Hopefulness and victimhood among Finnish male influencers who create meat-related food content on social media

In some digital spaces inhabited by men, hatred and ridicule are directed towards out-groups, such as women, feminists, and the left, while the victimhood of white cisgender heterosexual men is emphasized. This dynamic has also shifted to discussions about food: digital spaces focusing on meat attract men, some of whom defend meat consumption as a waning cultural form threatened by veganism and associated intersectional groups. Yet, the perceptions of men who create meat-centered digital spaces and content have remained underexplored. Drawing on interviews with 11 Finnish men who create content on meat or hunting on social media, this article explores their affective meaning-making around content creation, its intended goals, and its reception. In their narratives, undisturbed digital spaces that enable the sharing of knowledge and pleasures related to meat and hunting were accompanied by a promise of happiness. Male influencers engaged in respectability politics by providing visibility for ecological and ethical meat production. Concurrently, they mobilized ridicule, anger, and victimhood towards commenters who introduced identity-political oppositions into their content or attacked the consumption of meat, as these comments threatened both the central role of meat within the ingroup and its potential respectability among outgroups.