Women and constructing marital relationships in cyberspace (Case Study of Ni Ni Site Website Forum)

Along with the influence of social networks on people’s personal lives in recent decades, the dimensions and quality of family relationships have also undergone extensive and unprecedented changes. One of the most influential groups is women, who are experiencing a new form of social communication beyond traditional or cultural limitations. Currently, 72% of women use smartphones and their internet penetration is 42.7%. The website “NiniSite” deals specifically with topics and issues affecting women and has gained numerous users. The website has about 750,000 registered users and is visited by 800,000 people daily. While the gender of the users cannot be determined with certainty, based on the topics on the site, it can be assumed that more than 90% of these users are female. This study examines one of the site’s forums on the topic of “wives” to investigate how female users form marital relationships. The main research questions addressed key aspects, categories, couples’ positions, and the establishment or mitigation of gender stereotypes in relationships. The conceptual framework of the study was based on two approaches of constructivism in media (Stuart Hall) and cyberfeminism. Within Stuart Hall’s theory, culture is based on the ideology of the infrastructure of different readings of a meaning. He discusses two important strategies in the representational system: stereotyping and naturalization. Most cyberfeminist theorists agree that the Internet has promoted women’s agency and can raise public awareness by focusing on emancipation.

The method of the study is based on qualitative content analysis and time sampling was conducted in a period of one month (July to August) 2019.

The four main themes extracted include emotional and sexual, financial, family, and critical relationships. The results of the analysis show that emotional concerns are the most common topics of conversation among users and that there is a significant level of empathy and validation of shared experiences in this aspect of the relationship. At the same time, a significant amount of “generalization” and “stereotyping” is formed in this area. Women have shown the most evidence of agency and rethinking in sexual and financial relationships. The dominance of a discourse that can be called “sexual satisfaction” or “sexual orientation” has caused problems for women in its various dimensions. In the area of financial relationships, the desire for independence and personal purpose shows a clear shift in thinking from traditional ideas.

In areas related to social customs (e.g., marital commitment), family traditions (e.g., Iranian family-centered culture), and legal challenges (e.g., divorce and custody), the reproduction of gender stereotypes and compromises is more pronounced. Regarding critical relationships related to the occurrence of deadlocks in relationships, betrayal (or suspicion of betrayal) and violence (psychological, verbal, and physical) were very common, and (as with sexual relationships) the anonymity of users plays an important role in expressing them.