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!)

The main problem with Eden’s research proposition is that it’s question-begging - that is, it makes the very thing it’s claiming to investigate an assumption of the research. You can’t say you’re going to analyse the transphobia on Mumsnet until you’ve done the research to determine whether it is or isn’t transphobic.

I know - how very dare we!

Frankly, I see this article as yet another award for MN and the GC feminists on here - they wouldn’t be talking about us if we weren’t scaring them.

I thought they did too.

I've been PMed before to ask if I'll consent for my remarks to be used in a dissertation on how mothers support each other on social media. She said she couldn't use my posts without my permission.

"‘gender-critical’ feminism, which directly opposes transgender rights"

So they don't even understand what gender-critical means.

Transphobia is subjective so I can't see how it will get through the viva

I would like to apply for my PhD in mumsnet studies.

Proposed title: A forensic linguistic analysis of the defamatory sleight of hand performed in academic papers when GC views are conflated with transphobia

Embarrassing.

My first question would be how is she defining 1. Feminism 2. Woman and 3. Transphobia

And is she aware that vast numbers of everyday men and women would disagree with her definitions so why does she get to decide?

its effect on increasing transphobic discourse on the site.

I would suggest that it's the people that cannot describe what they mean by 'woman' that are transphobic.

The concept of woman clearly means a lot to many transpeople and the people who can't define it are essentially saying it's meaningless.

In fact, the difference between being a man and being a woman is so important that for many they change their bodies due to the very serious belief that being a man means being a certain way and having a certain body, and vice versa for women. Anyone who can't even name a single difference between man and woman is at odds with that belief.

I will guarantee that this question, which has been asked in many threads on MN over the years, will not be addressed in the analysis, other than "it's transphobic to ask that question".

Only the old boring sort of old women; new women can talk about womenhood(God, Ricky Gervais really nailed that one 😁)

TLDR: "it's all YOUR fault, mum"

Oh and if we're proposing papers:
"Who are the real TERFS? The women who insist there is something female about being a woman, or the men who insist there is something female about being a woman?"

Its just occured to me that Eden could have done something really radical and won all sorts of university plaudits had they chosen to apply the process to themself.

ie if they had scrapped all the virtual forums etc., they had ingested whilst growing up to find out why they had been able at such a young age to be able to declare of group of people as being phobic, and instead found out why they are so women('s rights) phobic.

Aston University's guidelines on research ethics indicate that approval would be needed for anything that might be deemed controversial or create reputational damage to the University, among other things.

https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/integrity-ethics/ethics

I’ve been having a look at the centre’s website, and I think that the corpus is already there. I’d imagine this board (FWR) is just part of a larger online database. So possibly, given that Mumsnet is an absolute gift of a data set in terms of Applied Linguistics and Digital Humanities etc, they’ve been collecting our receipts for years. I wonder what they make of it all? The centre has recently expanded with a large grant, and appears to have a strong social justice focus - 5 years ago that would have thrilled me, now it gives me serious misgivings.

The researcher cites McKenzie (2019) in the bibliography, I think I remember that one coming out, it was pretty good I think and had quite a bit of ‘came for the baby advice, stayed for the feminism’ about it.

I’ve got an MA in Linguistics too knocking around gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere - I might have time to log on, see you there @ArabellaScott

Astonishing that this is deemed worthy of a doctorate. This sort of nonsense massively devalues the qualification.

Can't remember who asked us to be kind to a young phd student, this is yet another assault on women's speech. The student should be prepared for a rigorous assessment of her criteria. First off I'll line her to explain what transphobia is

They/them will have had to submit a statement to the research on human subjects folks. I presume you could do a FOI request on it.

Interesting guidance on the University of St Andrew's website specifically regarding social media research -

www.st-andrews.ac.uk/research/integrity-ethics/humans/ethical-guidance/social-media-research/

I've reported to MNHQ. Obviously it's fun to discuss here and I wouldn't want to interfere with legitimate research but this research might not be as ethically legitimate as the researcher thinks it is. She seems to have been working on this for some time and her supervisor really should have flagged this up and advised her how to manage it properly. Not a good look for Aston but better for MNHQ sort it out through more formal channels.

Transphobia is subjective so I can't see how it will get through the viva

You can do research on something subjective like transphobia as long as you clearly state what you mean by it for the purposes of the research. Others might not agree with your definition but as long as you've been clear what you mean that's usually OK.

But there are limits and equating "gender critical" with "transphobic" is no longer acceptable.

That is very interesting @Waitwhat23

It would be interesting to know if Aston has something similar, and if not, why not?

For example no-one on Mumsnet has consented. Nor do we have a right of reply. While it is a public forum, and most of us post being aware we could end up in the Daily Mail, I doubt anyone has posted thinking they may be recorded libelled as transphobic in an academic paper.

Have they got permission to use the Mumsnet logo?!

That is interesting

• Can you obtain informed consent?
• If not are you safeguarding people’s rights? (Kotsios et al. 2019)
• Are you inferring or using special category data? (Information Commissioner’s Office 2019)

• How will you protect the identity of your participants during data collection, analysis and dissemination?

• Are you making assumptions about whether people would be willing to let you use their data? (Reuter et al. 2019)(Norval and Henderson 2019)

A couple of these seem relevant

Those were the ones that stood out to me as well @EasternStandard