“Dude, you’re a Bitch!” Gang Members’ Internet Banging Masculinity via Bitch Discourse.

Internet banging (i.e. social media combative exchanges between rival gang members) research has primarily focused on gang members’ use of violent rhetoric. We shift this focus to a discussion of gang members’ use of social media to promote a particular type of internet banging masculinity. Building from C.J. Pascoe’s concept of “fag discourse” utilized among young men chastising one another (e.g., “Dude, you’re a fag!”), we demonstrate how “bitch discourse” on social media operates as an accessible tool that gang members use to participate in expressions of internet banging masculinity that demonizes effeminacy and gayness via the use of the slang term “bitch.” Specifically, we utilize a Facebook dataset compiled from 24,403 comments on a page that was primarily used by Chicago-based Latino gang members and a mixed methods approach comprised of structural topic modeling and qualitative thematic analysis to understand gang members’ internet banging bitch discourse. Our findings demonstrate two main themes: “bitch” as common vernacular and “bitch” as internet banging masculinity. Overall, we highlight the complexities of dialogue in gang interactions and contribute to the existing landscape of gang literature, social media analysis, and most broadly, scholarly efforts to deconstruct misogyny and anti-gay sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]