Young Men, Masculinity, and Democracy: Challenges and Pathways Forward
Across Europe, conversations about masculinity, gender equality and democracy are becoming increasingly urgent. Online influencers, digital subcultures and political debates are shaping how many young men understand power, identity and their place in society. This roundtable explores how these narratives influence young people’s attitudes and engagement with democracy. Bringing together researchers, practitioners and an artistic intervention, this event also highlights the need to cultivate more caring, inclusive, and democratic forms of masculinity.
Gender, identity, and democracy have always been intertwined. Masculinity in particular has long structured everyday social interactions, expectations of leadership, and ideals of authority. Across Europe and beyond, young men are expressing increasingly hostile attitudes toward gender equality and democratic norms. Recent surveys demonstrate growing gender gaps in political attitudes among young people, and the rising visibility of misogynistic online subcultures have drawn attention to how ideas about masculinity, authority, and democracy are evolving among younger generations.
At the same time, certain expressions of masculinity, often marked by grievance, exclusion, and nostalgia for authority, circulate widely through contemporary media ecosystems, reshaping the cultural and political environments that young people inhabit. Youth encounter exclusionary, and hostile narratives through numerous manosphere creators across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms, where ideas about manhood often blend the language of self-improvement with contempt for feminism, empathy, and pluralism. In this event, we ask ourselves: How are anti-democratic masculinities shaping the experiences, aspirations and democratic engagements of young people across Europe, and how might more democratic masculinities be cultivated?
Speakers
Liza Mügge (moderator) University of Amsterdam. MEN4DEM coordinator. Expert on gender, political representation, and intersectionality.
Brit Anlar University of Amsterdam. Brit Anlar is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam working on the MEN4DEM project. Her research focuses on how anti-democratic masculinities enter formal politics through political party youth wings. Her work combines academic research with practical collaboration with international organizations working to strengthen democratic representation and engagement.
Bharath Ganesh University of Amsterdam. Dr. Bharath Ganesh is an Assistant Professor in Media Studies and the Institute of Logic, Language, and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. His research examines extremism, hate, and disinformation in digital media; focusing on far-right movements and information manipulation.
Malin Holm Uppsala University. Dr. Malin Holm is a political scientist at Uppsala University. Her research focuses on social media, gender, and political communication; examining how platform governance and digital affordances shape power in politics. In the MEN4DEM project, she studies how masculinity is constructed and mobilized by far-right influencers and manosphere communities across Europe.
Hessel As project manager at Emancipator, Hessel works to transform restrictive masculinity norms that fuel gender inequality, gender-based violence, and anti-democratic movements. Beneath masculine performance, many men experience loneliness and questions of identity. By opening conversations with men, especially young men, his work promotes caring masculinities and counters the appeal of manosphere and far-right narratives.
Dagmar Slagmolen Director of Via Berlin, the Arts-Based Research Company. She develops immersive performances and artistic interventions exploring societal issues such as polarization, identity, and radicalization. Slagmolen collaborates with universities across Europe and within the MEN4DEM project, she develops artistic interventions on radicalization and democratic engagement.
