The Incessancy of #gobacktothekitchen and Responses to Normalized Online Misogyny

Abstract

This research arose from the iVoices project collection of student technology experiences guiding research. In response to students being told to “go back to the kitchen” while gaming and reading as “female”, our team analyzed TikTok for videos hashtagged #gobacktothekitchen and #backtothekitchen across a one-year period. We also performed deeper analysis on comeback appeals eliciting or offering suggestions of responses to “Go back to the kitchen” and related misogyny and their responses. We found videos were typically created by “girl gamers” toward whom “back to the kitchen” misogyny had been directed, and who tagged them to assign networked meanings to their experiences, encapsulate their struggles for broad publics, and find validation with users sharing similar experiences. A salient theme in comeback appeal posts was performing positions of power to gain leverage over aggressors, while comments frequently offered support from other “girl gamers” and reinforcement of misogynistic stereotypes by male-identified aggressors. 85th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology | Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 2022 | Pittsburgh, PA.