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"There's No Pride in Anti-Semitism": Framing the 2019 Dc Dyke March Ban of the Jewish Pride Flag Through Facebook Comments

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"THERE'S NO PRIDE IN ANTI-SEMITISM": FRAMING THE 2019 DC DYKE MARCH BAN OF THE JEWISH PRIDE FLAG THROUGH FACEBOOK COMMENTS A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Linguistics By Katherine Anne Olivia Arnold-Murray, B.A. Washington, DC April 1, 2019 Copyright 2020 by Katherine Anne Olivia Arnold-Murray All Rights Reserved ii "THERE'S NO PRIDE IN ANTI-SEMITISM": FRAMING THE 2019 DC DYKE MARCH BAN OF THE JEWISH PRIDE FLAG THROUGH FACEBOOK COMMENTS Katherine Anne Olivia Arnold-Murray, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Cynthia Gordon, Ph.D. ABSTRACT In this study, I investigate the ways in which Facebook users, through public comments they post on an LGBTQ+ organization’s page, multimodally construct diverse interpretations and meanings of an event. Bringing together Bateson’s (1972) and Goffman’s (1974) interactional understandings of frame with Entman’s (1993) conception of frame as a sense of perceived reality made salient to the self and others, I demonstrate the ways in which interactants use multimodal communicative strategies on Facebook to construct frames of interpretation to problematize an aspect of the 2019 Dyke March in Washington, DC, and ultimately, the organization itself. Days ahead of the 2019 DC Dyke March, organizers banned the Jewish pride flag, claiming that the flag, with the Star of David in the center of a rainbow flag, is reminiscent of the Israeli flag, and is thus a symbol of “violent nationalism” against their queer values of anti- Zionism. This caused a large outcry from both local and national queer (and) Jewish communities, as many claimed the ban was anti-Semitic. A great deal of discourse surrounding the DC Dyke March’s flag ban took place through Facebook posts published by the DC Dyke March and subsequent comments posted by community members. I perform a multimodal discourse analysis of 301 Facebook comments posted in response to two Facebook posts published by the DC iii Dyke March in June 2019 in which the Dyke March discusses their ban of the Jewish pride flag. I show how Facebook commenters construct three frames to problematize the DC Dyke March and its organizers’ decision, including: (1) the March is anti-Semitic, (2) the March spreads untruths and inaccuracies, and (3) the March is morally inconsistent, with respect to progressive, queer, and Jewish values. I highlight textual references to, and images of and related to the Star of David; rhetorical questions; constructed dialogue; references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; symbols; and other images, including memes, as multimodal communicative strategies through which interactants construct frames of interpretation online. This study contributes to literature on framing and multimodal computer-mediated discourse by illuminating how frames are constructed through specific linguistic and multimodal strategies online, while also demonstrating how queerness is viewed in the LGBTQ+ community as an ideology which transcends gender and sexuality to encompass other aspects of social identity, such as religion and political orientation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................6 2.1. Framing ......................................................................................................................6 2.2. Multimodality, online communication, and framing ...............................................11 3. DATA AND METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................15 3.1. The DC Dyke March and the 2019 ban of the Jewish pride flag .............................15 3.2. The DC Dyke March on Facebook ..........................................................................21 4. ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................31 4.1. Framing the DC Dyke March as anti-Semitic..........................................................35 4.1.1. Textual references to, and images of and related to the Star of David ............35 4.1.2. Rhetorical questions .........................................................................................45 4.1.3. Comparisons to Nazis .....................................................................................51 4.1.4. Memes .............................................................................................................53 4.2. Framing the DC Dyke March as spreading untruths and inaccuracies ....................60 4.2.1. Explanations of the history of the Star of David..............................................61 4.2.2. Challenges to claims of similarity between Jewish pride and Israeli flags......64 4.2.3. Constructed dialogue .......................................................................................72 4.2.4. Sharing and discussing video of the March .....................................................78 4.2.5. Comparisons to Donald Trump .......................................................................82 4.3. Framing the DC Dyke March as morally inconsistent.............................................84 4.3.1. Portraying the violation of progressive morals ................................................85 v 4.3.2. Portraying the violation of LGBTQ+ morals ...................................................91 4.3.3. Portraying the violation of Jewish morals .......................................................97 5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION..........................................................................105 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................109 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Jewish pride flag .............................................................................................................17 Figure 2. Israeli flag .......................................................................................................................17 Figure 3. Post 1 ..............................................................................................................................25 Figure 4. Post 2 ..............................................................................................................................28 Figure 5. Post 1: Comment 87 .......................................................................................................32 Figure 6. Post 2: Comment 15 .......................................................................................................34 Figure 7. Post 2: Comment 22 .......................................................................................................34 Figure 8. Post 1: Comment 42 .......................................................................................................36 Figure 9. Post 1: Comment 69 .......................................................................................................38 Figure 10. Post 1: Comment 69 image...........................................................................................39 Figure 11. Muslim pride flag .........................................................................................................40 Figure 12. Christian pride flag .......................................................................................................40 Figure 13. Turkish flag ..................................................................................................................41 Figure 14. Libyan flag....................................................................................................................41 Figure 15. Post 1: Comments 34-34c .............................................................................................42 Figure 16. Jordanian flag ...............................................................................................................43 Figure 17. Palestinian flag .............................................................................................................43 Figure 18. Post 1: Comments 60-60f .............................................................................................44 Figure 19. Post 2: Comment 12 .....................................................................................................47 Figure 20. Post 1: Comment 29 .....................................................................................................48 Figure 21. Post 1: Comment 55 .....................................................................................................50 Figure 22. Post 1: Comment 93 .....................................................................................................52 vii Figure 23. Post 1: Comment 96 .....................................................................................................52 Figure 24. Post 1: Comment 19 .....................................................................................................55 Figure 25. The Simpsons “Am I out of touch” meme ....................................................................56 Figure 26. Post 1: Comment 65 .....................................................................................................58 Figure 27. “You guys are X” meme...............................................................................................59
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