Violence and carceral masculinities in Felony Fights

Contemporary culture is replete with carnivalesque representations of violence and this has accelerated with the development of online technology. Felony Fights is a website and set of DVDs depicting real combat between male former convicts and other men. Viewer responses to these clips reflect a complexity of meaning and symbolic associations between violence, power and masculine identities. Nevertheless, profoundly unequal relations of power shape their production and viewing appeal. The embodied and affective dimensions of marginality and poverty are presented in Felony Fights as evidence of the animal brutality and carceral character of the fighters. This resonates with populist explanations for criminal violence and mainstream portrayals of male masochism in which white men are depicted as a victimized social group.