‘You could take this topic and get a fistfight going’: communicating about feminism in interviews

Abstract

In this article, I analyze discourse from three group interviews to come to a better understanding of how young people communicate about feminism and the factors that can complicate and disrupt this communication. I analyze both the ways that the interview, as a speech event, evokes expectations and assumptions in participants and shapes how they interact, and how participants’ ideologies about feminism affect the way the interviews transpire. An equally important component of my project was to explore how feminism could translate into a research method. Throughout this article, I reflexively examine my research practices and analyses and identify the successes and shortcomings I had while attempting to conduct a research study consistent with feminist values.

Keywords

discourse analysis feminism interview reflexivity research methodology

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