“Extreme Britain: Gender, masculinity and radicalisation”

In July and August 2024, far-right violence and riots erupted in English towns and cities. The cause was disinformation, claims that a Muslim migrant had been responsible for an attack in which three small girls had been murdered at a children’s dance class. Another factor was gender – the far-right used nationalist gendered logic to justify responding to the attacks on ‘native’ girls by an allegedly ‘foreign’ and Muslim man. Online influencers including radical right figurehead Tommy Robinson and global manfluencer Andrew Tate fanned the flames of violence.

Elizabeth Pearson knows the issues behind the riots. She met and interviewed Robinson and some of those who follow him in research for the book Extreme Britain: Gender Masculinity and Radicalisation. This book uses primary research among two of Britain’s key extremist movements: the anti-Islam radical right, including the English Defence League (as was) and Britain First and the banned Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, and those networked to it, to reveal radicalisation as a masculinity project. Pearson discusses how Extreme Britain explores the emergence of extreme misogyny and masculinities, and cautions against oversimplifying extreme masculinity as ‘toxic’.

Elizabeth Pearson Ph.D., formerly a BBC radio journalist, is senior lecturer in criminology with the Conflict, Violence and Terrorism Research Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London, and programme lead for the MSc in Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies. Elizabeth is also an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute and the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. She co-authored Countering Violent Extremism: Making Gender Matter.

Please reach out to Hazel Velasco Palacios hgv5008@psu.edu if you have any questions about the event or need accommodations.