Assessing online misogyny: Perspectives from sociology and feminist media studies

Abstract

Scholarly and lay publications have highlighted increasing online misogyny. We review the dominant, cross-disciplinary analyses and conceptualizations of cisnormative, heterosexist, misogynistic discourses. From feminist media /journal/soc4 1 of 12 her personal website. Other examples of "online hate culture" included a New York Times editor being flooded with anti-Semitic Tweets, and Reddit boards devoted to beating women and denigrating photos of fat women (Stein, 2016).The culture's major culprit, according to author Joel Stein? Trolls. Stein (2016) asserts that, "Trolls are turning social media and comment boards into a giant locker room in a teen movie, with towel-snapping racial epithets and misogyny." Troll expert Whitney Philips writes that trolls aim "to disrupt and upset as many people as possible, using whatever linguistic or behavioral tools are available" (2015, p. 3). Beneath these vaguely gendered statements, we suggest, lies a larger truth: Internet trolls, regardless of in-person gender, are performing virtual manhood acts. Virtual manhood acts, as defined by Moloney and Love (2017), use technologically facilitated textual and visual cues to signal a masculine self in online social spaces, enforce hegemonic sexuality and gender norms, oppress women, and keep men "in the box." The performance of manhood in online social spaces allows the actor to claim the pinnacle of power in our patriarchal society.In this paper, we first offer a brief primer on key, interlocking constructs that form the foundation of this review.We then assess understandings of online misogyny within feminist media scholarship. Next, we explore the sociological perspective and suggest that "virtual manhood acts," a nascent sociological concept, offers perhaps the most useful lens with which to analyze misogyny in virtual social spaces. Reviewing conceptualizations from multiple social scientific literatures allows us to recognize that online misogyny is an important and growing social problem rooted not in women's inherent vulnerability, but in problematic manhood practices that replicate hegemonic hierarchies.

‘Wanna trade?’: Cisheteronormative homosocial masculinity and the normalization of abuse in youth digital sexual image exchange

“…A more detailed breakdown of participants of our study can be seen in the table below, we used single gender focus groups to enable the discussion of sensitive topics, but not all of the young people were cisgendered or identified as heterosexual; in several cases the teachers advised a mixed gender focus group for either convenience or it followed the structure of the young people's friendship groups. Our data analysis involved using feminist discourse analysis (Lazar, 2005) to isolate discourses of cisheteronormative homosocial masculinity (Moloney and Love, 2018). Our study is important in that we explore how cis heteronormative masculinity discourses emerge in discussions across the peer groups with boys, girls as well as gender variant young people.…”

“…Heteronormtive is a frame that assumes a natural heterosexual attraction between opposite categories of masculine and feminine (Butler, 1990). 'Cis' gendered refers to 'individuals (those whose gender identity matches the male or female sex category they were assigned at birth) who are assumed to be normative and superior' (Sumerau, Cragun, &Mathers, 2016, in Moloney andLove, 2018). In Butler's heterosexual matrix cis gender binary embodiment maps onto heterosexual desire where oppositional body parts are to determine sexual desire.…”

“We Dissect Stupidity and Respond to It”: Response Videos and Networked Harassment on YouTube

“…Feminist scholars situate online harassment within a broader landscape of misogyny and sexual violence (Henry & Powell, 2015; Jane, 2014). While diverse populations experience harassment, women, especially women of color and queer women, are far more likely to experience serious online harassment like stalking (Lenhart et al, 2016; Vitak et al, 2017), which discourages marginalized populations from participating online (Hill & Johnson, 2020; Moloney & Love, 2018). Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kate Miltner (2016) refer to “networked misogyny” as “an especially virulent strain of violence and hostility towards women in online environments.”…”

Towards a research agenda for examining online gender-based violence against women academics

“…Often violence against women is misogynistic in nature and perpetrated by men; occurring as a result of hatred or contempt for women (Moloney & Love, 2018). Manne (2017) observes that in misogynistic, patriarchal society, women are controlled, often violently, in order to perpetuate cultural norms.…”

“…Gender-based violence (GBV) is widely experienced by women and girls online (Moloney & Love, 2018;Ging & Siapera, 2018). The United Nations (1993) defines GBV as an act of violence in public or private life that can result in physical, sexual or psychological harm.…”