A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of linguistic transphobia on Mumsnet

[IwantToRetire]

By Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics

It has been suggested that the forum-style parenting website Mumsnet is a hub for ‘gender-critical’ feminism, which directly opposes transgender rights, to be practised with little moderation (Livingston, 2018). This presentation reports on the initial stages of a project aiming to investigate that the potential intensification of linguistic transphobia on Mumsnet may lead to further marginalisation of transgender people offline (Powys Maurice, 2021). Though studies of non-linguistic transphobic rhetoric on Mumsnet (e.g., Pedersen, 2022; Mackenzie, 2019), and discourse analyses of other radical online communities (e.g., Krendel, 2020) have both occurred, this project is the first to analyse linguistic transphobia on Mumsnet. It also contributes to existing literature surrounding UK-based ‘gender-critical’ feminism; linguistic transphobia; and radical online community discourses.

The presentation explores the rise of potentially ‘gender-critical’ linguistic transphobia on Mumsnet over time through the corpus linguistic (CL) analysis of the ‘Feminism: Sex & Gender Discussions’ board, using three corpora comprising a fifteen-year timeframe: 2008-2013; 2013-2018; and 2018-2023. As the project is still ongoing, preliminary findings will be presented, namely a comparative overview of trends yielded in frequency analyses. Overall, this presentation provides insights into the growing commonality of potentially ‘gender-critical’ feminist rhetoric on Mumsnet and its effect on increasing transphobic discourse on the site.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-corpus-assisted-discourse-analysis-of-linguistic-transphobia-on-mumsnet-tickets-880795271367?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

(I had just finished my favourite tea time treat of catching up on FWR and was going to get back to the grindstone when this popped up on my feed. So have come back as it is too good not to be shared. Enjoy!)

So for X number of years, this university has been scraping, storing, and studying data from this site, without any communications with site owners or users.

I'm not academic, I don't know what the ethical conventions are. I expect MNHQ have their own thoughts on the libel of the site/users and any copyright issues. I don't know enough about GDPR to comment on the issues related to that, either.

I just think it fucking stinks. These are two male researchers who've taken millions of posts made by women on all sorts of personal issues, and archived them to pore over them. And now they want to try and paint all the women on this site as 'transphobic'.

Fucking creepy, mate. Fucking creepy.

It's actually pretty scandalous!

I booked my ticket and then the thread disappeared. Now it’s back.
Confusing.

Jaw. On. Floor.

I actually can’t believe what this seems to be.
From the archived link:

Subject keywords: corpus, forum
Data types: Written
Funders: N/A
Associated AIFL centres: Centre for Forensic Text Analysis (FTA)
License: Unsure

license: unsure. I bet it is!!! Wow.

Aston's Guide for new PhD Students will need a new para of advice. I propose:

"Do not meddle with the Nest of Vipers, for they are subtle and quick to anger. And let you always show them respect, even if you feel none within, for some of them know more of the ways and ethics of research even than your supervisor. For there are those among the Vipers who have conducted research since ere your supervisor was even born".

Edited to replace "ever" with "even". I prefer "even".

Still can't quite believe the event will go ahead.

My main question now is Why Mumsnet?

Why not Tattle, ARRSE, Lipstick Alley, even the Farms? I popped into a closed professionals forum I haven't used for years and the comments on Cass made MN look quite restrained.

There are loads of places that gender-critical people congregate on line. I thought of those in under 30 seconds. So why pick on Mumsnet? - let me guess, it's because it's mums. You don't expect other people to Be Kind, but mums, they should be putting themselves last all the time.

MN FWR has proposed sending along tea-bags, biscuits, and lunch packs to such events before now. You know, to help the conversation along and emphasise that it's always good to get together and discuss things. The more things change, eh.

