Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract Masculinity as a form of values, norms, and behaviors is to a large extent derived from discourse relationships. The development of virtual social networks in the last decade has provided the ground for the multiplicity and arrangement of rival discourses of masculinity. Relying on the virtual ethnography method and semiotic and thematic analysis, seek to identify the types of masculinity in cyberspace, the dominant discourses, and their relationships. The main types extracted included hegemonic, complicit, subaltern, marginal masculinity, and their subtypes. The alternative form of active anti-discrimination masculinity with the ideal of gender equality and the briquillage form of the new hegemonic masculinity was also recognized, which seeks to combine elements of traditional hegemonic masculinity with newer elements to perpetuate masculine superiority. The types were universal and some were indigenous. Iranian men combine elements of their identity in the complex cultural-historical context as well as the existing economic and political structures. Thus the hierarchy between the types of masculinity, their actions in the face of each other and other forms, as well as in the face of macrostructures, as power/resistance and tactics/strategy, as well as some of their mechanisms have found more complexities and found an Iranian face.