O’Meara, V., Hodson, J., Jacobson, J., & Gruzd, A. (2024). Just being a bit bitchy: The gendered valences of online anti-social behavior on Tattle Life. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Link: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/107233

Open access: Yes

Notes: Gender has long been noted to be a necessary lens to fully grasp the complex contextures of online hate—whether it is concerning its individual or societal impacts, the nature of the harm, or the justifications of the perpetrators. In this article, O’Meara and colleagues explore a novel angle: the gendered valences that give texture to the values, discursive frames, and self-perceptions that lead people to engage in hurtful posting. To explore this, the authors explored 920 posts of Tattle Life (an online forum to discuss ‘gossip’). In their qualitative analysis, they found how gender functions to simultaneously justify harm and delegitimize critiques: “Firstly, culturally devalued notions of women’s talk as “gossip” and “bitchiness” denies the power of their actions to cause harm to targets. Secondly, feminine stereotypes are used to provide moral justifications for the behavior of Tattlers. Finally, gender-based oppression is invoked to position Tattlers as the ‘real’ victims” (p. 7074). Overall, this paper highlights the valuable and contradictory role that gender plays in constructing discourses concerning online violence.

Abstract: Tattle Life is a gossip website dedicated to the critique of online influencers. Described in the Guardian as a “troll’s paradise,” this site has been linked to doxing, cyberbullying, and other online antisocial behaviors. How do Tattle Life participants legitimize their behavior in the context of external criticism from media outlets, influencers, and the public, more broadly? To answer this question, this paper examines 920 posts from the “Tattle in the Press” forum, a unique space where community members share and discuss negative publicity about Tattle Life. Findings show that this online community legitimizes itself by deploying a feminine gender identity in three overlapping and internally contradictory ways: 1) to minimize the power of their community to do harm, 2) to provide moral justification for their actions, and 3) to claim the status of persecuted victims. Implications for understanding the perpetration of online anti-social behavior, more broadly, are discussed.