NAME-BASED DIGITAL MISOGYNY ON PAKISTANI INSTAGRAM HATE MEMES: A MULTIMODAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/b1qygc97Keywords:
gender ideology, Instagram, Name-Based Hate Memes, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, Online Hate Speech, Visual GrammarAbstract
The primary aim of this study is to examine the multimodal construction of gender ideology in name-based hate memes circulating on Pakistani Instagram hater pages which construct derogatory representations of women. Fifteen purposively selected memes were collected from five Pakistani Instagram hater pages and analyzed through Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis using Kress and van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar framework. The study contributes to emerging scholarship on digital misogyny by demonstrating how ordinary personal names can function as semiotic carriers of negative gender ideologies in online environments. The findings demonstrate that the memes use conceptual symbolic substitution, where women are replaced by grotesque figures, animals, machines, monsters and symbols of pain, as well as interactive and compositional strategies, which position the viewer as a passive co-participant in ridicule and establish naturalized connections between the female name and negative meaning. The five dominant patterns of ideology that arose were: women as emotional problems, women as objects of appearance-based misogyny, women as irrational and argumentative, dehumanized women, and deceptive or mentally unstable women. The study extends digital discourse studies, feminist media studies and Pakistani gender studies by not only recording a new category of personalized online misogyny but also by emphasizing its multimodal nature as individual female names are the carriers of derogatory gender ideology.
Downloads
References
Alyatalatthaf, M. R. (2021). Cybermisogyny: Hate against women and gendertrolling manifestation on Instagram. Jurnal Kajian Media, 5(2), 154–172. https://doi.org/10.25139/jkm.v5i2.4044
Banet-Weiser, S., & Miltner, K. M. (2016). #MasculinitySoFragile: Culture, structure, and networked misogyny. Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), 171–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1120490
Blaxter, L. (2010). How to research (4th ed.). Open University Press.
Davison, P. (2012). The language of internet memes. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.), The social media reader (pp. 120–134). New York University Press.
Drakett, J., Rickett, B., Day, K., & Milnes, K. (2018). Old jokes, new media: Online sexism and constructions of gender in internet memes. Feminism & Psychology, 28(1), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353517727560
El-Wakil, R. (2022). Women representation in crisis memes—Humour and beyond: A critical discourse analysis. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 9(3), 50–72.
Elamroussi, A., Alsaeed, A. A., & Abdel Maksoud, N. (2021). Investigating anti-feminist stereotyping memes on Facebook: Multimodal discourse analysis study. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 12(4), 22–33. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.12n.4p.22
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Harvard University Press.
Jane, E. A. (2014). “Your a ugly, whorish, slut”: Understanding e-bile. Feminist Media Studies, 14(4), 531–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2012.741073
Javed, R., Jamil, A., & Ahmad, M. (2022). Memes as a tool of social and political commentary: Discourse analysis of memes in Pakistani social media. Global Mass Communication Review, 7(2), 1–15.
Javed, H., & Hussain, N. (2024). Narrative building through memes on rape and harassment victims: A multimodal discourse analysis. Journal of Language and Cultural Education, 12(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.2478/jolace-2024-0004
Khosravi-Ooryad, F. (2024). Memeing back at misogyny: Emerging meme-feminism, visual tactics, and aesthetic worldbuilding on Iranian social media. Feminist Media Studies, 24(3), 412–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2023.2244812
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Mahfouz, S. M. (2021). A multimodal analysis of gender representation in “Men vs. Women memes.” International Journal of Linguistics, 13(3), 61–85. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v13i3.18628
Mallya, M., & Dennis, A. (2021). Comic memes and sexist humor in India: Tools for reinforcement of female body-image stereotypes. South Asian Popular Culture, 19(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2021.1914479
Manovich, L. (2017). Instagram and contemporary image. Cultural Analytics. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image
Milner, R. M. (2016). The world made meme: Public conversations and participatory media. MIT Press.
Nasreen, S., & Habib, A. (2021). Internet memes and normalisation of sexism in the time of Covid-19. Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 13(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.5897/JMCS2021.0680
Nusrat, A., Khan, M. A., Awan, S., & Farid, M. (2025). Unmasking digital prejudice: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of racial, gender and ideological violence in memes targeting Kamala Harris' speeches. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2025.2461872
Parker, B. (2025). Exploring the re-victimization of women through meme culture within an online space. Journal of Gender Studies, 34(1), 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2024.2387412
Perez-Tirado, J., Calvo Viota, A., & Igarzabal, B. (2024). Insta-hate toward female political leaders: Six case studies from Instagram. Social Media + Society, 10(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241232810
Shahid, F., Irfan, M., & Abbas, S. (2025). Exploring women representation in meme discourse: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of selected memes from Pakistani Facebook pages. Pakistan Journal of Language Studies, 9(1), 1–22.
Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a digital world: Reconciling with a conceptual troublemaker. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(3), 362–377. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013
Shifman, L. (2014). Memes in digital culture. MIT Press.
Siddiqi, S., Abidi, S. M. R., Shahid, S., Sultana, S., & Tariq, W. (2018). Analysing threads of sexism in new age humour: A content analysis of internet memes. Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies, 16(1), 63–80.
van Leeuwen, T. (2015). Multimodality. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 447–465). Wiley-Blackwell.
Zaman, A., Arshad, U., & Choudhary, Z. A. (2025). Impact of internet memes on perception of gender-based violence among Pakistani youth. Journal of South Asian Studies, 13(2), 189–207.
Ze, C., & Panneerselvam, S. (2021). Reinforcing or resisting? A study on the influence of internet memes on sexism among university students in Penang. Journal of Content, Community and Communication, 14(7), 200–213. https://doi.org/10.31620/JCCC.12.21/15
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Laiba Yousaf Durrani , Aiman Khan , Sana Ullah, Bushra Khurshid Alam , Hurria (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
