Gendered Morality and Backlash Effects in Online Discussions: An Experimental Study on How Users Respond to Hate Speech Comments Against Women and Sexual Minorities

Wilhelm, Claudia; Joeckel, Sven

doi:10.1007/s11199-018-0941-5

Cited by 38 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…We find support for our theoretical arguments that norm enhancement and status processes contribute to cyber aggression within social media. Negative online communication in our Twitter data tends to reinforce existing social norms of femininity, not unlike findings of gendered norm enforcement in other genres of online interaction (Pascoe and Diefendorf 2019;Wilhelm and Joeckel 2019) and in schools (Felmlee and Faris 2016). The spread of derogatory tweets within networks of Twitter conversations, furthermore, suggests that enhancing one's status among one's peers constitutes another likely motivation behind damaging electronic communication toward women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…The first mechanism refers to the regulation of gender norms whereby demeaning online messages highlight the social expectations, or norms, that surround gendered behavior and reinforce traditional stereotypes. This type of gender norm enforcement is evident in multiple types of online discussions, such as those involving homophobic epithets (Pascoe and Diefendorf 2019) and hate speech (Wilhelm and Joeckel 2019). In addition, lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, transsexual, and others with non-traditional sexual and/or gender identities tend to be attacked online at a much higher rate (two to four times higher) than their heterosexual counterparts (Felmlee and Faris 2016;Hinduja and Patchin 2010;Schneider et al 2012).…”

Section: Cyber Aggressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note, too, that we are not able to identify the demographic characteristics of the perpetrators-those who send hostile tweets in our data set could be men, women, or those of other gender identities. Men generally engage in aggressive behavior toward women more frequently than toward men (Anderson and Anderson 2008), and yet women, who operate within the same dominant culture, also can exhibit hostility toward other women (Loya et al 2006;Wilhelm and Joeckel 2019).…”

Section: Research Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexist Slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes Online

2019

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Social media platforms are accused repeatedly of creating environments in which women are bullied and harassed. We argue that online aggression toward women aims to reinforce traditional feminine norms and stereotypes. In a mixed methods study, we find that this type of aggression on Twitter is common and extensive and that it can spread far beyond the original target. We locate over 2.9 million tweets in one week that contain instances of gendered insults (e.g., "bitch," "cunt," "slut," or "whore")-averaging 419,000 sexist slurs per day. The vast majority of these tweets are negative in sentiment. We analyze the social networks of the conversations that ensue in several cases and demonstrate how the use of "replies," "retweets," and "likes" can further victimize a target. Additionally, we develop a sentiment classifier that we use in a regression analysis to compare the negativity of sexist messages. We find that words in a message that reinforce feminine stereotypes inflate the negative sentiment of tweets to a significant and sizeable degree. These terms include those insulting someone's appearance (e.g., "ugly"), intellect (e.g., "stupid"), sexual experience (e.g., "promiscuous"), mental stability (e.g., "crazy"), and age ("old"). Messages enforcing beauty norms tend to be particularly negative. In sum, hostile, sexist tweets are strategic in nature. They aim to promote traditional, cultural beliefs about femininity, such as beauty ideals, and they shame victims by accusing them of falling short of these standards.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Section: Cyber Aggressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexist Slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes Online

2019

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“…Contrary to western cultural frames, widely accepted in western research titles for marginal groups of women as "minority" or "underprivileged social group" [Wilhelm, Joeckel, 2019] do not adequately reflect the actual state in Russia. This is another reason, why value of inclusion practices is undermined.…”

Section: Role Of the Governmentmentioning

confidence: 82%

Determinants of return to work after maternity leave in Russia: A logistic regression approach

Aleksandra

Sofia

Anna

2020

RMJ

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This paper aims to identify the determinants of return to work after maternity leave in Russia. Can an organisation influence employees’ decision about withdrawal from the market after leave arrangement, or does it fully depend on the contextual and personal characteristics of the employee, as assumed by the discourses of merit and choice? Logistic regression analysis helps to answer the raised questions, referring to responses of 721 mothers with previous working experience. The research revealed that employers indeed can improve inclusion of employees with childcare commitments, fostering their return after the maternity leave. Despite high regional diversity of Russian population, contextual specificity barely influences the decision of employees regarding their returning to work with the same employer, similarly to their level of education, firms’ equity or amount of children. Among personal characteristics, income was found to play an important role in return decisions, as well as the age of the smallest child. The paper contributes to the debates on the fluidity of gender and work identity as well as organizational control over the identity work.

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“…Current on line communication research shows that such backlash effects occur when women speak out in public or semipublic spac es, e. g., as journalists or scholars (e. g., Eckert, 2018;Veletsianos et al, 2018), and when they behave agentic or dominant in online discussions (Wilhelm & Joeckel, 2019;Winkler, Halfmann, & Freudenthaler, 2017). Wilhelm and Joeckel (2019) exam ined the effect of the author's gender on the acceptance of hate as well as counter speech comments. They found a back lash effect towards women commenters for both comment types: Comments by women were more likely to be flagged as harmful than comments by men.…”

Section: Power Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered (in)visibility in digital media contexts

Wilhelm

2020

SComS

Self Cite

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In digital media environments, gendered inequalities can be observed on the level of representation and participation in online discussions and digital communities as well as regarding the prevalence of gender norms in self-presentations, and power relations in social interactions. The #MeToo debate exemplifies how gendered inequalities become visible in social media but also reveals the increasing hostility against women online. Drawing on the concept of digital visibility and informed by theoretical perspectives on gendered digital visibility from gender and feminist research and media and communication studies, the article reviews current research and identifies three distinct processes that characterize gendered digital visibility: (1) replication, (2) reinforcement, and (3) resilience. In doing so, the article proposes a taxonomy of research on gendered digital visibility. Findings highlight the ambivalence of women’s participation in online discussions as well as the replication and reinforcement of gender norms through digital technology. Moreover, interrelatedness of these processes and implications for future research are discussed.

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Gendered Morality and Backlash Effects in Online Discussions: An Experimental Study on How Users Respond to Hate Speech Comments Against Women and Sexual Minorities

Cited by 38 publications

References 65 publications

Sexist Slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes Online

Sexist Slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes Online

Determinants of return to work after maternity leave in Russia: A logistic regression approach

Gendered (in)visibility in digital media contexts

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