Digitized narratives of sexual violence: Making sexual violence felt and known through digital disclosures

Abstract

In this article, we argue that social media platforms like Tumblr and Twitter have facilitated an emergence of "digitized narratives" of sexual violence. These narratives are rooted in historical ways in which feminists have discursively articulated sexual violence, yet are shaped by distinctive "platform vernacular" or the conventions, affordances, and restrictions of the platforms in which they appear. Drawing on a qualitative content and critical discourse analysis of 450 texts from the Tumblr site Who Needs Feminism? and the hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported, we argue that digital platforms such as Tumblr and Twitter produce new vernacular practices which shape how "digitized narratives" of sexual violence are not only disclosed and known, but felt and experienced across digital networks.

“I Definitely Did Not Report It When I Was Raped . . . #WeBelieveChristine #MeToo”: A Content Analysis of Disclosures of Sexual Assault on Twitter

“…The #MeToo movement and conversations about sexual assault are socially engaging (Manikonda et al, 2018) despite the associated negativity and stigmatizations; as such, people have a desire to be part of something that has received public attention (Mendes et al, 2018;Tippett, 2018;Tolentino, 2018;Zarkov & Davis, 2018). Experiences of sexual assault have been stigmatized as deserved misfortunes of women and men whose choices of clothing, flirting styles, and expressions of sexuality prompted attacks (Bletzer & Koss, 2004;Ikizer et al, 2019;Jackson et al, 2017;Mendes et al, 2019). The toxicity on Twitter that is directed toward women may also contribute to the absence of sexual explicitness within disclosure tweets (Hardaker & McGlashan, 2016), especially in comparison with the support or encouragements that are likely to be expected in selective interpersonal disclosures (Paul et al, 2014).…”

Hashtag narrative: Emergent storytelling and affective publics in the digital age

“…In recent years there have been attempts to address the specifically narrative elements of hashtag movements on Twitter, such as Yang’s (2016) study of narrative agency in the use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, and Giaxoglou’s (2018) sociolinguistic, discourse analytic approach to the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag as a resource for narrative stance-taking in which users become participatory tellers framing an event, an approach that ‘foregrounds narrative – rather than affect – as a circulatory drive for significant moments, which are nonetheless affectively invested’ (2018: 19). Mendes et al (2019) analyse how ‘digitized narratives’ of sexual violence are mediated and shaped by the affordances of particular social media platforms, and the affective experiences these produce and facilitate, including the role of hashtags as a ‘narrative and connective device’ which functions as a ‘placeholder’ for direct accounts of an experience (2019: 1302). Neil Sadler (2018), on the other hand, emphasizes narrative interpretation as a way of reading Twitter in relation to the Arab Spring, whereby the affordances of the platform provide ‘incipient narrativity’ that becomes transformed into coherent mental narratives through creative reading.…”

Gendered (in)visibility in digital media contexts

“…The feminist perspective on gende red digital visibility is represented by crit ical analyses of postfeminist gendered selfpresentations in social media (Bruce, 2016;Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018), research analyzing the potential and practice of dig ital feminist activism (ClarkParsons, 2018;Gabriel, 2016;Jackson, 2018;Jackson, Bai ley, & Foucault Welles, 2018;Linabary, Cor ple, & Cooky, 2019;Mendes et al, 2018;Myles, 2019;Pruchniewska, 2019;Turley & Fisher, 2018) and studies uncovering the threats to feminist activism such as on line harassment (Drakett, Rickett, Day, & Milnes, 2018;Massanari, 2017;VeraGray, 2017) and abuse (Eckert, 2018;Mendes, Keller, & Ringrose, 2019;StubbsRichard son, Rader, & Cosby, 2018).…”

“…Feminist activists can initiate counterdiscourses through subversion or denouncement of harmful social me dia content such as problematic memes (Drakett et al, 2018), sexism, and rape cul ture (Turley & Fisher, 2018). Disclosure of gendered power relations, e. g., sharing ex periences of sexual violence, can be seen as the first step to create new digital nar ratives on gender relations (Mendes et al, 2019). However, activism in online spaces such as #MeToo can have both simul taneously liberating (sharing experiences and finding community) and oppressing effects (through revictimization; Lina bary et al, 2019).…”