Cover not available
Article published In:
Young researchers in action
Edited by Angeliki Tzanne
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 10:1] 2022
► pp. 169–196

‘Slut I hate you’

A critical discourse analysis of gendered conflict on YouTube

| King’s College London
| Lancaster University

Adopting a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective, this paper seeks to explore the conflict emerging from the ways YouTube users index, reaffirm or challenge gender ideologies by examining 2,304 YouTube comments posted in response to the misogynistic Greek pop song Καριόλα σε μισώ ‘Slut I hate you’. Our textual analysis draws on the Discourse-Historical Approach, focusing on the lexicogrammatical choices and discursive strategies employed for the positive presentation of the self and the negative presentation of the other. Our findings suggest that: (a) there is a dialectic relationship between the gendered representations of the videoclip and the gender ideologies indexed by individual YouTube users; (b) the discursive negotiation of gender ideologies in anonymous, asynchronous and polylogal discussions is a highly polarised and antagonistic discourse activity, with most comments under the videoclip of the song falling under two broad categories, i.e. those sustaining and those challenging gendered aggression and patriarchal discourses; (c) although both groups resort to common discursive strategies (e.g. nomination and predication strategies that legitimise the authority of the in-group and delegitimise the out-group), they differ significantly in their argumentation and intensification/mitigation strategies, which allows commenters to take sides in a polarised debate and index their gender ideologies; (d) due to the pervasive power of dominant ideologies across all levels of context, the democratic and subversive potential of conflict on YouTube is limited but not pointless as counter-discourses may still gain visibility.

Keywords: violence against women, language aggression, conflicting discourses, conflict on YouTube
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Online aggression and conflict: Previous studies and theoretical framework
    • 2.1Theoretical background
    • 2.2Macro-level context: Online misogyny, violence against women and patriarchy
    • 2.3Meso-level context: Features of digitally mediated communication on YouTube
      • 2.3.1Conflict and aggression on YouTube
      • 2.3.2Gender inequalities and violence against women on YouTube
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data -The triggering song: A chronicle
    • 3.2Analytical procedure
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Sustaining patriarchal discourses (SPD)
    • 5.2Challenging patriarchal discourses (CPD)
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00065.sag
References
Bou-Franch, Patricia
2014 “An Introduction to Language Aggression against Women.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 2 (2): 177–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bou-Franch, Patricia, and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich
2014a “Conflict Management in Massive Polylogues: A Case Study from YouTube.” Journal of Pragmatics 731:19–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014b “Gender Ideology and Social Identity Processes in Online Language Aggression Against Women.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 2 (2): 226–248. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Colliver, Ben, and Adrian Coyle
2020 “ ‘Risk of Sexual Violence against Women and Girls’ in the Construction of ‘Gender-neutral Toilets’: A Discourse Analysis of Comments on YouTube Videos.” Journal of Gender-Based Violence. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cosper, Caitlin
2022 “Patterns of Conflict Speech and Young Adult Feminist Identity Construction on Tumblr.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delis, Panagiotis
2022 “Impoliteness in Hip-Hop Music: African American and White artists’ Racist and Sexist Rhetoric.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drosos, Nikos, and Alexander-Stamatios Antoniou
2019 “Attitudes toward Women Managers and Female Authority: An Empirical Study among Women Managers in Greece.” In Women, Business and Leadership, Gender and Organisations: New Horizons in Management series, edited by Alexander-Stamatios Antoniou, Cary Cooper and Caroline Gatrell, 362–378. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Institute for Gender Equality
2017 “Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls.” Accessed July 3, 2020. https://​eige​.europa​.eu​/rdc​/eige​-publications​/cyber​-violence​-against​-women​-and​-girls
2019 “Gender Equality Index.” Accessed July 25, 2019. https://​eige​.europa​.eu​/gender​-equality​-index​/2015​/EL
Fairclough, Norman
1992 “Discourse and Text: Linguistic and Intertextual Analysis within Discourse Analysis.” Discourse & Society 3 (2): 193–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Fischer, Peter, and Tobias Greitemeyer
2006 “Music and Aggression: The Impact of Sexual-Aggressive Song Lyrics on Aggression-Related Thoughts, Emotions, and Behavior toward the Same and the Opposite Sex.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 32 (9): 1165–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar
2010 “The YouTubification of Politics, Impoliteness and Polarization.” In The Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction, edited by Rotimi Taiwo, 540–563. Hershey: Information Science Reference. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar, and Maria Sifianou
2019 “Im/politeness and Discursive Pragmatics.” Journal of Pragmatics 1451: 91–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ging, Debbie, and Eugenia Siapera
2018 “Special Issue on Online Misogyny.” Feminist Media Studies, 18 (4):515–524. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hardaker, Claire, and Mark Mcglashan
2016 “'Real Men Don’t Hate Women’: Twitter Rape Threats and Group Identity.” Journal of Pragmatics 911: 80–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jane, Emma Alice
2014 “ ‘Back to the Kitchen, Cunt’: Speaking the Unspeakable about Online Misogyny.” Continuum 28 (4): 558–570. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jurasz, Olga, and Kim Barker
2019 “Online Misogyny: A Challenge for Digital Feminism?” Journal of International Affairs 72 (2): 95–113.Google Scholar
Kosyfologou, Aliki
2018 “Gendered Aspects of the Austerity Regime in Greece: 2010–2017: Austerity, Gender Inequality and Feminism after the Crisis in Greece.” ROSA-LUXEMBURG-STIFTUNG, Accessed October, 10, 2019. https://​www​.rosalux​.eu​/publications​/gendered​-aspects​-of​-the​-austerity​-regime​-in​-greece​-2010​-2017/
Kourniakti, Jessica
2017 “From Fascist Overload to Unbearable Lightness: Recollections of the Military Junta as Kitsch in Postdictatorial Greece.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 35 (2): 339–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lange, Patricia G.
2006 “What is your Claim to Flame?” First Monday, 111: n. pag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Eun-Ju
2007 “Deindividuation Effects on Group Polarization in Computer-Mediated Communication: The Role of Group Identification, Public-Self-Awareness, and Perceived Argument Quality.” Journal of Communication 57 (2): 385–403. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria, Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, and Patricia Bou-Franch
2011 “On-line Polylogues and Impoliteness: The Case of Postings Sent in Response to the Obama Reggaeton YouTube Video.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (10): 2578–2593. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milliken, Mary, Kerri Gibson, Susan O’Donnell, and Janice Singer
2017 “User-generated Online Video and the Atlantic Canadian Public Sphere: A YouTube Study.” Proceedings of the International Communications Association (ICA 2008), Montreal, Canada, May 22–26.Google Scholar
Molyneaux, Heather, Susan O’Donnell, Kerri Gibson, and Janice Singer
2008 “Exploring the Gender Divide on YouTube: An Analysis of the Creation and Reception of Vlogs.” The American Communication Journal 10 (1): 1–13.Google Scholar
Murthy, Dhiraj, and Sanjay Sharma
2018 “Visualizing YouTube’s Comment Space: Online Hostility as a Networked Phenomena.” New Media & Society 21 (1): 191–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papacharissi, Zizi
2009 “The Virtual Sphere 2.0: The Internet, the Public Sphere and beyond.” In The Handbook of Internet Politics, edited by Andrew Chadwick and Philip Howard, 230–245. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Eric, and Rebecca Densley
2017 “Girl in a Country Song: Gender Roles and Objectification of Women in Popular Country Music across 1990 to 2014.” Sex Roles 76(3–4): 188–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Richardson-Self, Louise
2018 “Woman-Hating: On Misogyny, Sexism, and Hate Speech.” Hypatia 33 (2): 256–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reicher, Steve, Russell Spears, and Tom Postmes
1995 “A Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Phenomena.” European Review of Social Psychology 61: 161–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak
2001 Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rotman, Dana, Jennifer Golbeck, and Jennifer Preece
2009 “The Community Is Where the Rapport Is – on Sense and Structure in the Youtube Community.” Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Communities and Technologies, 41–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thelwall, Mike, and Amalia Mas-Bleda
2018 “YouTube Science Channel Video Presenters and Comments: Female Friendly or Vestiges of Sexism?” Aslib Journal of Information Management 70 (1): 28–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Zoonen, Liesbet, Farida Vis, and Sabina Mihelj
2011 “YouTube Interactions between Agonism, Antagonism and Dialogue: Video Responses to the Anti-Islam Film Fitna.” New Media & Society 13 (8): 1283–1300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weitzer, Ronald, and Charis E. Kubrin
2009 “Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings.” Men and Masculinities 12 (1): 3–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, South African Medical Research Council
2013 Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. Geneva: World Health Organization. http://​www​.who​.int​/reproductivehealth​/publications​/violence​/9789241564625​/en/
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Delis, Panagiotis
2022. Impoliteness in hip-hop music. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 10:1 ► pp. 197 ff. DOI logo
Khatua, Aparup & Wolfgang Nejdl
2022. Open Challenges in Online Social Networks, ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Komalova, Liliya Ryashitovna & Lyubov Viktorovna Kalyuzhnaya
2022. Broadening the ontology of threats verbalized in written communication on the Internet. Russian Journal of Linguistics 26:3 ► pp. 779 ff. DOI logo
Šori, Iztok & Vasja Vehovar
2022. Reported User-Generated Online Hate Speech: The ‘Ecosystem’, Frames, and Ideologies. Social Sciences 11:8 ► pp. 375 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 january 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.