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Digital Feminist Activism: #MeToo and the Everyday Experiences of Challenging Rape Culture

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#MeToo and the Politics of Social Change

Abstract

This chapter explores the experiences of those who have used #MeToo and associated hashtags. Gathered through an online open-ended survey, we showcase the complexities involved in participating in digital resistance to gender and sexual violence. Significantly, this chapter intervenes in public discourses that deride movements such as #MeToo for being a form of ‘slacktivism.’ Indeed, we showcase the ways participating in hashtags such as #MeToo enables individuals to understand their experiences as part of wider structural problems of sexual violence, and thus acts as a low-barrier entry point for other types of feminist activism and a more robust feminist politics, as well as contributing to and potentially shifting wider public discussions about sexual harassment, abuse, and violence.

The world should know that we face harassment everywhere.

—MeToo Survey Respondent

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Kaitlynn Mendes

  2. UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK

    Jessica Ringrose

Authors
  1. Kaitlynn Mendes
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  2. Jessica Ringrose
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Correspondence to Kaitlynn Mendes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Bianca Fileborn

  2. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Rachel Loney-Howes

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Mendes, K., Ringrose, J. (2019). Digital Feminist Activism: #MeToo and the Everyday Experiences of Challenging Rape Culture. In: Fileborn, B., Loney-Howes, R. (eds) #MeToo and the Politics of Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15213-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15213-0_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15212-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15213-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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