Alexandra Maher
Thesis Title: Feminist 'Influencers' Online: Experiences of Participation, Sexism, and Misogyny
In a time where so much of our reality plays out online, understanding the true nature of that environment means recognising the potential opportunities, challenges and risks online for this generation of young women. With the rise of social media, 'ordinary' women are able to build platforms and cultivate audiences for their activism and feminist beliefs, but what impact do these women have? And what is the reality of their experience online, as they swim upstream against the misogyny of the 'manosphere'? While research already acknowledges the hostility of digital environments towards women, there is little research on the barriers to female participation in relation to online discourses around feminism, nor how the affordances of new platforms such as TikTok affect this discourse and its participants. Furthermore, it is crucial we address the other side of this coin, in examining the influence of these platforms on young men who are exposed to such misogynistic rhetoric and find environments in which biases can be incubated into explicit sexism. Employing autoethnographic and qualitative methods leaning into my own experience as a feminist content creator, this research endeavours to reveal the multifaceted experience of women online who confront the reality of 21st century sexism, the risks they face in doing so, and their potential for influencing change.
Biography
After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2013 with a First-Class degree in English and Creative Writing, Alex went on to have a successful career in digital marketing working in London, Paris, and Grenoble before settling in South Yorkshire. With a keen interest in the 'real world' impact of social media, fuelled by her experiences as a content creator on TikTok engaging in feminism, Alex undertook a Masters degree in Digital Media & Society at Loughborough University in 2020, for which she won the University's dissertation prize, before undertaking her PhD at the same university. She currently lives in Sheffield with her partner and dog, with whom she is often found walking in the Peak District, when not in her office.
Other Research Interests
Impact of digital media on contemporary political discourse; polarisation; radicalisation and the 'alt-right' pipeline
Communication & Media
Loughborough University
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandramaher1/
https://www.tiktok.com/@alex__maher
Supervisory Team
Dr Cristian Tileaga
Professor John Downey