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Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes / Ninian Frenguelli

Swansea University Author: Ninian Frenguelli

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.69445

Abstract

The online presence of right wing extremists has been the subject of renewed academic and journalistic enquiry since the mid-2010s when it became clear that right wing extremists were utilising social media platforms to recruit and radicalise new members, run hate campaigns targeting members of mino...

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Published: Swansea, Wales, UK 2025
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Conway, Maura
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69445
first_indexed 2025-05-07T10:31:36Z
last_indexed 2025-05-08T06:24:55Z
id cronfa69445
recordtype RisThesis
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Contemporary research conceptualises this online activity of right wing extremists as an ecosystem of interconnected websites, forums, social media, and alternative media that can be studied from a range of different perspectives and entry points. Two things have been lacking in the studies that utilise this framework: systematic empirical research on the role of extremist websites in the ecosystem and how the movements within the ecosystem understand gender and gender-related issues. This study addresses this gap via the analysis of data collected through the development and deployment of a custom built webcrawler. The crawler was deployed on 11 websites, each one representing a right wing extremist movement. These movements were Christian Identity, Creativity, Ku Klux Klan, militia, neo-confederate, neo-Nazi, racist nationalist, racist patriot, Pagan neo-Nazi, white power music, and white supremacist/skinhead. Websites were selected for inclusion in this seedset based on having the highest number of total visitors in the months prior to data collection. Selecting websites in this manner resulted in an American dataset and an according analysis of primarily American discursive interests. The final ecosystem contained 4,490 unique domains with 7,284 hyperlinks between them. Hyperlink network analysis was then used to identify core websites within this ecosystem. The statistical measures used as part of this showed both extreme and far right websites to be influential, popular, and usefully connected within the network and, as well as linking to other reactionary websites, they also linked frequently to mainstream news sources. This tripartite identification of websites significant in the data leant itself to a three level analysis of extreme right discourse, far right discourse, and mainstream discourse. Textual content hosted on the websites that had been linked to by other websites in the network was used for a content analysis that aimed to understand what the far and extreme right communicate online about gender and gender-related issues. Relevant content was identified via wordsearches of key terms and the content with the highest number of instances of the keywords was used in this systematic content analysis. It was found that the extreme and far right discussed gender-related issues very infrequently, but where they did, they were primarily concerned with the threats they alleged trans people pose to white society. The extreme right saw trans people as being pawns in a Jewish plot to undermine white western society by bringing instability to gendered social relations and family formation.1 The far right saw trans people as having too much influence in society as the result of the liberal agenda of governmental and public institutions. 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spelling 2025-05-07T11:45:46.9738857 v2 69445 2025-05-07 Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes 5a831f4731e725549a141d76a267653b 0000-0003-1410-7469 Ninian Frenguelli Ninian Frenguelli true false 2025-05-07 SOSS The online presence of right wing extremists has been the subject of renewed academic and journalistic enquiry since the mid-2010s when it became clear that right wing extremists were utilising social media platforms to recruit and radicalise new members, run hate campaigns targeting members of minority or marginalised groups, and influence national elections. Contemporary research conceptualises this online activity of right wing extremists as an ecosystem of interconnected websites, forums, social media, and alternative media that can be studied from a range of different perspectives and entry points. Two things have been lacking in the studies that utilise this framework: systematic empirical research on the role of extremist websites in the ecosystem and how the movements within the ecosystem understand gender and gender-related issues. This study addresses this gap via the analysis of data collected through the development and deployment of a custom built webcrawler. The crawler was deployed on 11 websites, each one representing a right wing extremist movement. These movements were Christian Identity, Creativity, Ku Klux Klan, militia, neo-confederate, neo-Nazi, racist nationalist, racist patriot, Pagan neo-Nazi, white power music, and white supremacist/skinhead. Websites were selected for inclusion in this seedset based on having the highest number of total visitors in the months prior to data collection. Selecting websites in this manner resulted in an American dataset and an according analysis of primarily American discursive interests. The final ecosystem contained 4,490 unique domains with 7,284 hyperlinks between them. Hyperlink network analysis was then used to identify core websites within this ecosystem. The statistical measures used as part of this showed both extreme and far right websites to be influential, popular, and usefully connected within the network and, as well as linking to other reactionary websites, they also linked frequently to mainstream news sources. This tripartite identification of websites significant in the data leant itself to a three level analysis of extreme right discourse, far right discourse, and mainstream discourse. Textual content hosted on the websites that had been linked to by other websites in the network was used for a content analysis that aimed to understand what the far and extreme right communicate online about gender and gender-related issues. Relevant content was identified via wordsearches of key terms and the content with the highest number of instances of the keywords was used in this systematic content analysis. It was found that the extreme and far right discussed gender-related issues