The phenomenon of misogynistic online hate speech: analysis and characteristics of a new form of gender-based violence.

• In Event: Gender, Crime and Justice Working Group Panel 1: Emotions work in gendered violence

Abstract

A 2015 report by the Broadband Commission highlighted that 73% of women and young girls worldwide have been exposed to some form of online violence (Broadband Commission, 2015). Research examining this phenomenon emphasizes that the numbers are likely underestimated, as hate comments and offensive expressions on online platforms can be removed by moderators and users themselves. Also for this reason, a part of the literature argues that internet and social media, often portrayed as free and democratic spaces, are actually strongly discriminatory and have contributed to amplifying sexism and hostility towards women, and, in general, towards underrepresented categories. The resarch analyzes the phenomenon of online misogynistic hate speech, highlighting its main characteristics and framing it as a new form of gender-based violence. Specifically, the phenomenon is examined from approaches that view gender-based violence as a social construct and from Bourdieu’s perspective of symbolic violence, demonstrating how this contributes to perpetuating dynamics of differentiation between genders and to re-establishing the gendered hierarchies threatened by recent social and economic changes. The domination and violence against women, in particular, translate into an attempt to maintain and validate a historical virility that appears to be in decline. The patriarchal hierarchies of hegemonic masculinity coexists now with the ambivalent ones of a new gender order that violates the traditional male-female dichotomy. Indeed, as Connell and Messerschmidt (2005) argue, hegemonic masculinity is not fixed but rather represents a contestable position in gender power relations. The aspects related to the heterogeneity of victims, the intersectionality of the phenomenon, and the issue of the dark number are also highlighted. In the conclusions, attention is focused on possible solutions, both legal and extralegal, to curb these behaviors, with a particular focus on the measure of the so-called counterspeech.

Author

• Gaia Calcini, università degli studi di Milano-Bicocca