Gender Stereotypes in Social Media Audience Discourse: Evidence from Bangladeshi Artists
Gender Stereotypes in Social Media Audience Discourse: Evidence from Bangladeshi Artists
(Working paper)
Abstract
This study examines gendered audience perceptions of artists in Bangladesh by analyzing discourse in YouTube comment sections. In the contemporary digital environment, social media platforms have become important spaces where cultural evaluations and gender stereotypes are publicly articulated. Drawing on a corpus of YouTube comments, the study employs sentiment analysis, keyness analysis, and structural topic modeling to investigate how audiences respond to male and female artists across different artistic professions and how these perceptions vary over time.
The findings show that audience perceptions are not uniformly gendered but vary systematically across artistic domains. Certain artistic practices, such as dancing, culinary arts, and painting, appear to resonate more strongly with the feminine sphere. Intriguingly, a different pattern emerges for actors and chefs, with male artists receiving more favorable audience responses than their female counterparts. Singers present a contrasting case: female singers receive more favorable public sentiment, while singing itself appears to be associated more strongly with masculine stereotypes. These patterns suggest the presence of gender stereotypes within artistic professions, with audience responses reflecting socially embedded expectations about which artistic roles are considered more appropriate for men or women. By examining audience responses across multiple artistic professions, this study contributes to understanding how digital publics reproduce and negotiate gendered cultural hierarchies within the Bangladeshi cultural sphere.
Data and API use
This project is independent, non-funded, and non-commercial academic research, conducted through the Audience Discourse on Bangladeshi Artists Research Client. It uses the YouTube Data API v3 to retrieve publicly available comments from a defined set of Bangladeshi artists’ and entertainment channels. It does not access private accounts, does not request authorization from YouTube users, and does not offer a service to the public. Only aggregate findings are reported; raw comments and commenter identifiers are not published or redistributed. Use of YouTube API Services is subject to the YouTube Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. See the Privacy Policy.