Gender and Language Use in Yoruba Social Media Discourse: A Feminist Linguistic Analysis

Social media platforms have created new participatory spaces for language use in which gender-differentiated communicative norms are both reproduced and contested, offering rich data for feminist linguistic analysis. This study examines gender and language use in Yoruba social media discourse, focusing on Twitter and Facebook posts in Yoruba or Yoruba-dominant code-switching from users in South West Nigeria. A feminist critical discourse analysis methodology was applied to a corpus of 2,000 posts collected systematically from public accounts using Yoruba-language hashtags and topic markers over a three-month collection period. The study examines lexical choices, topic selection, address forms, interactional styles, and the deployment of gendered Yoruba cultural imagery in social media discourse. The theoretical framework integrates feminist linguistics with digital discourse analysis and Yoruba gender ideology studies. Existing feminist linguistic scholarship on Yoruba has focused on proverbs and folktales, with digital discourse being an underexplored arena for gender analysis. This study addresses that contemporary methodological gap. The research investigates whether traditional Yoruba gender norms are reinforced or contested in digital Yoruba discourse, how women deploy Yoruba in online self-assertion, and whether social media provides space for feminist reinterpretation of culturally embedded gendered language. Findings are expected to reveal a contested discursive space in which dominant patriarchal Yoruba norms are both reproduced and challenged, particularly by younger women users in urban centres. Recommendations will address gender-equitable Yoruba language education and the promotion of feminist Yoruba digital content creation. Keywords: gender, Yoruba, social media, feminist linguistics, digital discourse.