Decoding the Binary: Reconsidering the Hacker Subculture through a Gendered Lens

ABSTRACT

Research has demonstrated that hacker subculture – like many other tech-oriented communities – is disproportionately composed of men. While prior attempts have been made to explain this disparity, few, if any, explore the role of subculture in this gendered divide. Drawing from feminist theories, subcultural theory, and cultural criminology, this theoretical analysis examines the intersection of gender, social structure, hegemony, situated action, and subculture to argue that hacker subculture is (1) male-dominated and androcentric, (2) mired in language, like meritocratic rhetoric, which masks inequity, and (3) conducive to forms of sexual harassment and gendered exclusion. Implications for hacking research and subcultural theory are discussed throughout.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Travis Linnemann for helping come up with the title of this article.

Notes

¹ For the purposes of this study, we will use the term female to refer to individuals who are either biologically female or who may recognize their gender identity as such. Given the focus of this analysis is on the notion of gender as a social role and identity, the use of female is intentional on the part of the authors.

² The “negation discourse” was described as part of the “female discourses of resistance” (Tanczer 2016:1604). Another discourse of resistance described was the “emphasis discourse” where women proclaimed outright opposition to male dominance within hacktivism.

³ In this metaphor, men are assigned the role of ‘1‘ only because they are considered normative, not because they are ‘more’ than women.

⁴ Importantly, Jane (2017) recognizes that some scholars, like Phillips (2015), are much more specific in their use of the term “trolling” and use “this term only to describe very specific types of subcultural trolling communities such as those on an around the /b/board in the web forum 4chan.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kevin F. Steinmetz

Kevin F. Steinmetz is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work and Kansas State University.

Thomas J. Holt

Thomas J. Holt is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.

Karen M. Holt

Karen M. Holt is an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.