This dissertation explores the extent to which online gender-based violence (OGBV) and the “manosphere” are addressed in policies from the United Kingdom (UK) government. A post-structural policy and critical discourse analysis have been performed on the relevant policies within this dissertation to gain an understanding of how the issues of online gender-based violence against women and extreme misogynistic ideologies like those within the manosphere are understood, addressed and possibly ignored by the UK government. The focus of this dissertation is two key strategies by the UK government: Prevent and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.
This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of how the manosphere and OGBV are perceived by UK policy makers, as well as providing an assessment of the adequacy of the relevant policies to tackle OGBV against women and ideologies within the manosphere. It will question how the understandings of these issues are constructed within policy, allowing for the failures and gaps in the policy to become clear. It is pertinent to understand how the policies that are supposed to address these issues fail to do so, for governments to produce better-informed and effective policies.
The results of the policy and discourse analyses found that the UK government possibly lacks in understanding the harms and prevalence of OGBV, and that the “Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls” (HM Government, 2021) strategy does not adequately address, or provide clear solutions for these issues. The policy and discourse analysis of the Prevent (HM Government, 2023) strategy produced similar results, highlighting how the UK government does not provide a clear understanding of whether incel ideologies are extremist. These results further suggested that the Prevent strategy does not adequately address nor comprehensively understand the threat individuals supporting the ideology may pose.
The findings of this study provide the opportunity for policymakers to change how they understand the issues of OGBV and the manosphere. These changes can possibly apply to future policies in order to make them better-informed and more effective.
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