Speaker: Ida Marie S. Lassen, Pascale Feldkamp Moreira, uri Bizzoni, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen and Kristoffer Nielbo
Affiliation: 1, Center for Humanities Computing Aarhus, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus; 2, School of Communication and Culture - Comparative Literature, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C
Title: Persistence of gender asymmetries in book reviews within and across genres
Abstract: While literary judgments are considered highly subjective or noisy, gender asymmetries are shown in readers’ and reviewers’ assessments of literature. This study adds genre categories to the examination of literary reviews. By considering both the gender of authors and reviewers, the media type of reviews (newspapers, online blogs), as well as genres, this analysis provides a detailed overview of the Danish review scene and sheds light on structural biases. Analyzing how genres are reviewed in newspapers and blogs, we identify systematic trends that may be attributed to gender biases in reviewer judgments across, as well as within, different genres and media types. Our results show that the book reviews in Danish media are polarized between the reviewer genders and the two considered media types, upholding additional gender asymmetries in rating.