Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Online Feminist Activism as Performative Consciousness-Raising: A #MeToo Case Study

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
#MeToo and the Politics of Social Change

Abstract

This chapter reasons that feminist activism and discussion in online spaces are a valid and worthwhile form of contemporary consciousness-raising and a specific, and valuable, way of performing feminist identity and activism. Firstly, the chapter examines the importance of feminist activism in social media spaces by using #MeToo as a case study. Secondly, it conceptualizes participation in online feminist campaigns such as #MeToo as a specific type of performance, namely, one of identity, gender, and storytelling. The chapter argues that this type of performance enables people to express and evaluate their feelings around shared and lived experiences such as those expressed within the #MeToo hashtag.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Consciousness-raising has never been an activity exclusive to feminists alone. Liberal movements of the 1960s also encompassed consciousness-raising as a tactic, including gay men’s organizations (Weeks, 2007) and civil rights campaigns (Behrent, 2013; Evans, 1979; Lasch-Quinn, 2002). The use of consciousness-raising more broadly can be seen as a consequence of the structural nature of oppression and disempowerment: although the experiences of women, gay men, and people of colour were different in nature, they each owed their oppressions to structures of domination, violence, and discrimination.

  2. 2.

    ‘The online space as a player’ merges both Richard Schechner’s and Mady Schuman’s (1976) performance theory concept (that posits we must consider the affect of space/environment when analysing performance and performativity) and Michel Callon (1986) and Bruno Latour’s (1999) actor network theory (which asserts that everything in the social and natural worlds exist in constantly shifting networks of relationship). We contend that platforms like Twitter shape what people say and disclose: not necessarily deliberately but even an element such as a character limit actively affects what is said and how it is said.

  3. 3.

    Each of the tweets used in this chapter was gathered in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the Association of Internet Researchers (2012).

  4. 4.

    A ‘thread’ on Twitter has been defined by the platform as ‘a series of connected Tweets from one person…[designed to] provide additional context, an update, or an extended point’ (Twitter, 2018b).

References

  • Altinay, R. E. (2014). ‘There is a massacre of women’: Violence against women, feminist activism, and hashtags in Turkey. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1102–1103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, W. K. Z., & Grace, K. E. (2015). “Taking mama steps” toward authority, alternatives, and advocacy: Feminist consciousness-raising within a digital motherhood community. Feminist Media Studies, 15(6), 942–959.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Association of Internet Researchers. (2012). Ethical decision making and internet research 2.0: Recommendations from the AoIR ethics working committee. Retrieved December 20, 2018, from https://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf.

  • Austin, J. (1955). How to do things with words (2nd ed., William James lectures; 1955). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behrent, M. (2013). When the personal became political: First-person fictions and second-wave feminism. Dissertation. University of New York. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/indexinglinkhandler/sng/au/Behrent,+Megan/$N?accountid=13552.

  • Brown, B. (2007). I thought it was just me (but it isn’t): Making the journey from ‘what will people think?’ to ‘I am enough’. New York, NY: Avery.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. A. (2018). #wheresRey: Feminism, protest, and merchandising sexism in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Feminist Media Studies, 18(3), 335–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruley, S. (2013). Consciousness-raising in Clapham: Women’s liberation as ‘lived experience’ in South London in the 1970s. Women’s History Review, 22(5), 717–738.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callon, M. (1986). The sociology of an actor-network: The case of the electric vehicle. In M. Callon, J. Law, & A. Rip (Eds.), Mapping the dynamics of science and technology: Sociology of science in the real world (pp. 19–34). Houndmills, UK: Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, K. K. (1999). The rhetoric of women’s liberation: An oxymoron. Communication Studies, 50(2), 125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CBS. (2017). More than 12M ‘MeToo’: Facebook posts, comments, reactions in 24 hours. CBS. Retrieved June 27, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/metoo-more-than-12-million-facebook-posts-comments- reactions-24-hours.

  • Clark, C. (2015). #TrendingFeminism: The impact of digital feminist activism. Masters dissertation. The George Washington University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubriwny, T. N. (2005). Consciousness-raising as collective rhetoric: The articulation of experience in the Redstockings’ abortion speak-out of 1969. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 91(4), 395–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenstein, H. (2001). Raising consciousness, eyebrows, and hell. Science & Society, 65(1), 145–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, S. M. (1979). Personal politics: The roots of women’s liberation in the civil rights movement and the new left. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1990/1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregson, N., & Rose, G. (2000). Taking Butler elsewhere: Performativities, spatialities and subjectivities. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 18(4), 433–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanisch, C. (1970). The personal is political. In S. Firestone & A. Koedt (Eds.), Notes from the second year: Women’s liberation (pp. 76–77). New York, NY: New York Radical Women.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harp, D., Grimm, J., & Loke, J. (2018). Rape, storytelling and social media: How Twitter interrupted the news media’s ability to construct collective memory. Feminist Media Studies, 18(6), 979–995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. (2000). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Cambridge: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kangere, M., Kemitare, J., & Michau, L. (2017). Hashtag activism: Popularizing feminist analysis of violence against women in the Horn, East and Southern Africa. Feminist Media Studies, 17(5), 899–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (2017). #iamafeminist as the ‘mother tag’: Feminist identification and activism against misogyny on Twitter in South Korea. Feminist Media Studies, 17(5), 804–820.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lasch-Quinn, E. (2002). Liberation therapeutics: Consciousness-raising as a problem. Society, 39(3), 7–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (1999). On recalling ANT. In J. Law & J. Hassard (Eds.), Actor network theory and after (pp. 15–25). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loken, M. (2014). #BringBackOurGirls and the invisibility of imperialism. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1100–1101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long, J. (2015). The oppression that dare not speak its name? Silences around heterosexuality in contemporary feminism. In M. Kiraly & M. Tyler (Eds.), The freedom fallacy: The limits of liberal feminism (pp. 145–152). Ballarat: Connor Court Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loss, C. P. (2011). ‘Women’s studies is in a lot of ways—Consciousness raising’: The educational origins of identity politics. History of Psychology, 14(3), 287–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, C. E., & Valenti, V. (2012). #FemFuture: Online revolution. New Feminist Solutions, 8, 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Megarry, J. (2017, October 30). Why #metoo is an impoverished form of feminist activism, unlikely to spark social change. The Conversation. Retrieved June 27, 2018, from https://theconversation.com/why-metoo-is-an-impoverished-form-of-feminist-activism-unlikely-to-spark-social-change-86455.

  • Mendes, K., Ringrose, J., & Keller, J. (2018). #MeToo and the promise and pitfalls of challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25(2), 236–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pilcher, J., & Whelehan, I. (2004). 50 key concepts in gender studies. London: Sage Publications.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Portwood-Stacer, L., & Berridge, S. (2014). Introduction. The year in feminist hashtags. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1090.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renkl, M. (2017, October 19). The raw power of #MeToo. New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/opinion/the-raw-power-of-metoo.html.

  • Rentschler, C. A. (2017). Bystander intervention, feminist hashtag activism, and the anti-carceral politics of care. Feminist Media Studies, 17(4), 565–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rentschler, C. A., & Thrift, S. C. (2015). Doing feminism in the network: Networked laughter and the ‘Binders Full of Women’ meme. Feminist Theory, 16(3), 329–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ricker, D. (2018). #MeToo movement spurs national legal response. ABA Journal, 104(3), 10–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, B. (1992). Feminism and the women’s movement: Dynamics of change in social movement ideology, and activism. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarachild, K. (1968). A program for feminist consciousness raising. First National Women’s Liberation Conference. Retrieved June 27, 2018, from http://rhetoricalgoddess.wikia.com/wiki/Kathie_Sarachild:_%22A_Program_for_Feminist:_Consciousness_Raising%22.

  • Schechner, R., & Schuman, M. (1976). Ritual, play, and performance: Readings in the social sciences/theatre. New York, NY: Seabury Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shreffler, M., Hancock, M., & Schmidt, S. (2016). Self-presentation of female athletes: A content analysis of athlete avatars. International Journal of Sport Communication, 9(4), 460–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sowards, S. K., & Renegar, V. R. (2004). The rhetorical functions of consciousness-raising in third wave feminism. Communication Studies, 55(4), 535–552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, S. C. (2014). #YesAllWomen as feminist meme event. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1090–1092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Twitter. (2018a). Sign up. Retrieved June 27, 2018, from https://twitter.com/i/flow/signup.

  • Twitter. (2018b). How to create a thread on Twitter. Retrieved December 4, 2018, from https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/create-a-thread.

  • USA Today. (2018, February 20). How common is sexual assault in Hollywood? USA Today. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/02/20/how-common-sexual-misconduct-hollywood/1083964001/.

  • Weeks, J. (2007). Gay left: An overview by Jeffrey Weeks. Retrieved October 25, 2015, from http://gayleft1970s.org/intro.asp.

  • Williams, S. (2015). Digital defense: Black feminists resist violence with hashtag activism. Feminist Media Studies, 15(2), 1–3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jessamy Gleeson & Breanan Turner

Authors
  1. Jessamy Gleeson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Breanan Turner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jessamy Gleeson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Bianca Fileborn

  2. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Rachel Loney-Howes

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gleeson, J., Turner, B. (2019). Online Feminist Activism as Performative Consciousness-Raising: A #MeToo Case Study. 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_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15213-0_4

  • Published:

  • 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)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation