Feminism vs Pseudo-feminism: Analysing Women’s Engagement with Pseudo-feminist Discourse on Social Media

The feminist ideology supports equality and advocates equal rights and opportunities for all genders. Contrary to feminist principles, social media platforms enable the creation and dissemination of pseudo-feminist content that exploits feminist ideals. The present study delves into examining the prevalence of pseudo-feminist discourse on social media platforms and the role of social media in facilitating the spread of pseudofeminist content. The major objectives of the study are to investigate how women engage with pseudo-feminist content on social media, to evaluate whether women are able to distinguish between genuine feminist discourse and pseudo-feminist content on social media, and to analyse whether pseudo-feminist contents dilute the core principles of genuine feminism. A qualitative study was conducted among ten women in the age group of 25 to 35 in the form of an in-depth interview. Purposive sampling was employed, and initial screening was done to include only women who use social media platforms in the study. The outcome of this study indicates that social media plays a crucial role in spreading pseudo-feminist notions. The study suggests that the rise of the pseudo-feminist movement on social media has made it difficult to distinguish between genuine feminism and pseudo-feminism, and has also negatively impacted the core ideals and principles upon which the ideology of feminism has been built. The study indicates that the attitude of women towards pseudo-feminism is highly negative. The findings of this study are significant as they shed light on how the pseudo-feminist discourse on social media has affected actual feminist principles.

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