Ancient Masculinity and the Construction of White Identity: How the Proud Boys Use Classics to Justify Western Hegemony

The ancient world has long been a point of interest among white supremacists, fascists, and other far-right groups alike. Since the Unite the Right rally and the Insurrection of January 6th, the alt-right and white supremacists have become a topic of renewed discussion in academia with domestic terrorism as a growing concern. Several groups such as the Proud Boys, III Percenters, and Oathkeepers represent a militant and hyper-masculine movement that pulls much iconography from the ancient world and creates an identity that is tied to classics. This paper seeks to analyze ancient masculinity and the modern masculinity that is championed by the Proud Boys to understand the ways in which they use ancient sources to construct their white identity and to support their beliefs in Western hegemony. To these men, the West is white, and the West is the best because of the civilizational foundations of ancient Rome.