Memes against sexism? A multi-method analysis of the feminist protest hashtag #distractinglysexy and its resonance in the mainstream news media (original) (raw)
Related papers
DistractinglySexy: How Social Media was used as a Counter Narrative on Gender in STEM
On June 8th, 2015, Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt freely expressed his opinion on mixed-gender labs, while attending a President's lunch at the World Conference of Science Journalists: Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab: You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry [69]. In the days following his statement, the hashtag #DistractinglySexy trended on Twitter. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Twitter users interpreted the Sir Tim Hunt speech, and how they represented their message through visual media on Twitter. The software program Hashtracking was used to gather 58,969 tweets that contained an image from the #DistractinglySexy hashtag. Content analysis was used to analyze the images collected, and a codebook was developed through an adaptation of the ‘Draw-a-Scientist Test’ (DAST), a test initially designed to reveal children’s attitudes and beliefs about science through the use of stereotypical features. To enable human coding of such a large data set, a purposeful sample of 3,648 images was extracted for analysis. Intercoder reliability scores ranged from 0.84 to 1.0, all within the acceptable range, according to Cohen’s Kappa. The results of this study indicated that users of the hashtag predominately portrayed themselves posed in personal protective equipment, in a laboratory setting. This study contributes to social media literature, by illustrating how this medium was used to create counter narratives that combat and highlight the challenges women in STEM face.
Emergent Feminisms Complicating a Postfeminist Media Culture, 2018
In this chapter we consider how social media platforms have produced new spaces for debates over feminism. The undeniable mass uptake of feminism via social media shows us that self-identified feminists are fighting against antifeminism in ways that enable mass participatory audiences via platforms such as Twitter. In particular, we explore how social media feminist humor and irony are used as rhetorical and debating strategies to challenge problematic arguments against or about feminists by re-staging anti-feminist claims as absurd, ridiculous, and illogical. We argue that humorous posts play a central role in increasing feminist audiences and mobilizing feminist connectivity (Papacharissi 2012), collectivity, and solidarity. To demonstrate this, we explore three different manifestations of social media feminist humor that challenge rejections of feminism or antifeminism. First, we look at the hugely popular Twitter account @NoToFeminism, which posts witty rejoinders to antifeminist discourses, and was created specifically to parody the #WomenAgainstFeminism movement (see Cohn, this volume), and has amassed a large following and popularity beyond social media into the mainstream publishing market. Next, we examine the Twitter hashtag #FeministsAreUgly, interrogating how feminists have intervened into the sexist logic that women are feminists because they are sexually undesirable to men. We explore how hashtags can be co-opted in ways that mutate far outside their original aims, given that the hashtag became a space that reinforced Eurocentric, (hetero)normative beauty norms its founders intended it to interrogate. Finally, we explore “misandry” posts which ironically present female superiority in an attempt to parody anti-feminist claims that feminists are man-hating. This tongue in cheek action can be considered a way of mocking willful misunderstandings of feminism. We also consider whether some of the memes celebrate violence against men in gender binary and essentializing ways. Overall we argue that social media affordances offer women opportunities to engage with and defend feminism in novel and exciting ways that complicate claims that our media culture is overwhelmingly postfeminist and that we are living in a moment that marginalizes sustained feminist political dialogue and critique.
