Barbara Biglia
Gender Relations Mediated by Virtual Spaces: Linguistic
Interactions, Microviolence, and Resistance.
Social relations are gendered, and in our heteropatriarchal society, this means that there are frequently unbalanced power relations. Since the 1970s, the implementation of so-called “new technologies” has sparked contradictory reactions within the feminist movement. From the most pessimistic, who have denounced heteronormativity in the design and implementation of these technologies, to the optimists who have underlined the possibilities of redefining new, more equitable relational forms, to the most practical ones who have put their hands to work to depatriarchalize the Matrix. Many years have passed, and virtuality has become a constitutive part of our relationships and everyday life (definitively, we are cyborgs, as prognosticated by Donna Haraway). This situation has become even more widespread due to the mobility restrictions imposed by many governments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, if the manosphere and cyber hate speech have become subjects of analysis, few studies deeply analyse how gender is shaped and enacted in daily dynamics in computer-mediated interaction. Some examine the different gender patterns in the use of social media, others suggest an improvement in terms of equality, assessing, for example, that gender differences in participation are reduced in online teaching because females tend to feel less questioned and/or judged for their physical appearance. In the opposite direction, some evidence suggests the reproduction of the same asymmetry and oppression that exist in the rest of society. Finally, there is a growing interest in understanding and addressing the various manifestations of “gender cyberviolence”.
The European GEiO Gender Equitable Interactions Online project (Ref. PCI2022-134992-2 ) proposes a novel multi-method framework to investigate how gendered and intersectional power relations unfold in the context of digitally mediated workplace interactions, particularly in online group meetings. In Study One, we conduct a detailed analysis of natural interactions that occur during videoconferencing to understand how gender is performatively constructed in these spaces. Linguistic performance analysis enables us to understand how gender relations continue to operate in the specific virtual context.
Starting from the results of this analysis, in this presentation, I will reflect on how this linguistic interaction is configured and how it may be reproducing gendered microaggressions; “intentional or unintentional actions or behaviours that exclude, demean, insult, oppress, or otherwise express hostility or indifference toward women” (Basford et al., 2013, p. 341).
I will therefore reflect on how gender relations are mediated through virtual spaces and introduce the idea that we live in blended realities, where all gender dynamics are never purely in the virtual or physical sphere. Therefore, to resist and contest the heteropatriarchal dynamics, a complex interplay of transformative feminist intersectional activism is needed.