Constructing Gender Identities Multimodally: Young, Middle-Class Pakistanis on Facebook

Abstract

In recent years, in Pakistan, Facebook has emerged as a dynamic online platform that provides its users (both men and women) with unparalleled opportunities to express themselves using variety of multimodal resources. Using Multimodal Discourse Analysis and taking insights from the theory of performativity, this study specifically aimed to examine how young middle-class Pakistani men and women mobilise visual and linguistic resources in constructing their gender identities in their Facebook posts. More importantly, the study explored in what ways young middle-class Pakistani men and women adhere to or contest the prevailing linguistic and socio-cultural norms and stereotypical gender notions in Pakistan in their Facebook posts and what specific role Facebook plays in enabling and constraining the construction of their gender identities. The results of the study indicated that in Pakistan, Facebook constitutes as a complex phenomenon. On the one hand, Facebook has become another venue where gender norms are reinforced and perpetuated. On the other hand, Facebook was found to be particularly empowering for previously marginalised groups (e.g., women assault victims, the LGBT community) as it offered them space to resist the dominant hegemonic discourses. Thus, these results are in line with previous findings that the gender differences visible in the offline world are not only reinforced but also challenged on social media platforms, as these provide users with a site on which they can simultaneously transgress the dominant gender ideologies.