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!)

New sock for this post

Fucking hell.

I work in an industry that makes things, useful if not essential things that most of you will have in your homes. If people ask me my job, my role/profession may sound niche, as many science bases roles do, but I can tell people the impact of what I do on their day to day lives. And my family and friends can vaguely describe to other people what I do too.

but that? I’m just a grumpy old woman these days, but “circular wankfest” comes to mind.

A FoI request was made to Aston yesterday
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ethics_consideration

I wouldn’t be surprised either. Content is growing that such a rate that AI/LLM solutions would significantly increase the amount that law enforcement and other agencies can cover and analyse.

About 4 years ago there was a thread (now deleted) about something called Scumsnet which was crawling MN looking for keywords and usernames, presumably to be able to target "reporting posts" more efficiently. Probably not the best idea to resurrect the threads - it seemed very crude and probably quite useless - but possibly interesting reading if you're into this kind of thing.

The man who wrote that is the man I mentioned upthread. He's seriously exercised about what women concerned about their sex-based rights talk about.

Go on name names.

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

Only a few tickets left.

I realised I should have said that I'm not the person who put the request in but it was too late to edit my post.

We could probably do with a second FOI re: what the MN dataset has been used for prior to Eden Palmer’s PhD and then any/all the ethics related material relating to those projects?

Yes definitely could do with another regarding the data held in FoLD and its use too.

If people can't attend this, maybe Aston would be kind enough to livestream Eden's conference presentation about Mumsnet in June? (Upthread)

Should @MNHQ do this?

Given the doxxing that has occurred in the past this is all very concerning

MnHQ have written to AU and say they will update when they get a response. Thread on site stuff.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5057903-mumsnet-corpus

For anyone who can't find it.

Not at all. 💐 I think I have outed myself as a right fussy, stuck-up poetry snob though. The hate monster will be after me!

I cannot wait to attend this event it looks FAB. I'm getting a skipload of popcorn and hoping there's a QnA section

This.

Data harvesting for language used.

Lets say ARSE, FECK, TITS, DRINK lots because well, I like Father Ted.
Our data scrapping survey says: MNetters are sweary fuckers with an alcohol problem

Lets say 'I really love bananas and mushrooms. They are the least tasty thing I've ever had the misfortune to have pass my lips.
Our data scrapping survey says: MNetters love bananas.

Lets say we have a problem with a bunch of trolls starting posts to try and go on a wind up and manipulate and just generally distort narratives, how would you sort through and eliminate 'genuine posters' from 'fake posters'?

Because data scrapping is incapable of identifying sarcasm nor intent nor context of posts.

You'd have to be on a different planet to think that you are going to get a meaningful set of data from scrapping like this.

And thats before we even get onto ethics. What do you mean that ethics are irrevelant to the pursuit of understanding the undefinable elastic concept of 'transphobia' which may or may not include recognising that women can't have penises and recognising that men who identify as men may exploit safeguarding flaws by pretending not to be men.

Or before we talk about the consent of users and MN itself (cos data scrapping is againsts their Ts&Cs)?

Who is actually overseeing this PhD and its methodology and whether it is a) good practice b) legal c) bringing the university into disrepute.

Seriously the University has some big fucking questions to answer. In the meantime we have another example of how ethics and safeguarding and the law are not for people who have a bee in their bonnet about 'transphobia'...

💯 @RedToothBrush

Congrats to Eden Palmer - your event is sold out!

Can't wait. I am genuinely looking forward to the event. I want to hear the reasoning.

If its a teams meeting can we all dress up? Or will it be set to broadcast, not receive?

Oh that could be really entertaining.

Will there be a question and answer session at the end???

Can the rest of us MNetters think up some questions for our representatives to ask? Seeing as we are subject of their research, it'd be rather rude to not explore any questions actual real life MNetters might have about the subject matter.

I think I'm particularly curious as to considerations given to methodology. I think my starter for ten would be:

How did they ensure that they didn't introduce their own pre-existing bias into the research when they set the parameters of the study?

I'd also be curious as to what breakdown they can give as to the breakdown of the characteristics of the participants of the research and whether this gives us some interesting context as to the nature of language used on MN.