Voices Against Violence: Analysis of Media and Activist Responses to the 2012 Delhi Gang Rape

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 24. Violence Against Women Activism

Abstract

In this paper I examine the emergence of the internal dynamics of the wave of mobilization against rape, which spread with unprecedented magnitude throughout the country following a particularly brutal gang rape in New Delhi in December 2012. This research focuses on the discourse that emerged around this event in the local Indian media and on the ways in which women's activists were able to make their voices heard within this discourse. First, I explore the discourse that emerged on a prominent Indian television news station, NDTV, in the months following the tragic incident. I then investigate the role that actors from the women’s movement played in shaping discourse and drawing people to their cause. I found that the wave of mobilization brought together members of the public morally shocked by the sheer brutality of the Delhi gang rape, and connected them with activists who have long been mobilizing around issues of violence against women. It served as a window of opportunity in which women's activists and other actors in the movement could engage in contentious debate in traditionally male-dominated news spaces. These activists were able to bridge the frame of a single tragic incident to the larger frames of women’s freedom from fear, challenging patriarchal attitudes that permeate institutions throughout India.

Author

• Chiara Clio Packard, Reed College