Research in Brief
Gender and politics: Patriarchal discourse on social media

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.11.010Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Twitter has a strong potential to perpetuate patriarchal discourse.

  • Twitter also has potential to challenge patriarchal discourse.

  • Alternative discourses on Twitter are central to challenging dominant discourse.

  • The dynamism of digital alternative publics is the only way to challenge the dominant discourse.

Abstract

Social media is an alternative communication space embedded with opportunities for free and equal participation. However, it perpetuates the dominant discourses on society. This study researches on a Twitter case explaining the production of patriarchal discourse on women with the help of tweets under the hashtag; “a woman has to be”. This study supports the idea that social media needs the dynamism of alternative digital publics and alternative discourses to challenge the dominant power relations as well as improving democracy.

Section snippets

Gender, politics and Twitter

Social media is not a truly alternative and free communication area improving democracy. It encourages the hegemonic discourses and traditional power relations in society. Nevertheless, it has a potential to challenge the dominant discourses with the help of online dynamism of alternative publics. This study aims to be an alternative approach focusing on both positive and negative effects of social media on politics. It regards social media as a neutral channel in contrast to

Methods and data

Twitter is used to access public discussions while stereotyping women. Tweets under the hashtag of “#BirKadındaMutlaka” (which means a woman has to be) are used as data. Tweets were collected on 13th and 14th November, 2013 when the hashtag listed in trending topics in Turkey. The number of tweets is 2337. However, only the 636 of them have original opinions about the topic and contain the words a woman “has to be” or “must not be”. The contents of tweets are analyzed by means of the content

Findings

Findings show that 81.60% of all tweets match with the above mentioned categories. They contribute to the patriarchal discourse. 12.26% of all tweets do not match with the categories but they contain views about the being, nature and character of women. Thus, it is possible to claim that they strengthen this discourse. As a result, 93.86% of all tweets contribute to the patriarchal discourse. Our findings present that only 6.13% of all tweets have potential to develop an alternative discourse

Conclusion

In this case, tweets contribute to the patriarchal discourse on women. Most of the tweets focus on the moral values for women and on physical beauty. It is easy to observe that domestic responsibilities are also important for people. All these views contain symbols of patriarchal discourse, disseminate on Twitter, produce and re-produce knowledge on women roles. Furthermore, the low opposition level indicates the absence of alternative discourses.

This study deals with the contribution of

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