Revisiting gender troubles: public discourse analysis on gender-sensitive language in Serbia

Abstract

In this article, I tackle the phenomenon of ‘moral panic’ related to gender-sensitive language is from the perspective of sociocultural anthropology. Moral panic is embodied in the ways of speaking about gender-sensitive language by various actors, primarily on social media (i.e. Instagram). The basic premise is that the dominant public discourse created around the use of gender-sensitive language is articulated through the metaphor of war and represents the battleground of different ideologies. These ideologies are not only positioned in either of the opposing dichotomies ‘for’ and ‘against’ gender-sensitive language, as is the case in actual wars. The assumed enemy, depending on who is speaking about it, is placed in different tangible but also elusive conceptual and imagined forms (ranging from woman, feminists, the LGBTQIA+ population, to the ‘evil West’ as well as the science itself). Since a significant portion of public debates and discourse creation takes place in the media, (i.e. on the Internet), I analyze public statements in the form of discussions and comments on news and social platforms, by treating them as existing entities in the global world, as well as social media as ‘extensions’ of the self. The work aims to explore and clarify cultural communication
that occurs in electronic formats on social media platforms through discourse analysis, referencing the general state of society, as well as the growing popularity of pseudoscientific tendencies.