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Alexandria Seballos

Dr. Gina Gemmel

English 161

19 October 2018

Research Proposal: Sexism on Social Media

The research question that is driving my inquiry is why social media has a bias against

women. This is an important question because sexism has been a problem that has plagued

women all over the world for centuries and the emerging use of technology and social media

only allows more avenues for sexism. As technology has advanced and become part of our daily

lives so too has the use of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. In this day

and age social media has become a part of our culture, allowing us to connect and share our lives

with others. While this may seem very positive and beneficial, my research has shown that it also

creates new outlets for bias and harassment, largely against women, as degrading and sexist

posts, images, and comments can now be repeatedly sent to a single person or made public to

anyone that has a social media account.

Although social media is a newer addition to technology, there are arguments discussing

how social media both harms and helps women. Those such as Marwick, Buni and Chemaly, and

Daniels and Zurbriggen argue that social media does more harm as it facilitates violence,

harassment, and negative stereotypes against women. Many social media sites allow images

depicting violence against women and comments threatening women to circulate around their

site as well as permit pages dedicated to hating women to stay on the site. On top of that, many

social media sites reinforce female stereotypes by encouraging women to present themselves in a

certain light online. However, there are some, such as Chittal, who believe that social media can

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help women. Chittal argues that social media gives women a voice and allows them to speak out

against violence and injustices in a more public setting.

While many argue that social media is very beneficial to women, especially in recent

years with the new wave of feminism, I argue that social media is still a place that fosters sexism

and encourages bias and violence against women. Recently, many women have recognized and

spoken out about this problem and are pushing social media companies to do something about

this issue, such as hiring more people to perform moderation on the sites or being more

transparent about what can be said online. I agree with their demands and believe that social

media companies should take responsibility for the harassment that occurs and create harsher

guidelines that define and regulate what can and cannot be said on their websites.

There are multiple counterarguments that I may encounter while conducting further

research. One is the argument that social media companies should not regulate the sexist

comments and posts because it would be a violation of that user’s freedom of speech. Another

argument is that social media can’t foster violence against women since threats made online are

not the same as threats in real life. Further, some would also say that if the woman feels like they

are being targeted on social media then they should just stop using it, but the answer isn’t as

simple as that. On top of this, another counter that could be made is that social media doesn’t

foster sexism since it gives women a voice for speaking out and pursuing feminist ideals.

Buni, Catherine and Chemaly, Soraya. “The Unsafety Net: How Social Media Turned Against

Women.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Jan. 2015,

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/10/the-unsafety-net-how-social-

media-turned-against-women/381261/

The authors of this source, Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly, have written this article

as a way to discuss how social media sites aid in creating an unsafe online environment for

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women. They provide a multitude of examples from celebrity nude photo leaks to the suicide of

victim Amanda Todd, to the harassment of journalist Carolina Criado-Perez. All of the women

mentioned in these examples, and more, had been repeatedly harassed and threatened online,

which then led to them being threatened and harassed in real life outside of the internet. When

contacting social media sites about removing the threatening comments and posts, companies

like Facebook, Twitter, and Google refused to take action until the problem became publicized.

The reason many sites refuse to take down these posts is due to free speech. Companies are

allowed to sift through posts and moderate speech on their sites, but what constitutionally counts

as a threat or a violation of free speech is unclear, making it difficult for companies to stop the

harassment. As a way to work towards solving this problem, Buni and Chemaly offer up a

number of solutions consisting of the companies providing more transparency in what comments

violate their terms of speech, dedicating more staff to performing moderation, and hiring more

female programmers and managers to fight the sexism in the technological field and aid in

creating a safer environment for women online.

Chittal, Nisha. “How Social Media is Changing the Feminist Movement.” MSNBC, 26 March

2015, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-social-media-changing-the-feminist-movement

In her article, author Nisha Chittal discusses how social media has aided women and

changed the feminist movement. Before, activism and protests were restricted to those who were

in the area of the protest or who had the ability to travel there. But now, any and everyone can

participate in their cause through social media and hashtag activism. Through sites like Twitter

and Facebook, people can rally together, share their stories, and raise awareness no matter where

they are by simply going online and using hashtags, such as with the #FBrape hashtag that called

Facebook to change their policies about posts that contain violence against women. Many people

argue that social media doesn’t help in enacting real change, but Chittal states that it is effective

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in raising awareness and “giv[ing] a voice to those who are otherwise voiceless.” She also points

out that the bad press that comes with hashtag activism can pressure companies and politicians to

change their ways or take action on a problem.

Daniels, Elizabeth A. and Zurbriggen, Eileen L. “The Price of Sexy: Viewers’ Perceptions of a

Sexualized Versus Nonsexualized Facebook Profile Photograph.” Psychology of Popular

Media Culture, vol. 5, no. 1, 14 July 2014, pp. 2-14. ProQuest, doi:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000048

The authors of this article, Elizabeth A. Daniels, and Eileen L. Zubriggen, have

conducted a study to analyze how women that use a sexualized profile picture are perceived by

other women and girls, compared to those that have a non-sexualized profile picture. The study

found that the woman with the sexualized profile picture was perceived to be less physically

attractive, less socially attractive, and less competent while the woman with the non-sexualized

photo was viewed as the exact opposite. The authors believe that this is due to both the

objectification theory, which “argues that Western societies routinely sexually objectify the

female body,” and to societal pressures for women to be sexy (3). They also believe that these

negative perceptions of sexualized women could lead to negative behaviors and even sexual

violence towards women (9). To solve this problem, Daniels and Zubriggen propose that parents,

adults, and educators teach children about the consequences of how they portray themselves on

social media, as well as educate them on the effects of gender stereotypes and the sexualization

of women (11).

Marwick, Alice E. “Scandal or sex crime? Gendered privacy and the celebrity nude photo leaks.”

Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 19, no. 3, 2017, pp. 177-191. ProQuest, doi:

10.1007/s10676-017-9431-7

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The author, Alice Marwick, has written this article in order to analyze and compare the

reactions of people on social media with the reactions of the popular press to the 2014 celebrity

photo leak deemed “celebgate” (177). Marwick conducted her research by analyzing the top

comments discussing the photo leak on a popular social media website named Reddit, and by

analyzing a number of different articles and editorials. Marwick found that on Reddit, users

celebrated the ability to see the nude photos of celebrity women, slut shamed the women for

taking the pictures of themselves, stated that they had a right to these images since celebrities

make a profit off of their public image anyway, and argued that it wasn’t a violation of the

celebrities’ privacy because they shouldn’t have taken the pictures in the first place. The only

problem online users had with the images were that some of the celebrities were underage in the

photos and that would be considered child porn (182). Marwick found that in the popular press,

almost all of the journals and articles deemed the leak a violation of privacy and classified it

under the same problems as harassment and sexual assault (187-188). Essentially, Marwick

discovered that those on social media saw no problem with the leak of female celebrity nude

photos, while the popular press saw it as an invasion of privacy.