The erasure of suffering: Mutually exclusive realities of victimhood. Exploring competitive victimhood in discursive practices amongst MRAs and feminists

This research has explored the ways in which MRAs and feminists employ discursive practices in their engagement in competitive victimhood by means of critical discourse analysis. In order to do so, this research has conducted a critical analysis of both texts written by MRAs on the subject of feminism and feminist texts on the subject of MRAs. This analysis was executed through the use of Atlas.ti and consisted of a round of coding in vivo, followed by a round of open coding. On the basis of the analysis, this research has found that both movements engage in competitive victimhood by means of legitimizing their own victimhood and delegitimizing the other’s victimhood. In doing so, their societal positions were found to be the most significant factor in the divergence between their discursive practices. MRAs were found to be engaging in competition over dominant discourse by claiming an underdog status and erasing female victimhood from their narrative. Feminists were found to be engaging in the protection of dominant discourse in which female victimhood is an accepted notion. This was executed through normalization of female victimhood and ideologically delegitimizing the MRA movement, consequently delegitimizing the notion of male victimhood. Moreover, in their self-perceptions as victims both movements are seen to be reproducing traditional gender roles. This occurred through the characterization of female victims as innocent and the characterization of male victims as accountable. This research has shed a light on the mechanics of discursive practices in relation to competitive victimhood, in the hopes of creating an understanding of the power of language in reinforcing perceived differences and the subsequent erasure of suffering.