In this chapter we look at three different manifestations of social media feminist humour that challenge rejections of feminism or anti-feminism. First we look at the hugely popular twitter account @NoToFeminism, which posts witty rejoinders to anti-feminist discourses, and was initiated specifically to parody the #womenagainstfeminism movement. Next, we examine the twitter hashtag #FeministsAreUgly, to consider how feminists have intervened into the sexist logic that women are feminists because they are sexually undesirable to men. We consider the affordances of the hashtag to stimulate discussion and debate around conventional beauty norms and also how hashtags can be co-opted in ways that mutate far outside its original aims. The hashtag was created in 2014 as a way for people of colour to speak back against beauty standards and cultural privilege and we problematize how it has now potentially become a site of enforcing, and validating the exact same beauty norms it was designed to interrogate. Finally, we explore ‘misandry’ Twitter hashtags and Tumblr posts which ironically present female superiority in an attempt to parody anti-feminist claims that feminists are man-hating. This tongue in cheek action can be considered a way of mocking wilful misunderstandings of feminism. We also, however, consider whether some of the memes celebrate violence against men in gender binary and essentialising ways. Overall we argue that social media affordances offer women opportunities to defend feminism, in novel and exciting ways that move us beyond simplistic claims that we are in any way living in a postfeminist moment without sustained feminist political dialogue and critique.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 2019
This study explores the discourse of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics or medicine (STEM) fields produced by Twitter users on social media, with a particular focus on language usage and function in this discourse. The exploration of the women in STEM discourse was achieved by collecting a body of tweets using popular hashtags addressing women in STEM from the last week of October 2017. Following a corpus-based approach, this study analyzes the most frequent evaluative adjectives and 4-grams. Results from the analysis of evaluative adjectives show that Twitter users represent women in STEM fields positively by using positive adjectives such as great, amazing, inspirational etc. Furthermore, the analysis of the most frequent 4-grams reveals that Twitter users employ hashtags such as #ilooklikeasurgeon and #womeninSTEM to promote the work of women in STEM fields, show their appreciation of women working and studying in STEM and challenge prevalent gender stereotypes of STEM professions. It was found that the production of women in STEM discourse by most Twitter users has contributed to increasing the strength of women in the STEM community in social media, evidenced by their practices of advocacy, networking and challenging gender biases online. The discourse of women in STEM in social media is an example of discursive activism that focuses on the larger dialogue of women in STEM and highlights dominant forms of sexism and gendered stereotypes of women's work in male dominated professions.
Leisure Sciences, 2018
This paper offers a critical analysis of the uses of hashtag #feminism on Twitter. To do so, we collected all English-language Tweets shared publicly and containing the #feminism on Twitter in one 24-hour period and analyzed the content of those Tweets. We found that tweets with #feminism content served to: (1) discuss understandings of feminism(s); (2) describe perceptions of feminists; (3) respond to/promote misogyny; and (4) express perceived relevance of feminism as a social movement. Beyond describing how #feminism is used in Twitter tweets, our findings inform our presentation of the use of #feminism to wield, shield, and troll feeds on feminism. We also discuss the opportunities for Twitter, as a digital leisure space, to be examined more closely as a source for learning about complex, ongoing, and evolving conversations about feminism.
Gender in an Era of Post-truth Populism Pedagogies, Challenges and Strategies Penny Jane Burke, Julia Coffey, Rosalind Gill and Akane Kanai (eds) Bloomsbury Academic, 2022
In this paper, we explore challenges for feminist scholars and educators to navigate social media and the digital sphere(s), especially in relation to the rise of reactionary antifeminism and misogyny in the recent post-truth climate. We use feminist critical discourse analysis to look in-depth at a gender-trolling episode of Tweets documenting a session on arts-based methodologies in sex education, specifically making Play-Doh genital models, from our MA level 'Gender, Sexuality and Education' module at the UCL, Institute of Education. We apply the concept of gender-trolling in this chapter to explore an episode where our own digital feminist pedagogies on Twitter were attacked and patrolled by an angry mob of trolls. We want to position the Twitter trolling event in the context of post-truth populism where groups are struggling and fighting to gain visibility in the on/offline sphere and at the same time delegitimize other knowledge and groups, and ultimately aiming to drive other voices and views offline and out of the online public sphere (Salter 2018). We are demonstrating four broad Tweet pathways which actively enable the spread of online antifeminism, misogyny, and abuse in digital public space (Salter 2016). We conclude that universities need to pay attention to digitally-mediated misogyny, antifeminism, and abuse and must find ways to manage the risks of positions of online visibility and protect academics (Ringrose 2018).
