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

Andrew J. Salvati https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8409-3707 [email protected]View all authors and affiliations

https://doi.org/10.1177/10608265261439254

Abstract
References
Biographies

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.

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Biographies

Andrew J. Salvati is an adjunct professor of media and communications at Drew University. Aside from his interest in podcasting and masculinity, he also studies the way in which American history has been packaged for popular consumption.

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