‘Do not parade your ignorance’: Negation as a power tool of toxic geek
masculinity in the Australian manosphere
Abstract
Catering to a primarily male user population, Reddit is often said to be
a breeding ground for toxic language use, which has led to the
development of multiple computational classification models for the
automated identification of toxicity in online conversations. Since
negation can play a key role in cyberbullying, functioning as a popular
stance marker in the dialogical exchange of dominating views in the
digital sphere, it should not be ignored. Likewise, its use as a
rhetorical strategy deserves more linguistic attention. Described as
Engagement resources of disclaim in Appraisal theory, negated
constructions may be employed by Reddit users to disalign themselves
from divergent perspectives through so-called ad hominem attacks,
not only resulting in a potentially detrimental impact on the users’
mental health, but also reproducing hegemonic relationships. Therefore,
this paper examines the use of negation, in combination with various
other interpersonal resources, to explore whether it is ideologically
motivated. A computer-assisted appraisal analysis is conducted on 2,637
most upvoted comments and replies (49,866 words), extracted from the
subreddit of r/AustralianPolitics between 11-14 April and 7-10 May 2022,
during the period leading up to the so-called federal climate change
election in Australia. The study appears to show evidence of a seemingly
dominant negation pattern containing negative judgement and its findings
tentatively suggest that some of the Australian users identifying as
male may use negation as an ideologocially driven discursive strategy.
This points to the possibility that the toxic language encountered on
r/AustralianPolitics may be influenced by hegemonic masculinity.