#ILookLikeASurgeon: stance and engagement on Twitter/X for identity construction and community building

Abstract

The hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon, introduced in August 2015, is still being used to highlight diversity in surgery, challenge stereotypes and fight discrimination. Adopting a multimodal approach, this study analyzes a corpus of 150 tweets with the hashtag #ILookLikeASurgeon, in order to explore the role played by stance and engagement devices in (collective) identity construction and community building. The analysis reveals that a variety of stance and engagement resources are used to project a more inclusive identity of medical professionals (especially surgeons), build solidarity and create a sense of community. Stance and engagement are expressed in these tweets by linguistic resources (e.g. personal pronouns, directives), but also by other resources afforded by the digital medium (e.g. images, emoji, hashtags). The images posted by female surgeon, in particular, play a crucial role in constructing identity and community. The study shows how the semiotic resources analyzed are orchestrated strategically in these tweets to challenge gender stereotypes in surgery and fight gender bias.