Roundtable: Gender-Based Violence and Social Media: The Online Feminist Counter-Public, Alternative Justice, and Backlash

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Online feminist activism against gender-based violence has created potential alternative justice options for survivors of sexual violence, particularly in terms of storytelling justice, public shaming, and offender accountability. Given the challenges in obtaining survivor-satisfactory results through engagement with the criminal justice system, these alternatives hold value and appeal for some survivors. At the same time, a wholly optimistic reading of social media’s capacity for providing justice opportunities is not warranted. The accessibility of social media spaces creates not only an environment for the activities of an online feminist counter-public, but also facilitates access to survivors for those who seek to re-victimize them. Online platforms thus hold the potential to be both supportive and hazardous to survivors who opt to disclose their experiences with sexual violence. This roundtable session will discuss the mechanisms and outcomes of survivor disclosures on social media. Support for both legal recourse and alternative justice from the online feminist counter-public will be discussed, as will the potential for backlash, particularly in terms of online gender-based violence.

Sub Unit

• Area XIII: Roundtable Sessions

Division of Special Interest

• Divisions of Special Interest / Division on Women & Crime

Individual Presentations

• Coping, Revenge, and Cybervictimization: Survivor Experiences With the Internet - Shelly Clevenger, ISU; Mia Gilliam, Indiana University

• “Sending my love to #Kesha, I know how you feel”: Celebrity, Sexual Violence, and the Online Feminist Counter-Public - Christopher Worden, University of Guelph

• Navigating Justice: Digital Technologies, Counter-Publics, and Survivor Responses to Sexual Assault - Anna Gjika, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY

• The Normalization of Stalking: Twitter and Social Media “Stalking” - Jennifer Meneray, The George Washington University

• Technology-Based Violence Against Women: Responses to Online-Harassment, Cyber-Stalking, Image Based Abuse and Other Types of Cyber-Aggression - Alison J. Marganski, Le Moyne College