Stigma in the Comments Section: Feminist and Anti-Feminist Discussions Online

Using rhetorical scholarship on stigma, I discuss in this article how feminism can be understood as a stigmatized identification and therefore how claiming to be a feminist can result in difficulties between feminist and anti-feminist communicants online. I analyzed the comments posted to a series of three articles that reported on Emma Watson's feminist speech to the United Nations given on September 20th, 2014, and found that there continues to be a widespread definitional and in practice misunderstanding of what feminism is despite the opportunities feminists have had to reach broader and more inviting audiences. Ultimately I conclude that the argument against feminism is still fundamentally the same, but that those who stand in opposition to the goals of feminism seem to be changing rhetorical tactics while feminists are relegated to reacting to the new strategies or perhaps acclimating to the digital landscape.