Post-machismo, gender violence, and opinion dynamics in digital media. Exploring the Spanish reality through the experience of eldiario.es

Abstract

Gender violence has gradually become a public issue and a matter of State concern under permanent discussion in the Spanish media. Its increasing visibility has stimulated social and political awareness, but has also given rise to controversies, which are especially manifested in the digital environment. In this environment, meanings are built and expressed not only by the media, but also by online audiences participating through various mechanisms. This work observes the dynamics of the readers’ views on gender violence, as expressed in a politically progressive born-digital medium like eldiario.es. A sample of 716 comments to articles on gender violence published by this online newspaper are analyzed. A quantitative analysis shows a male-dominated participation of readers who are not subscribed to the site and whose views are contrary to those of eldiario.es’ editorial charter and its commitment to equality. A qualitative analysis of the contents of those comments reveals the recurring use of the feminist-antifeminist dichotomy in the debate, as well as a questioning of the scientific nature, purpose and suitability of feminism for the eradication of gender violence. Finally, the promotion of a genuine democratic debate in digital sites as the one here analyzed is discussed in light of women’s notable underrepresentation in the debate and of the possible misuse of participation as a means to perpetrate symbolic violence against women.

Assessing training on digital gender based violence in higher education taking into account gender and sexual orientation

“…Actually, DGBV often goes hand in hand with offline GBV (Amnesty International, 2018). What is new, though, is that it emerges in the context of the alliance between the far right and the digital manosphere (Bonet‐Martí, 2020, 2021; Chávez Molina & Vergés Bosch, 2019; Fernández et al., 2019; Han & Yin, 2022; Lee, 2019; Martínez‐Jiménez & Zurbano‐Berenguer, 2019; Siapera, 2019; Van Valkenburgh, 2019). In this context, a specificity of DGBV is the multiplication and anonymity of the aggressors (Vergés Bosch & Gil‐Juarez, 2021).…”

Machosfera, discursos de odio y algoritmización de la esfera pública

“…Uno de los ejemplos más recientes de movilización ciberfeminista a escala global ha sido el #metoo (Loney-Howes et al, 2022) que intentó ser contrarrestado por el movimiento #himtoo (Boyle y Rathnayake, 2020). Además de estas campañas de reacción puntuales, en la última década nos enfrentamos a ecosistemas claramente hostiles a las mujeres y con un marcado carácter antifeminista (Mantilla, 2013;Martínez-Jiménez y Zurbano-Berenguer, 2019;Ging, 2019a;Ávila Bravo-Villasante, 2023a).…”