‘Feminazis’: A feminist poststructuralist discourse analysis into the mainstream media’s representations of feminist activism

Abstract

Using a feminist poststructuralist discourse analysis (FPDA) this research examines discourses surrounding feminist activists within mainstream Western online media articles. The mainstream media can be accused of portraying feminism and its goals negatively (Scharff 2009), often leading to negative consequences regarding identification with the feminist movement (Callaghan et al., 1999). To examine these discourses within mainstream media, 50 articles relating to the Women’s March on Washington were sampled from US and UK online newspaper sites. The findings of this research suggest that although there are both positive and negative discourses surrounding feminist activism within mainstream media, a large proportion were negative, including discourses of ‘feminism is fractured’, ‘hashtag activism’ and ‘What about the men?’ Discussions around intersectionality (including race), social media and men within feminism were seen within these overarching discourses and throughout the research the possible implications of these negative discourses surrounding feminist activists is discussed.