A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of linguistic transphobia on Mumsnet

This is a hybrid event held at Aston University and hosted on Teams. A link to the Teams meeting will be sent out on the day of the event

Speaker: Eden Palmer (PhD candidate in AIFL)

Abstract:

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.

Bibliography

Livingston, E. (2018). ‘How an online forum for moms became a hotbed of transphobia’. Vice. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3mn9k/mumsnet-uk-mom-forum-terf-transphobia-feminism (Accessed 15/11/2023).

Krendel, A. (2020). ‘The men and women, guys and girls of the ‘manosphere’: A corpus-assisted discourse approach’. Discourse & Society, 31(6), pp. 607–630.

Mackenzie, J. (2019). Language, Gender and Parenthood Online : Negotiating Motherhood in Mumsnet Talk, Routledge Focus on Language and Social Media. Abingdon: Routledge.

Pedersen, S. (2022). “It’s what the suffragettes would have wanted”: the construction of the suffragists and suffragettes on Mumsnet’, Feminist Media Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2022.2032788.

Powys Maurice, E. (2021). ‘Sinister anti-trans campaign to ban pronouns from workplaces exposed’. PinkNews. Available at: https://www.thepinknews.com/2021/11/09/anti-trans-campaign-letter-template-pronouns/ (Accessed: 30/01/24).

Event Venue

Aston University, Aston Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom