[Commlist] Call for Abstracts: “Alphas and Femcels: Gender, Science, and Hegemony Outside of the Mainstream” for 4S

Call for Abstracts: “Alphas and Femcels: Gender, Science, and Hegemony 
Outside of the Mainstream” (4S Seattle 2025)

Elizabeth Fetterolf, Rachel Bergmann, and Tomás Guarna are co-organizing 
a panel in 4S Seattle (September 3–7, 2025) titled “Alphas and Femcels: 
Gender, Science, and Hegemony Outside of the Mainstream.” This panel 
will focus on heterodox online communities – especially those related to 
gender and sexuality.

Abstracts can be submitted here 
(https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php 
<https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php>) until 
January 31^st . The panel is number 52. Please find the description below.

“Heterodox online communities – online spaces where its participants 
share knowledge, practices, and beliefs outside of the widely-recognized 
mainstream – have typically been studied by scholars of media and 
technology as cases of radicalization, often linked to algorithmic 
recommender systems and their affordances (Thorburn 2023; Botto and 
Gottzén 2023; Marwick, Clancy, and Furl 202). Others have analyzed 
online subcultures’ discussions of gender, heterosexuality, and dating, 
as key sites of “heteronihilism” in the complex landscape of 
contemporary gender politics (Eadon 2024; Ging, 2019; Johanssan & Kay, 
2024). With the rise of popular influencers like Andrew Tate, these 
communities have gained mainstream attention and appeal.

In this panel, we shift our focus to understanding the specificity of 
these knowledge systems, particularly as they relate to gender, 
sexuality, and the role of scientific claims in constructing and 
enforcing these heterodox ideas. Online subcultures like the Red Pill, 
MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way), the 4B movement, Femcels, Female Dating 
Strategy, and others mobilize claims to scientific and statistical 
knowledge to justify their analyses and interventions within 
contemporary gender politics. Rather than viewing these communities as 
aberrant or norm-violating, we examine them as sites where groups 
establish hegemony “outside

of the mainstream.”

Where is the boundary between heterodox and mainstream? What discursive 
tactics do these online communities use to appeal to their members? How 
do ideas about science and technology figure into these communities’ 
self-narratives? How do these communities speak to and against the 
political landscape of gender and sexuality, in their respective 
countries and in transnational contexts? We welcome empirical and/or 
theoretical works– including but not limited to ethnographic, 
historical, and close reading approaches–which explore these questions 
in the context of heterodox online communities.”

Please contact the organizers with any questions: (elizfett /at/ stanford.edu) 
<mailto:(elizfett /at/ stanford.edu)>, (rachberg /at/ stanford.edu) 
<mailto:(rachberg /at/ stanford.edu)>, (tguarna /at/ stanford.edu) 
<mailto:(tguarna /at/ stanford.edu)>.

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ commlist.org)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------