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!)

IDK, Datun. I have not the scoobiest doo.

In a way, all of this [gestures at this] is super interesting and from a nosey point of view, fascinating. But it makes me very uncomfortable, too.

Potentially a big stinking fine.

Well, that'll sit well with Nicci and Eden's Social Justice credentials, wont it?

Personally I'd consider that application to be grey - neither motherhood'n'apple pie nor totally evil. Really depends how robustly it's been tested and how well it works, especially in difficult cases.

People draw the lines in different places and ethically speaking what's sauce for the goose has to be sauce for the gander too.

See Eden (if you are reading) - that's why universities have boring old ethical rules and why ideology isn't enough to define what's legal and ethical use of data and what's not. Just because some researchers assume that what people say on MumsNet is obviously criminally transphobic (or should be) doesn't make it so.

Do we think fat balls and penis beakers are phrases that will now trigger warning sirens on a wrongthink database? Maybe Aston will get an honorary link too now?

Are there implications for the manufacturers of Pom ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ crisps?

Something which occurred to me (out of pure ignorance, I'll admit) is this:

If a dataset is used to try to identify different usernames as the same person, how can it ever be proved that they ARE the same person, without knowing WHO they are & proving that the same physical entity wrote all those posts?

I've never really understood this in terms of training AI without giving it the answers e.g. when getting it to tell the difference between photos of cats & photos of dogs. If you don't ever give it any right answers, what is it basing its learning on?

Guilty until proven innocent, innit.

I don't think they can actually prove it, you need physical evidence. It would be a statistical likelihood.

Or they would have to tie it to something unique to you, like your phone number, email, etc.

I wonder if she is merely going to prove something like there are x thousand posts that say I don't believe men are women, or I disagree with gender identity, or lots of these men are fetishists.

I'm not even sure she can say tons are from Datun and she also says crikey a lot?

I think the plan is to cross reference anon test with known-author reference text (so social media in a person’s real name or text messages from a number with a known owner etc).
In a court that evidence is presented as a probability rather than a definite, same way DNA evidence is presented (although Forensic Linguistics is obvs a lot less accurate than DNA).

One of the projects Aston is involved in pits a team who aim to ‘unmask’ an anonymous person against a team developing ways to protect a person from being unmasked via text analysis (for use by undercover police/ secret services etc) so they are well aware that what they are doing could be used to harm innocents (eg whistleblowers).

The post about the proposed bill regarding grooming of children by paedophiles and terrorists made me wonder if Eden would ever dare to turn the forensic magnifying glass onto transactivists and their....behaviour towards children.

@KellieJaysLapdog ah feck AI is so going to know it's me better start thinking about changing my name IRL

It would be interesting to learn how Eden approaches TRA Mumsnetters compared to Tervern Mumsnetters.

Someone like D of Man or Butters, both of whom write enormous screeds would presumably be much easier to identify than most? Are they fair game as part of the dataset or are they rIng fenced as RightThinkers?

Does this mean that when I call someone a prick on Twitter, the new AI will recognise me as the user of similar epithets on Mumsnet and realise I'm also GC?

I need to compartmentalise my swearing. Different names for the wankers on Facebook, Twitter and the interwebs.

Reminder: we aren’t actually engaged in criminal activity, even if Eden Palmer has decided that Not Deferring to Dick is a Hate Crime.

Speaking the truth, even in sweary way, is not a hate crime.

thanks for the new name idea
ah feck what will happen to the poor AI results if we start to try to write in each others styles

ah feck that's a good idea

Ah feck can the AI handle sarcasm?
I got deleted (and reinstated) by a poor tired mod recently for not making it obvious I was being sarcastic.

But the people who have access to the database have power and knowledge over mums/women on this site. Who controls where the database ends up and what it’s used for? If there are links with police (there appear to be from the previous studies Aston supervisor has done) then you could be barred from a prospective job because background checks aren’t nuanced enough to check out what you said individually. Just that you are on a subjective list from data. How secure is their data handling? Do they background check everyone?

I'm sure we all remember the episode of Line of Duty where the criminal was unmasked by virtue of his consistent mis-spelling of "definitely" as "definately". This is clearly a more sophisticated version of that. Presumably this is the same technology that is also able to show that chunks of Christopher Marlowe were written by Shakespeare, or vice versa? It's all very interesting but I'm less than thrilled about it being applied to Mumsnet.

If this research is being funded and used by the USA they are a notable omission from the ICO statement.

That's the thing, she doesn't need to. One researcher can refine their forensic magnifying glass on "transphobes" and then someone else can turn it on - well whatever other characteristic they want to put under the glass. As long as it has a linguistic pattern.

Reminder never to disable autocorrect lest you get taken down.

"Prick" is a relatively common word, so probably not. But I said "laudable" earlier which could be identifying. Like being called John Smith is safer than being called Ignatious Evercreech. (It's probably more complex patterns than individual words and harder to fake anyway.)

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

😱