Misogynist Narratives in Women’s Media Representation in Bulgaria

In the last decade, gender equality in Bulgaria has failed to progress. Anti-gender sentiments, far-right politics, and persistent misogyny have sought to retain women in an inferior position, while avoiding pressing issues such as femicide, domestic violence, and social hostility. The Bulgarian Constitutional Court's rejection of the Istanbul Convention in 2018 further worsened this situation, cementing an unfavourable stance on women’s rights and the combatting of violence against women, which thrives in online spaces.

This issue is highlighted through two snapshot case studies: the invalidation of experiences of violence against women through victim-blaming and denial, and the villainisation of women in positions of power by reference to immorality in Bulgarian online news articles and associated public, post-moderation user generated content.

Demystifying narratives

Narratives are made. They have agents who create them, triggers that justify them, and audiences that validate them. Stories don't appear spontaneously. They get built, reused, and adapted. And they thrive in a gap. Bulgarian law doesn't recognise gendered hate speech as a crime. Broadcasting rules cover discriminatory commercial communications, but not news articles or user comments. So the space where these narratives do most of their work — post-moderation comment sections — sits largely beyond the reach of regulation.

What needs to change

• For online media moderators: Closer attention should be paid to instances of misogynist hate speech and sexist hostility in user generated content, along with the prompt removal of insulting, disinformation-related, and discriminatory comments. This should be carefully balanced with considerations around the right to freedom of speech in conjunction with the right to freedom from discrimination, human dignity, and the right to privacy and private life.

• For media regulators: Rules around ethical representation of victims of violence, including the preservation of their anonymity and the confidentiality of details around relevant court cases, should be drafted, and implemented with urgency. Guidelines on rigorous moderation of user-generated content should also be developed.

• For legislators: Sex- and gender-specific hate speech should be included in the definition provided in the Criminal Code to facilitate appropriate measures of sanction against those formulating and proliferating misogynist narratives. Online manifestations of gender-based violence against adult women should be explicitly addressed in applicable laws.

• For the research community: Negative media representation of women in Bulgaria and online hostility towards women is an extremely under-researched field with scarce statistics and gaps in exploration of problematics such as cyberviolence and hate speech against women in positions of power, the representation of victims, and the effect of sexist narratives on human rights. Research in these areas is crucial.

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Read Victimhood and Villainisation: Misogynist Narratives in Women’s Media Representation in Bulgaria, by Leda Kuneva