Persuasive Techniques of Telegram Social Network against Female Gender Roles (Case Study of Spouse’s Role)

Virtual space- as a recent media- is capable of changing culture and presenting a new redefinition of cultural affairs within a deep and vast scale. Gender roles and especially the marital role of women are recognized as one of the most prominent cultural components in our country which has been challenged by the virtual space. Employing relevant theories, this article aims to reach an understanding of the nature of virtual space in order to address the question that how virtual space persuades women to refuse performing the roles they have so far undertaken. For this purpose, after presenting theories and defining the concepts, selected messages from the sample are analyzed based on the thematic analysis, and the main themes of the telegram networks’ activities against the marital role are extracted. The findings imply that these networks are trying to change the concept of spouse in two realms of “behavior” and “thought”. In the latter realm, they focus on the components of “housekeeping”, “obedience”, “betrayal” and “separation” in order to overshadow women’s behavior in the family. In the field of thought, these networks emphasize “fantasy meaning-making of women”, “representing spouse role as contemptuous”, “inequality induction” and “the stereotype of the cruel husband”. Moreover, by constructing a new identity for women, they try to dissuade Iranian women from performing the roles they have so far undertaken.