Girls vs. Men - The Prevalence of Gender-Biased Language in Popular YouTube Videos

Sexism does not only occur in overt hostile ways, but is often more subtle, such as gender biased language, which can be just as harmful. These subtler forms of sexism remain scarcely researched on social media, which is an important context of daily life especially for younger generations. The present content analysis examined 30 full transcripts of YouTube videos for evidence of online gender-biased and benevolent sexist language. The videos were selected in a survey (N = 485), where participants listed their favorite digital entertainment content creators. We focused on the two concepts androcentrism (i.e., the tendency to use more masculine than feminine terms) and paternalism using gendered infantilizing language (e.g., using "girl" when referring to a woman) that is prevalent in students' offline language (MacArthur et al., 2020). Our results are consistent with previous findings. We found significant indications for androcentric language. Masculine terms were used more often than feminine overall and especially when referring to mixed-gender groups. Results also showed some indicators of gendered infantilizing. The label "girl" was used in a higher proportion compared to other feminine labels than "boy" compared to other masculine labels. This form of paternalistic language is a subtle form of benevolent sexism. These findings indicate a need for more research on the effects of subtler forms of sexism, such as benevolent sexist language in social computing entertainment. It also stresses the importance of future research and interventions geared towards awareness of subtler forms of sexist language, both online and offline.