Muscles, Makeup, and Femboys: Analyzing TikTok’s “Radical” Masculinities

Abstract

News reports and online comments suggest that social media applications like TikTok play an important role in challenging traditional notions of masculinity. Male creators who don jewelry and engage in dance in their videos are emblematic of a broader shift in social and mainstream media toward gender non-conformity. Do these videos represent a movement away from hegemonic ideals? Based on a visual content analysis of 205 TikTok videos across the application’s 43 most followed male creators, we examine representations of masculinity on the platform. Drawing on the concept of hybrid masculinity, we find that TikTok creators both challenge and reinforce traditional notions of masculinity, subverting widely recognizable tropes, and gender norms while simultaneously reinforcing the importance of men’s muscularity, attractiveness, and sexual bravado. Taken together, our findings contribute to a broader discussion of the role that social media play in reproducing inequality along the lines of gender, race, and sexuality, including how beauty is rewarded symbolically and materially in online spaces.