Pauline Hoebanx's research focuses on gender, digital culture, and online communities, with a particular attention to antifeminist women, representations of masculinity, and platform affordances. She specializes in netnography, an ethnographic approach to the study of social media communities, which she uses to explore how people navigate identity, ideology, and power online. She holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Analysis from Concordia University.
Dr. Hoebanx's research examines how gender, ideology, and power are shaped through digital media. She studies online antifeminist communities, the politics of masculinity, and the influence of platform affordances on identity-making and cultural expression.
She also contributes to interdisciplinary research on digital risk environments, including projects on gamblification, algorithmic harm, and online financial cultures.
Her research has been published in Men and Masculinities, Critical Gambling Studies, and Sociology Compass, and in edited collections including Forgotten Realities of Men (UBC Press) and The Handbook on Cyber Hate (Springer). Her work is grounded in feminist theory and digital ethnography, with a commitment to understanding contemporary social tensions through the lens of platformed life.
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Hoebanx, P. (2024). Red Pill Women: Heterosexual Fantasies in Misogynistic Spaces. Men and Masculinities.
Hoebanx, P., & French, M. (2023). Interpassive Gambling: The Case of Slot Machine Vlogs on YouTube. Critical Gambling Studies, 4(1), 66–76.
Hoebanx, P. (2022). What Shapes the Internet? An Overview of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Sociology Compass, 16(10), 1–14.
Edited Volumes
Lafrance, M., Deslauriers, J.-M., Tremblay, G., & Hoebanx, P. (Eds.). (2025). Forgotten Realities of Men. UBC Press.
Book Chapters
Lafrance, M., & Hoebanx, P. (2025). Forgotten Realities of Men: Critical Reflections on Masculinity in the Contemporary Moment. In Forgotten Realities of Men. UBC Press.
Deslauriers, J.-M., Hoebanx, P., & Negura, L. (2025). Suffering in Silence: Men and the Lived Experience of Depression. In Forgotten Realities of Men. UBC Press.
Hoebanx, P. (2024). Hegemonic Masculinity and Beyond: An Overview of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Research on the Manosphere. In Wagner, A. & Marusek, S. (Eds.), Handbook on Cyber Hate. Springer.