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Article published In:
Young researchers in action
Edited by Angeliki Tzanne
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 10:1] 2022
► pp. 85–110

Patterns of conflict speech and young adult feminist identity construction on Tumblr

| University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Interactions on social media platforms are becoming increasingly relevant from an identity construction perspective. Conflict speech, in particular, is a form of interaction that is especially common in online spaces and constructs identity through polarization, strengthening the in-group while excluding the out-group. The young adult feminist identity has established a strong presence in online spaces, specifically the microblogging platform Tumblr. This study seeks to analyze the role of conflict speech in young adult feminist identity construction through focusing on recontextualization of comments and name-calling strategies. Within this analysis, it is possible to determine the importance of conflict speech as it strengthens the collective feminist identity while allowing those in the in-group to exclude and dismiss conflictual comments stemming from those in the out-group.

Keywords: conflict speech, feminist identity, Tumblr, online interaction, polarization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Social media
  • 3.Identity construction
  • 4.Conflict speech
  • 5.Methods
    • 5.1Data collection
    • 5.2Theoretical tools for data analysis
  • 6.Results and discussion
    • 6.1Recontextualization of comments
    • 6.2Name-calling
  • 7.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00061.cos
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