In this Sarah Banet-Weiser will theorize “mirror worlds” as an apt metaphor for the contemporary political and cultural feminist landscape.

The concept of mirror worlds captures the ways in which reactionary digital politics seeks to mimic feminist politics - but also how it distorts and distracts, with the aim of confusing, splintering and weakening feminism. Within digital media culture in recent years, we have seen the rise of diverse reactionary formations which mirror feminist language, concepts and analyses, marshalling them for anti-feminist ends; these include popular misogynists, ‘manfluencers’, and ‘red-pilled’ manosphere groups such as incels, pick-up artists and male separatists. More recently, a diverse range of female-centric groups and influencers, from tradwives to ‘dark feminine’ influencers to so-called ‘reactionary feminists’ have begun to mirror the reactionary and bio-essentialist logics of the manosphere: a reflection of a reflection.

Meet our speakers and chair

Sarah Banet-Weiser (@SBanetWeiser) is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and Professor of Communication at USC Annenberg. She is the founding director of the Center for Collaborative Communication at the Annenberg Schools (CCAS). Her teaching and research interests include gender in the media, identity, citizenship, and cultural politics, consumer culture and popular media, race and the media, and intersectional feminism.

Angela McRobbie (@angelamcrobbie) is a fellow of the British Academy and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Glasgow University. Her research expertise is on the creative economy and the fashion industry with reference to the small-scale independent sector. Angela is also a feminist social and cultural theorist looking at the gendered dynamics of contemporary neoliberal society. Angela’s research, spanning more than four decades, has been translated into many languages.

Rachel O’Neill (@DrRachelONeill) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Dr O’Neill is a feminist media and cultural studies scholar specialising in gender and sexuality. Her research centers questions of subjectivity and inequality, primarily in the contemporary UK context but with attention to transnational circulations of culture and capital.

More about this event

Join us on campus or register to watch the event online at LSE Live. LSE Live is the home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The Department is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the field of media and communications (2024 QS World University Rankings).

Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents

Join our mailing list

Sign up to receive email updates from LSE Events including the latest news and event announcements.