Gendered Communication and Women’s Vulnerability in Digital Media of Bangladesh

Abstract

Men in traditional patriarchic societies leverage women to facilitate their own lives, whereas women, being silenced, do whatever their  “masters” want. Women are inferior to men in power and possession who are also the controller of social institutions. These  conditions govern their communication pattern. Digital media brought both men and women into its virtual platform. Women in  Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken Muslim country, misunderstood cyberspace as a modern instrument of their “emancipation” from the  vicious patriarchic system. However, this article argues why and how their hopes turn into despair while men are unleashing  structured violence and strengthening dominance using digital media. In this regard, recent incidents of virtual harassment have been  observed to understand the true color of men’s authority on women. It has been seen that women’s increasing optimism and progressiveness are positixvely related to the men’s domination over communication in cyberspace to sustain and/or bolster their  social position.