New approaches to the propagation of the antifeminist backlash on Twitter
Investigaciones Feministas, 2020
A year after the #MeToo movement erupted, antifeminism started to retort. The idea behind the backlash was that 'the men who have been accused are the heroes' (Tolentino, 2018). Twitter was one of the public spaces where this confrontation occurred; the #HimToo backlash gathered steam in 2018 (Asimov, 2018) and expanded into 2019. Focussing on the reactions against #Cuéntalo Twitter campaign-the Spanish equivalent to #MeToo-, this article examines how the antifeminist backlash proliferates, offering a view of the dynamics driving it. The authors choose an eclectic and interdisciplinary approach that integrates graph theory and CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis), thus connecting social media formulations with offline discourses, and proposing new ways of studying social movements. To examine the backlash's characteristics, this study utilises Congosto's typology of Twitter profiles (Congosto, 2018). Findings suggest that both approaches are complementary and necessary, for while graph analysis enables the distinction of antifeminist communities on Twitter and their behaviour and characteristics, CDA allows investigators to uncover their discursive strategies and favoured themes. [es] Nuevos enfoques en la propagación de la reacción antifeminista en Twitter Resumen. Un año después del estallido del movimiento #MeToo, el antifeminismo comenzó a reaccionar. La idea detrás de esta resistencia era que 'los hombres que han sido acusados son los héroes' (Tolentino, 2018). Twitter fue uno de los espacios públicos en los que ocurrió esta confrontación; la reacción de #HimToo cobró impulso en 2018 (Asimov, 2018) y se expandió hasta 2019. Centrándose en las reacciones contra la campaña de Twitter #Cuéntalo, el equivalente español de #MeToo, este artículo examina cómo prolifera la reacción antifeminista, ofreciendo una perspective nueva de las dinámicas y fuerzas que lo impulsan. Las autoras utilizan un enfoque interdisciplinario que integra la teoría de grafos y el CDA (Análisis Crítico del Discurso), conectando las formulaciones de las redes sociales con los discursos offline y proponiendo unn novedoso método para estudiar los movimientos sociales. Para examinar las características de la reacción antifeminista, este estudio utiliza la tipología de perfiles de Twitter de Congosto (Congosto, 2018). Los resultados sugieren que ambos enfoques son complementarios y necesarios: mientras que el análisis gráfico permite identificar y clasificar la comunidad antifeminista en Twitter, el CDA ofrece a las investigadoras la posibilidad de descubrir sus estrategias discursivas y temas favoritos.
Gender in " crisis " , everyday sexism and the Twittersphere
Crisis and the Media, 2018
This chapter will explore how the rejection of the claims for equality are represented in the technology of the 21st century, but at the same time embody the language of a pre-feminist world and can thus be seen to at once empower and restrict feminist discourse. In this way, the crisis in gender relations is one that emerges in the 1990s in Westernised contexts and continues to develop into the 21st century, contributing to the emergence of a Fourth Wave of feminist action. As such, " crisis " is employed in this chapter to explore how various small events, seemingly insignificant in isolation, have been raised to public notice through social media to enhance the emergence of Fourth Wave Feminism in the last ten years.
Media, Culture & Society, 2016
The recent sacking of the eminent scientist Tim Hunt from one of the UK's leading research institutions is only the latest in a series of cases where public individuals have been derided for comments made in jest on social media, with serious consequences for their professional and personal lives. This article discusses the case of Tim Hunt as an example of the extent to which the privileging of the correct over the true which has long pervaded media discourse is taken to the extreme by the instant-response culture of social media. It points to the emergence of a new form of instantaneity enabled by these networked forms of communication that serves to reinforce systemic inaction rather than the change widely associated with these technologies. It draws on philosophy and Critical Theory as useful conceptual frameworks for highlighting the ways in which Twitter & co. increasingly call us to action but crowd out thought, thereby passing over opportunities for real social change. Leading immunologist and nobel-prize winner Tim Hunt was relatively unknown outside the science world until a conference in Korea in 2015 where he was asked to speak about women in science: 'The trouble with girls in the lab is that you fall in love with them', he said, 'they fall in love with you-you criticize them and then they cry' (Ratcliffe, 2015). No-one, it seems, challenged Hunt directly about his remarks. Instead, the audience took to Twitter to launch what became a veritable 'social media storm'; Hunt was a chauvinist, clearly stuck in the wrong century, and the only appropriate response would be to resign immediately. University College London (UCL), where Hunt was employed, responded promptly and decisively. Hunt's wife, herself an eminent scientist, was told her husband should resign if he did not want to be fired. Hunt had made a fool of himself in front of the scientific community and outraged feminists around the world. It was only right that he should be punished by being ousted from his post. The academy confirmed its zero-tolerance policy on chauvinism, and asserted itself as a defender of equal opportunity. Or did it? This is certainly the dominant reading of recent events. However, as I intend to argue over the following pages, it is a reading that misses the crucial lesson we can take from what happened: how instant responses to punish what
Issues in Information Systems, 2015
Twitter is an Internet-based communication technology that enables users to distribute short messages, known as tweets, of 140 characters or less. Twitter uses symbols to give more meaning to aspects of its tweets. The # symbol, also known as " hashtag " , enables users to share meaningful words or phrases through tweets and retweets. In the Spring of 2014, several hashtaged phrases related to gender discussions swept around the world. This case study analysis of events details the reasons for and results of the phenomenon.