"These Were Real Men, White Men": Masculinity, Race, and the Rise of the White Nationalist Movement

Abstract

Emerging in the 1970s, the White Nationalist movement resurfaced in the late 2010s with the election of President Donald J. Trump. This far-right White supremacist movement is a breeding ground for domestic terrorist groups, and lone-wolf attackers. White Nationalism is predicated on the belief in White racial superiority and the belief that White people need a racial homeland in order to survive. Originally sparked as part of the White backlash to the Civil Rights movements and Black Power movements of the 50s and 60s, the ideas that animate this racialist movement go back even further. Analyzing the trajectory of White supremacist ideas and violent White Nationalist groups since before the 1970s is vital for understanding the re-emergence of the White Nationalist movement and the real political impacts this ideology is having in early twenty-first century American society. This thesis seeks to understand this re-emergence by analyzing how White Nationalist thought has evolved, and the ways that White Nationalist groups use gender-based appeals to recruit members and promote their ideology. This movement and its ideology have been attractive to disaffected White men who believe that society has passed them by and who may be experiencing what scholars have called a "crisis of masculinity." This thesis will examine how the White Nationalist movement has used the concept of masculinity in its publications, literature, and counter-media. The White Nationalist movement relies on propaganda that promotes the idea that the White race is in danger of going extinct, and that the White race needs saviours and protectors. In this way White Nationalist propaganda makes appeals to the manhood of their target audience while also promoting racial animosity and hatred. Their propaganda also relies upon scapegoating and the demonization of "others." This movement has been growing since the 1970s and has become influential due to the success of White Nationalist groups using the Internet to promulgate their ideas. This thesis seeks to understand the history of this radical ideology and the ways that this movement has used appeals to masculine identity to reach new adherents.