2018 event in Bath:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/3419981-Event-in-Bath-Transphobia-in-the-UK-confronting-anti-trans-fear-mongering?reply=82492649&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share&utm_source=copylink

Am I understanding this right? An academic PhD student is going to spend 3,4 or more years researching and producing a thesis on the transphobic language posted by mumsnetters on the FWR board? Who is going to benefit from this wisdom that is unearthed? Has mumsnet sold this specific talk data to research companies or anyone else for that matter? I'm clearly not an academic and I'm quite glad about that.

^ It's certainly niche.

No, Justine was clear earlier that this data has been taken and used without permission or knowledge of mnhq.

For years it looks like. Potentially in many projects by many academics.

The page has gone now

Not only that, but she wants to evidence that discussion on mumsnet contributes to transphobia offline!

It's often not the wisdom that is unearthed, it's the method of unearthing it that matters more.

Actually if this seminar is still going ahead I'm genuinely tempted to go along for a listen, at least online. I have a minor interest in automated sentiment analysis. Some research students from the last university I worked in used to disappear into jobs they couldn't tell us about so presumably government surveillance.

It would be interesting to get an update on the state of the art in the automated political surveillance of social media.

On the other hand I do have a day job and a stack of undergraduate dissertations that need attention.

Oh wow thanks @ditalini . Who would have thought we were so interesting and unique!

How on earth will they evidence that? Bigbrother?

I assume the PhD might equip the holder to be appointed to the rating agencies discussed in the thread that explains why Unherd can't have access to some forms of advertising.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5051761-worth-watching-unherd-investigation-inside-the-disinformation-industry-kathleen-stock-specifically-mentioned?

Just imagine, with this corpus research, labelling people/sites and destroying their livelihoods could all be done automatically. With the added bonus of no right to appeal just like all the algorithmic inequalities that have been discussed for years, with no remedies.

I have a minor interest in automated sentiment analysis.

I would be genuinely interested in a brief overview of that if you could spare your time and cognitive resources. I keep seeing mention of it (or did before Twitter was completely closed off to researchers) but have no idea what's actually involved in conducting such research (the nuts and bolts).

I completely understand if you don't have the time nor energy to do this.

Warning ⚠️ do not attend the meeting in person. They will sniff us out, feed us cake and turn us into mice!

I feel bad for users who've posted sensitive or personal stuff only for it to be scraped and used to benefit other people's academic careers.

Yes I know that once something is on the Internet then it's out there, but I'm sure vulnerable women reaching out for help aren't thinking about trawlers (and not just Google site cachers) collecting all their data.

Not even thinking about FWR here, just the boards in general.

I was curious about what the usual standards of ethics were when it came to researchers using material from discussion boards and I found this from very credible institution the LSE. LSE internet ethics guidelines

It divides texts into 3 categories, those where informed consent is not required, those where it should be sought from moderators or authors, and those where it should be sought individually. Discussion boards fall into the second category with a warning that sometimes individual consent might need to be sought even from pseudonymous users.

There has been no attempt at informing any of us let alone seeking consent; I believe that Aston University is not only breaking Mumsnet’s t&cs, it is acting seriously unethically and I am considering making a complaint to the Vice Chancellor about the conduct of its staff and students.

When you also consider that many of the women posting things that might be categorised as transphobic are doing so as victims of rape and domestic violence, and thus constitute a vulnerable group, and that many have also experienced intimidation by trans activists when attending events like Let Women Speak and this is likely to encourage further such intimidation, I think this researcher and their supervisor have acted irresponsibly and disgracefully. I am really very angry about this.

Yeah, the thought of women escaping dv and seeking help on MN having their threads squirreled away and combed for details of 'hatefulness' turns my stomach.

Shame on all of these fuckers.

I'll be happy to do the same. I was quite pissed off before but the more I read the worse it seems to get. Especially since that supervisor dumped the women's rights pic for a trans flag. Quite non-linguistically eloquent, I'd say.

It's just occurred to me the trans widows thread is likely to make up part of this corpus research.