Feminism and Twitter: The Ambivalences of the Antisexist Twitter Campaign #aufschrei in Germany

• In Event: The Politics of Women's Campaigns and Spaces

Abstract

In Germany, the hashtag #aufschrei - in which experiences with everyday sexism had been collected and shared – forms a frequently used communicative space on Twitter. We are interested in the following questions: How is sexism on Twitter discussed? And which alternative publics are created by online feminist protest? Referring to theories of the public sphere which argue for a multiplicity of publics the article explores the role of online feminist protest movements in the construction of alternative meanings and counter-hegemonic voices. Subsequently, it presents findings from a content analysis of a sample of tweets on #aufschrei and of feminist blogs which have reported about #aufschrei. We elaborate that #aufschrei has been successful to raise social awareness in relation to a marginalized topic. However, the constant and increasing number of antifeminist and sexist messages on Twitter we found, show also that gender topics have to be defended and constantly newly established.

Authors

• Ricarda Drueeke, U of Salzburg

• Elke Zobl, U of Salzburg