TITLE:
Deconstructing Gender Stereotypes through Moroccan Facebook Groups: A Netnographic Analysis
AUTHORS:
Sarra Chahbane, Sadik Madani Alaoui
KEYWORDS:
Social Media, Facebook Groups, Gender Stereotypes, Media Analysis, Netnography, Morocco
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.8,
August
18,
2023
ABSTRACT: The growing use and popularity of Facebook have transformed users into
prosumers, blending the roles of both consumers and producers after
historically being perceived as passive recipients of media texts. Facebook
groups, in particular, offer people the opportunity to make the most of their
digital footprint as they are involved in shared interest communities where
they are more encouraged to share personal content and respond to other members’
posts. This study strives to particularly explore, describe, analyze, and
interpret the way Facebook groups can contribute to the deconstruction of
gender stereotypes within the Moroccan context. For this purpose, we used
netnography to delve deeper into the way members of two popular Moroccan
Facebook groups, MTC and LA SUPERBE, use their online voices to tackle gender
stereotypes. The findings illustrate that although many members of both genders
tend to foster gender roles primarily through the use of gendered and sexist
comments, others react actively against them, demonstrating their intent to
make shared online platforms a space for women’s empowerment and gender
activism. Further findings reveal that women are more likely than men to
redouble their efforts toward deconstructing gender stereotypes which appear to
be harming women more than men.