very infrequently, but where they did, they were primarily concerned with the threats they alleged trans people pose to white society. The extreme right saw trans people as being pawns in a Jewish plot to undermine white western society by bringing instability to gendered social relations and family formation.1 The far right saw trans people as having too much influence in society as the result of the liberal agenda of governmental and public institutions. Mainstream news articles were generally utilised to “evidence” these beliefs or to launder the image of extreme and far right organisations through the practise of linking to reputable outlets. This lack of discussion of gendered issues reflects mainstream societal sexism and the interest in trans people shows dangerous reactionary actors to be interacting with current political events. Future research should investigate this link between the mainstream and the extreme and how the former can influence and legitimise the latter. E-Thesis Swansea, Wales, UK far right, extreme right, websites, network analysis, gender, hyperlinks 30 4 2025 2025-04-30 10.23889/SUthesis.69445 ORCiD identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1410-7469 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University Conway, Maura Doctoral Ph.D ESRC (ES/P00069X/1) ESRC (ES/P00069X/1) 2025-05-07T11:45:46.9738857 2025-05-07T11:27:19.8688071 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy Ninian Frenguelli 0000-0003-1410-7469 1 69445__34195__86cb5e7c7070405b9e8c5d8819d5386f.pdf Frenguelli_Ninian_J_PhD_Thesis_Final_Cronfa.pdf 2025-05-07T11:38:22.3329910 Output 3082591 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The Author, Ninian James Frenguelli, 2025. Licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) license. Third party content is excluded for use under the license terms. true eng
title Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
spellingShingle Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
Ninian Frenguelli
title_short Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
title_full Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
title_fullStr Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
title_full_unstemmed Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
title_sort Gender in the Contemporary Right: How Far and Extreme Right Websites Sideline Women, Emphasise Conspiracies, and Use Political Events to Strengthen their Causes
author_id_str_mv 5a831f4731e725549a141d76a267653b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 5a831f4731e725549a141d76a267653b_***_Ninian Frenguelli
author Ninian Frenguelli
author2 Ninian Frenguelli
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institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.69445
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
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description The online presence of right wing extremists has been the subject of renewed academic and journalistic enquiry since the mid-2010s when it became clear that right wing extremists were utilising social media platforms to recruit and radicalise new members, run hate campaigns targeting members of minority or marginalised groups, and influence national elections. Contemporary research conceptualises this online activity of right wing extremists as an ecosystem of interconnected websites, forums, social media, and alternative media that can be studied from a range of different perspectives and entry points. Two things have been lacking in the studies that utilise this framework: systematic empirical research on the role of extremist websites in the ecosystem and how the movements within the ecosystem understand gender and gender-related issues. This study addresses this gap via the analysis of data collected through the development and deployment of a custom built webcrawler. The crawler was deployed on 11 websites, each one representing a right wing extremist movement. These movements were Christian Identity, Creativity, Ku Klux Klan, militia, neo-confederate, neo-Nazi, racist nationalist, racist patriot, Pagan neo-Nazi, white power music, and white supremacist/skinhead. Websites were selected for inclusion in this seedset based on having the highest number of total visitors in the months prior to data collection. Selecting websites in this manner resulted in an American dataset and an according analysis of primarily American discursive interests. The final ecosystem contained 4,490 unique domains with 7,284 hyperlinks between them. Hyperlink network analysis was then used to identify core websites within this ecosystem. The statistical measures used as part of this showed both extreme and far right websites to be influential, popular, and usefully connected within the network and, as well as linking to other reactionary websites, they also linked frequently to mainstream news sources. This tripartite identification of websites significant in the data leant itself to a three level analysis of extreme right discourse, far right discourse, and mainstream discourse. Textual content hosted on the websites that had been linked to by other websites in the network was used for a content analysis that aimed to understand what the far and extreme right communicate online about gender and gender-related issues. Relevant content was identified via wordsearches of key terms and the content with the highest number of instances of the keywords was used in this systematic content analysis. It was found that the extreme and far right discussed gender-related issues very infrequently, but where they did, they were primarily concerned with the threats they alleged trans people pose to white society. The extreme right saw trans people as being pawns in a Jewish plot to undermine white western society by bringing instability to gendered social relations and family formation.1 The far right saw trans people as having too much influence in society as the result of the liberal agenda of governmental and public institutions. Mainstream news articles were generally utilised to “evidence” these beliefs or to launder the image of extreme and far right organisations through the practise of linking to reputable outlets. This lack of discussion of gendered issues reflects mainstream societal sexism and the interest in trans people shows dangerous reactionary actors to be interacting with current political events. Future research should investigate this link between the mainstream and the extreme and how the former can influence and legitimise the latter.
published_date 2025-04-30T05:24:41Z
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