(2007). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method (2nd ed.). Routledge.

22.

Ging

(2019). Alphas, betas, and incels: Theorizing the masculinities of the manosphere. Men and Masculinities, 22(4), 638–657. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X17706401

23.

Haberman

Sanger

D. E.

(2020). Trump says coronavirus cure cannot ‘be worse than the problem itself’. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-restrictions.html

24.

Held

(2006). The ethics of care: Personal, political, and global. Oxford University Press.

25.

Illing

(2024). Are men okay? Our modern masculinity problem, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area/390781/masculinity-scott-galloway-young-men-struggling

26.

Kahloon

(2023). What’s the matter with men? New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/whats-the-matter-with-men

27.

Kimmel

M. S.

(2013). Angry White men: American masculinity at the end of an era. Nation Books.

28.

Kimmel

M. S.

(2017). Manhood in America: A cultural history. Oxford University Press.

29.

Lilla

(2016). The shipwrecked mind: On political reaction. New York Review Books.

30.

Lorde

(1988/2017). A burst of light and other essays. Ixia Press.

31.

Mann

(2014). Sovereign masculinity: Gender lessons from the War on Terror. Oxford University Press.

32.

Marwick

A. E.

Caplan

(2018). Drinking male tears: Language, the manosphere, and networked harassment. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 543–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1450568

33.

McHugh

(2016). How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre. Radio Journal, 14(1), 65–82. https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao.14.1.65_1

34.

Messner

M. A.

(2000). Politics of masculinities: Men in movements. AltaMira Press.

35.

Michler

(2018). Sovereignty: The battle for the hearts and minds of men. Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press.

36.

Michler

(2020). About order of man. Order of Man. https://www.orderofman.com/about/

37.

Michler

(2020). Start here. Order of Man. https://www.orderofman.com/start-here/

38.

Nelson

(2011) (In press). Body and soul: The Black Panther Party and the fight against medical discrimination. University of Minnesota Press.

39.

Nelson

(2015) (In press). More than medicine: A history of the feminist women’s health movement. New York University Press.

40.

Noddings

(1984/2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education (2nd ed.). University of California Press.

41.

Ouellette

Arcy

(2015). ‘Live through this’: Feminist care of the self 2.0. Frame, 28, 95–114.

42.

Reeves

R. V.

(2022). Of boys and men: Why the modern male is struggling, why it matters, and what to do about it. Brookings Institution Press.

43.

Robinson

(2000). Marked men: White masculinity in crisis. Columbia University Press.

44.

Rose

(2019). Order of Man: How to reclaim your masculinity and celebrate it. London Real. https://londonreal.tv/ryan-michler

45.

Rosin

(2010). The end of men. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/308135

46.

Rotondo

A. E.

(1993). American manhood: Transformations in masculinity from the Revolution to the modern era. Basic Books.

47.

Schlütz

Hedder

(2022). Aural parasocial relationships: Host-listener relationships in podcasts. Journal of Radio and Audio Media, 29(2), 457–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2020.1870467

48.

Schwalbe

(1996). Unlocking the iron cage: The men’s movement, gender politics, and American culture. Oxford University Press.

49.

Schwalbe

(2005). Identity stakes, manhood acts, and the dynamics of accountability. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 28, 65–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-2396(04)28010-3

50.

Segal

(1990). Slow motion: Changing masculinities, changing men. Rutgers University Press.

51.

Spinelli

Dann

(2019). Podcasting: The audio media revolution. Bloomsbury.

52.

Swiatek

(2018). The podcast as an intimate bridging medium. In Llinares

Fox

Berry

(Eds.), Podcasting: New aural cultures and digital media (pp. 173–188). Palgrave Macmillan.

53.

Thandeka . (2006). Learning to be white: Money, race, and God in America. Continuum.

54.

Van Dijk

T. A.

(1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006

55.

Weisgerber

Butler

S. H.

(2016). Curating the soul: Foucault’s concept of hupomenemata and the digital technology of self-care. Information, Communication, & Society, 19(10), 1340–1355. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1088882

56.

Williams

M. E.

(2024). Yes, men and boys are in crisis - But traditional masculinity won’t help them. Salon.com. https://www.salon.com/2024/01/06/yes-men-and-boys-are-in-but-traditional-masculinity-wont-help-them/.