Reinscribing gender: social media, algorithms, bias

ABSTRACT

This article reflects on an apparent paradox – in light of cultural shifts in gender, as well as a growing understanding of the multiplicity of gender, internet algorithms tend to reinforce dualist, hierarchical notions of gender. Algorithms exert profound influence on how gender is experienced, processed, and recirculated in contemporary consumer culture. Thus, while consumers and researchers embrace a broadening conception of gender, the online marketplace seems to be working to reinscribe stereotypical notions of gender. This paradox raises many important issues for research on gender and marketing.

KEYWORDS:

• Algorithms
• gender
• social media
• bias
• sexism
• consumer culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan E. Schroeder

Jonathan E. Schroeder is the William A. Kern Professor of Communications in School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. His research largely focuses upon the intersections of branding, identity, and visual culture. He is author or editor of nine books, including Visual Consumption (Routledge, 2002), Brand Culture (Routledge, 2005), Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America (MIT Press, 2017), and Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance (MIT Press, forthcoming).