Is the Truth In the Comments? Anti-feminism and Anti-immigration in Norwegian Online Newspaper Comment Threads

Norway has implemented many progressive social policies focused on the equality and inclusion of women, as well as immigrant and non-ethnic Norwegian individuals due to a commitment to state feminism. Yet recently it seems to be a number of anti-feminist and some anti-immigration stances expressed through online discussion threads. In order to highlight and explore the presence of a backlash against feminism and immigration in Norway, this study conducts a feminist textual analysis of online comment threads that follows pro-feminist online opinion pieces published in the two largest newspapers in Norway, Dagbladet and Verdens Gang (VG) published between July 2014 and December 2014. This project also focuses on whether or not the commentator is anonymous or non-anonymous to investigate whether that might have an impact on the nature of the comments, believing that when posters are given the ability to appear anonymous it might heighten the possibility of the use of anti-feminist, anti-immigration stances and generally negative and harassing behavior online. This research concludes that the majority of comments found do not address feminism in any fashion. However, the comments that do discuss feminism show a higher frequency of anti-feminist than pro-feminist stances, in addition to a few comments that discusses immigration, and a combination of these various stances within online discussion threads. Ultimately, this research provides numerical evidence of a feminist backlash within online comment threads as well as anti-feminist and harassing stances and behavior found in online comments. It also discusses a small number of anti-immigration and Islamophobic comments and their relation to anti-feminist beliefs, concluding that there is a minor presence of a combination of anti-feminist, anti-immigration and Islamophobic stances found within these online comment threads. This in turn shows the discrepancy between Norway\u27s progressive social image and the opinions expressed by its actual citizens