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Citation |
Islam L. Gend. Issues 2024; 41(1): e1. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2024, Springer) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
The study analyzes three major cyberbullying incidents that occurred on Facebook between 2019 and 2020 to understand how the practices of patriarchal masculinities are involved in cyberbullying. The research employs the "4I's framework" of UN Women to understand the relationship between cyberbullying and different levels of patriarchal masculinities, the internal, interpersonal, institutional, and ideological. The official Facebook page of the Daily Prothom Alo, one of the most popular newspapers in Bangladesh, has been considered for collecting and analyzing the contents. The reason for selecting the official Facebook page of the newspaper for data collection is the availability of comment threads of Facebook users in the public domain on particular cyberbullying incidents. The paper's significant findings reveal that victim blaming, demeaning women and girls, and institutional steps undertaken to ensure justice for the victims are the main attributes that construct the dominant community opinion online. In this context, ideas and practices of internal and ideological patriarchal masculinities characterized by the misogynist attitudes are the new ways to normalize and legitimize sexual assault, physical assault, and humiliation of women and girls, which ultimately contributes to the escalation of cyberbullying. The research also uncovers positive discourse initiated by social media users aimed at promoting awareness against the practices of patriarchal masculinities which exacerbatetendencies such as--victim blaming, slut-shaming, rape culture, and demeaning women and girls. The study concludes by offering recommendations to protect women and girls from cyberbullying encompassing awareness programs, improvement in reporting and blocking functionalities on social media platforms, and the strengthening of image processing and filtering mechanisms. Language: en |
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Keywords |
Cyberbullying; Facebook; Masculinities; Patriarchal |