"Stay paranoid, hunters": Hunting Influencers and/as Normative Masculinity in the Manosphere

From posts weaving hunting into the MAHA movement and Bible study to podcasts arguing true hunters center “God, family, and country,” hunting influencers continuously make claims about whom hunting is for and what its, and thus the nation’s, future ought to look like.  Through close readings of hunting influencers’ social media posts and podcasts, I reveal the ways in which hunter influencers engage with, challenge, and reinforce white Christian men’s claimed ownership of hunting in the US.  This paper reveals, moreover, that claims about who the true hunter is rely on the discursive construction of who his enemies are, whether they be atheist liberals, misinformed bleeding-heart anti-hunters, or sellout hunter celebrities and their poseur followers.  To occupy the hunting manosphere is to be reminded that hunting is, and therefore you are, under constant threat.  As one influencer frequently puts it, “stay paranoid, hunters.”