Romanian women politicians, Gender Identity, (Im)politeness. Facebook electoral campaigns
Romanian women politicians, Gender Identity, (Im)politeness. Facebook electoral campaigns

Summary/Abstract: In this study, we attempted to explore gender aspects of face work between the reversal of stigma and the maintenance of the gender role which in our view remains still relatively understudied within the broader domain of (im)politeness research. We focused specifically on the intersection of gender, social media use and (im)politeness using the social network site Facebook in the context of the 2016 Parliamentary Election campaign in Romania. If women politicians need to reposition themselves in relation to their gender identity in order to gain recognition in politics, we were interested to reveal some new strategies of visibility and legitimation of Romanian candidates. We question the political ethos as the image of the speaker that results from the continuation of the unveiling of personal traits of character, corporality, verbal declarations, etc. on the cross roads of socio-discursive imaginary of the audience, populated by beliefs, collective representations, and of course gender stereotypes. The data presented in this article, were collected using a content analysis of communication focusing on the inextricable links between Facebook posts and its comments in the construction of the feminine political ethos. Addressing the issue of impoliteness and interaction in Facebook electoral campaigns, we search the markers of impoliteness and aggressiveness in Facebook comments.

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