#MeToo Movement: A Sociological Analysis of Media Representations

Journal Space and Culture, India, 2024

Any form of sexual assault stems from the intersection of power, patriarchal structure and gender. While different countries take different measures to tackle cases of sexual assault, cases continue to rise like a pandemic. This study is a revisit to the # Metoo Movement that took the catbird seat in 2017 after Tarana Burke founded it in 2006. Although the #Metoo movement started with women calling out names of abusers, the movement was not confined to female voices alone. It helped expose the cases of sexual abuse across all genders. Taking examples of various instances of sexual assaults against gender across societies, committed under the bulwarks of power, domination and (or) patriarchy, and the newly emergent ways of exploitation of gender, such as Catfishing and Love Jihad, this communication aims to probe whether the #Metoo movement has faced backlash or is simply a rhetoric or both.

#MeToo and the Politics of Social Change

2019

The Twitter hashtag #MeToo has provided an accessible medium for users to share their personal experiences and make public the prevalence of sexual harassment, assault, and violence against women. This online phenomenon, which has largely involved posting on Twitter and “retweeting” to share other’s posts has revealed crucial information about the scope and nature of sexual harassment and misconduct. More specifically, social media has served as a central forum for this unprecedented global conversation, where previously silenced voices have been amplified, supporters around the world have been united, and resistance has gained steam. This Essay discusses the #MeToo movement within the broader context of social media activism, explaining how this unique form of collective action is rapidly evolving. We offer empirical insights into the types of conversations taking place under the hashtag and the extent to which the movement is leading to broader social change. While it is unclear w...

Facta Universitatis, Series: Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and History, 2020

Facta Universitatis, Series: Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and History, 2021

Critics of the #MeToo movement claim that it has gone too far, that not enough hierarchies of abuse have been created to distinguish between the worst kinds of behaviors and those that are problematic but not criminal. The contention is that the #MeToo movement casts too wide a net. In this paper, I make an argument to the contrary: the #MeToo movement has not gone far enough in calling out the totality of abuse women, and some men, face daily. Left outside of the sexual harassment paradigm is gender-based sexual harassment that is not imbued with sexuality but nonetheless happens because of a person’s sex. I advance two related claims. First, the history of how we came to our current understanding of sexual harassment shows the sexualization of sexual harassment occurred because of political, legal, and practical reasons. Nothing confines us to our current view. Second, I argue against the position that sexual harassment is sui generis from gender-based harassment; rather, both ema...

Chartist for democratic socialism, 2018

As no Chartist reader can fail to have noticed, the last weeks of 2017 saw an eruption of condemnation and protest against sexual predators in the work place. Although it started in the US, this has become a global movement. The MeToo hashtag has trended in one version or another in a hundred countries and been posted many millions of times. Indeed, as I write, Time magazine has named the 'silence breakers' of the MeToo movement its 'Person of the Year' http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2017-silence-breakers/ and the Hollywood Golden Globe awards have bypassed movies associated with Weinstein productions.

Maria Marron's Misogyny Across Global Media Volume, 2020

Although the 2017 revival of the #MeToo campaign has received mass media praise, it’s direct contribution to the current social shift fighting for social and political justice has yet to be empirically documented. Did this campaign provide temporary catharsis further inhibiting enactment within the social and political spheres? Understandings of social media campaigns’ role in social action is still limited in the literature. Using Bowers, Ochs, & Jensen (1971) explanations of rhetoric of agitation and control, I analyze news and social media accounts of the #MeToo campaign activity and the possible unfolding of social actions or inactions, including planned and forthcoming public events or campaigns over the next few months. This paper will place #MeToo within the context of feminism rhetoric and socio-political change. This analysis contributes to our understanding of social media’s role in political action and the position of feminist discourse within the public rhetoric to end sexual abuse, assault, and exploitation.

In 2017, the Me Too campaign, founded ten years earlier to help women of color from low-income communities who were survivors of sexual violence, became a viral social media movement following allegations on Twitter by actress Alyssa Milano of sexual harassment and violence against the powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Using the hashtag #MeToo, Milano unwittingly mobilized millions of women to share their stories via social media, and the #Metoo movement subsequently helped to illuminate both the structural and individual aspects of sexual harassment and abuse by men against women within virtually all aspects of society. As the #MeToo movement swept the globe, millions of women shared stories of sexual harassment and abuse through social media platforms, and indictments of the “inappropriate behavior” against women gained center stage. To understand this movement today and how media made it possible, this study analyses the discussion about online media and social movements surrounding the 2019 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. In doing so, this research sheds light on the achievement and impact of the movement. Employing a mixed-method approach providing a feminist epistemological perspective on elements drawn from discourse analysis, comparative discourse analysis, content analysis, and critical discourse analysis, this thesis analyses a sample of ten online reports on how online mass media, and particularly social media, shapes movements for social change. It shows that online media is of great significance in constructing movements for social change because it facilitates the construction and dissemination of a social change discourse and influences how we determine which situations and actions constitute “sexual harassment.” This analysis further shows that feminist principles of gender equality, women’s sexual self-determination, and empowerment no longer define the politics of sexual harassment in the digital age.

2019

Sample…………………………………………………………………………………………. 144 herself, and tell her story exactly as she wants to, is nothing short of admirable. And for that, I thank her. I thank her for embracing the pain, terror, contradictions, and hope that all come with surviving sexual violence, because it gave me the words to describe so many complex emotions brewing within my soul, emotions I couldn't begin to understand before reading her book. Lastly, I need to thank my wonderful family for their infinite sacrifices that have made my education here at Dickinson possible. I never thought I would be in college, never mind writing a senior thesis that I would end up submitting for honors consideration. I am so proud of myself for getting here, but it does not escape me for one minute that it takes a village. So thank you to my village, my biggest supporters, the people I love most in this world.