A groundbreaking examination of far-right rhetoric around fitness and the human body and how such rhetoric serves white nationalist, masculinist aims.
In recent years, far-right, white-nationalist groups in the US have churned out streams of discourse glorifying "muscularity" as the ideal masculine form. This preoccupation with physical fitness—along with expressed fears of declining testosterone levels in men, race-mixing, and transgender women—all reveal the masculine bodily fantasies and anxieties that underwrite the political unconscious of the far right. In Hard Right, Casey Ryan Kelly examines the link between extreme fitness culture and fascist organizations, arguing that the human body operates as a privileged signifier of national belonging in the rhetoric of the far right.
Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, Kelly shows that far-right rhetoric constructs fantasies of recovering the "natural" or primal masculine body. These fantasies are frequently accompanied by anxieties about "soft," disabled, and ambiguously gendered bodies, all of which are seen as signs of degeneracy that must be transformed, exiled, or eradicated for the sake of national and racial health. Through its examination of "Red Pill" fitness influencers, "bro science" conspiracy theories, far-right podcasts, and more, Hard Right ultimately shows how the cultural logics of men's health and physical fitness converge with the political logics of white nationalism and late fascism.
- 199 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Information
Publisher
Ohio State University PressYear
2026Print ISBN
9780814259931
9780814216217
eBook ISBN
9780814285091
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction Body Dysmorphia
- Chapter 1 “Do You Even Lift, Bro?”: The Red Pill Meets Fitness
- Chapter 2 The Fitness Dark Web
- Chapter 3 Bro Science and Body Vernaculars
- Chapter 4 Active Club Propaganda
- Chapter 5 UFC Nationalism
- Conclusion Muscles über Alles?
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
- Index
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Yes, you can access Hard Right by Casey Ryan Kelly in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Linguistics. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.