How Social Media has helped to further the fight against sexual assault/violence against women.
With a special focus on the #MeToo movement.
Throughout history technology has changed the way we see things and how we organize social justice campaigns. In the 1950's the television changed the game on how society viewed the world and produced and reinforced gender norms in mainstream society. In the 1990's the internet was invented, and once again, different gender roles and norms were ingrained in society; an example would be how women were socialized to behave online and how video games were only for boys. In the early 2000's, social media took off and hasn’t stopped growing since with many new platforms to choose from; a number that keeps on increasing with every passing year. Social media changed how we organize within social justice movements and connects communities across the globe. Social media is at the forefront of activism in today’s world, as just about every young person had some sort of social media that they use regularly. Social media has changed activism for the better and has created a platform where individual voices can be heard, and has increasingly help to legitimize the fight against sexual assault/violence against women.
Hashtag Feminism is an interesting concept that refers to using hashtags such as the #MeToo movement to create communities and conversations around social justice issues in society (Mendes, Ringrose & Keller, 2018). This use of feminism is one of the most popular forms of contributing to the dialogue that people use today, with numbers growing with each passing year. This has become the most common form of feminism because of social medias ability to reach many people across the globe in a short amount of time (Thomson, 2018). The most common hashtag used in hashtag feminism is #Metoo, an online movement that took social media and mainstream media by storm. The hashtag #Metoo was first created in 2007 by Tarana Burke when she created her non-profit organization Just Be inc; an organization that focuses on young WOC and their well being (Thomson, 2018). Burke created the #MeToo hashtag to unify survivors of sexual violence and assault; however, the hashtag would take on a much more mainstream revival in 2017. In 2017 the #MeToo hashtag would make it an appearance again however, this time on a much larger, more mainstream scale. In 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted “if you have been sexually assaulted reply to this tweet with #MeToo” (Thomson, 2018). This was in response to well-known abuser Harvey Weinstein came to light when over 100 women who he had worked with over his career accused him of sexual harassment, assault and rape (Thomson, 2018). After this became mainstream news, thousands of women began to share their stories on social media using the hashtag #MeToo, to help this campaign become an international phenomenon. The #MeToo campaign has been instrumental
Slacktivism is a term that describes social media activism that stays on the internet and doesn’t evoke real political change (Valenzuela, 2013).Social media is vital in making ongoing change in society because it doesn’t have the political bias that many major news networks have. Social media doesn’t have vested interest in political campaigns and doesn’t have to remain neutral on pressing social justice issues to maintain the status quo (Valenzuela, 2013). This is important to the fight against sexual assault/violence against women because it helps to society to lean toward believing women when they claim they were a victim of sexual assault/violence. Social media is very important to the fight against sexual assault/violence because without the bias that mainstream media has, these networks will skew stories when a powerful individual is accused for sexual assault/violence, to the advantage of the abuser. This is an extremely common practice within the major news networks because most of these major players have a stake in these companies and will do anything to protect themselves of being accountable for their actions. The point of social justice activism is to change the status quo to make a better world for everyone, not just the 1% of people at the very top of society. The #MeToo movement has made a difference in mainstream society because the general public is now very aware of the treatment of women by many men in their lives. This movement has sparked major protests, such as the Women’s March. This social media campaign has changed how the general public views sexual violence/assault and has made the public more aware and how they can help women that have been in these situations and prevent this from happening as often as it does today. This point is important to the fight against sexual assault/violence because the more aware individuals are of what sexual assault/violence looks like, and how men can step in when they recognizing it happening.
Social media has helped women and feminism/activism in ways that one could have never predicted. Because of the wide reach that social media has, women have never been more connected and supported (Youngs, 2014). Before social media and the internet in general, women were limited in the support they could receive, many of this being local support from within their communities and other women in the area. With the invention of social media and the internet, women and trans/nb individuals could now reach millions of other women fighting for the same rights. This helped to create a community of millions of women fighting for equal rights and let to many of the victories that social justice has seen in the past two decades. Since social media was popularized around a decade ago, it has been a useful tool for not only women to become more connected but activists. Many social media activists have found each other because of social media and will use their platforms to fight giant corporations and hold them accountable for their actions; because often the justice system fails to hold these individuals/companies accountable for their crimes. However, with the near unlimited resources these companies have access too, they ruthlessly surveille leaders of activism groups to provide ammunition for their fight against these activists (Uldam, 2018). When a company comes under fire, they will often dig into the leader of the campaigns personal history and use anything to discredit them in order the away public opinion (Uldam, 2018). These companies will also write fake headlines to ensure public outrage. It is important for individuals of the greater public to seek out information that is true and be able to critically think about the information being presented. Regarding the #MeToo movement when it first began many headlines published that many of the women Weinstein sexually assaulted that these women enjoy partaking in BDSM/rough sex in their personal lives, in an attempt to justify Weinstein’s actions against them. This practice is wrong, however until these corporations are held accountable for these actions, they will continue this practice, nevertheless. This practice is very harmful to the fight against sexual assault/violence against women because these fake stories can deter women from reporting their abuser. This is a determent to the #MeToo movement because this is a movement that encourages women to report abuse, and their abusers. This is a serious issue that large corporations are using to discredit the #MeToo movement and to keep women in check. By not challenging the status quo by holding abusers accountable for their actions, women remain doormats in a man’s world. Since the government has also been proven to surveillance activism leaders, it will be a long road of fighting to make the government hold these companies accountable. It is very important that one can think about these fake headlines and decipher fake from real.
Social media is a wonderful tool that helps to connect people around the world. It has helped countless people achieve their dreams and has sparked a social justice revolution within young people that frequent these networking websites. Social media has plowed forward as the most common way that people, especially young people protest and organize social justice campaigns. Social media can also be a feeding ground for misinformation and lies, used by big corporations to discredit these movements and the individuals leading the charge to help maintain the status quo. It is important to think critically about the information being presented and if it is from a quality source not looking to spread misinformation and create fear. Social media has helped the fight sexual violence and assault against women by the creation of the #MeToo social justice campaign which has spread like wildfire since it first emerged in 2017. The #MeToo campaign against sexual violence and assault has been one of the most successful campaigns to date and showed the power that social media has, to change mainstream society for the better.
References
Mendes, K., Ringrose, J., & Keller, J. (2018). #MeToo and the promise and pitfalls of challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism. European Journal of Womens Studies, 25(2), 236–246. doi: 10.1177/1350506818765318
Thomson, K. (2018, June 12). Social Media Activism and the #MeToo Movement. Retrieved November 10, 2019, from https://medium.com/@kmthomson.11/social-media-activism-and-the-metoo-movement-166f452d7fd2
Valenzuela, S. (2013). Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), 920–942. doi: 10.1177/0002764213479375
Uldam, J. (2018). Social media visibility: challenges to activism. Media, Culture & Society, 40, 41–58. doi: 10.1177/0163443717704997
Youngs, G. (2014). Digital Transformations of Transnational Feminism in Theory and Practice. Oxford Handbooks Online, 858–870. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199943494.013.34
