Neologising misogyny: Urban Dictionary’s folksonomies of sexual abuse

an article by Debbie Ging, Theodore Lynn and Pierangelo Rosati (Dublin City University, Ireland) published in New Media and Society Volume 22 Issue 2 (May 2020)

Abstract

Web 2.0 has facilitated a particularly toxic brand of digital men’s rights activism, collectively known as the Manosphere.

This amorphous network of online publics is noted for its virulent anti-feminism, extreme misogyny and synergies with the alt-right. Early manifestations of this phenomenon were confined largely to 4/Chan, Reddit and numerous alt-right forums. More recently, however, this rhetoric has become increasingly evident in Urban Dictionary.

This article presents the findings of a machine-learning and manual analysis of Urban Dictionary’s entries relating to sex and gender, to assess the extent to which the Manosphere’s discourses of extreme misogyny and anti-feminism are working their way into everyday vernacular contexts.

It also considers the sociolinguistic and gender-political implications of algorithmic and linguistic capitalism, concluding that Urban Dictionary is less a dictionary than it is a platform of folksonomies, which may exert a disproportionate and toxic influence on online discourses related to gender and sexuality.

Labels:
anti-feminism, extreme_misogyny, folksonomy, lexicography, machine_learning, Manosphere, misogyny, scatology, scat_porn, sexual_abuse, sexual_violence, slang, Urban_Dictionary,

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