Silencing Tactics

Abstract

Understanding how and why online professional knowledge sharing communities develop issues with gender inclusion is essential to building safe and respectful environments. Trans and nonbinary gender identities are under constant threat and scrutiny, and trans people frequently face harms in online environments. Through digital ethnography, I explore how an international online programming community, Stack Exchange, responded to the challenges of implementing trans and nonbinary inclusive language policies. I discuss the rhetorical strategies and silencing tactics deployed by the community in response to policy changes. The analysis draws on Dotson’s concept of testimonial smothering to argue that epistemic violence prevents dialogue about the importance of respecting preferred pronouns. The paper concludes with reflections on the implementation of pronoun policies in international communities.