In garage enterprises: reflections on masculinity, entrepreneurship and digital media

Abstract

The article analyzes the relationship between digital media and emotional support, emphasizing the ways in which they articulate the meanings attributed to network masculinities. The research was conducted through interviews with men, who identify themselves as white, heterosexual and autonomous professionals who were part of an online community. The study shows how that community, before being understood as an innovative enterprise, consolidates itself based on relationships between men, who find a space to deal with the professional insecurities they experienced, regarding the masculinity conventions. In this sense, this social network enable them to be entrepreneurs of their own and seek to transform them into men who are socially admired for their professional achievements and affective relationships. That community has made this social moulding of masculinity through digital media a business model of emotional support restrict to men with a specific social profile of social class, sexuality and race.