Before #MeToo: Violence against Women Social Media Work, Bystander Intervention, and Social Change

Jordan Fairbairn

doi:10.3390/soc10030051

Abstract

High-profile, social-media-fueled movements such as #MeToo have captured broader public attention in recent years and sparked widespread discussion of violence against women (VAW). However, online prevention work was underway in the years leading up to #MeToo, as the emergence and proliferation of social media enabled individuals to be increasingly active participants in shaping conversations about VAW. Situated within feminist VAW scholarship and the social–ecological framework of violence prevention, this paper draws from interviews with a cross-section of service providers, public educators, activists, advocates, writers, and researchers to analyze “conversation” as a central theme in VAW prevention work in social media. Results reveal that these conversations take place in three central ways: (1) engaging wider audiences in conversations to raise awareness about VAW; (2) narrative shifts challenging societal norms that support or enable VAW; and (3) mobilization around high-profile news stories. The paper finds that, through these conversations, this work moves beyond individual-level risk factors to target much needed community- and societal-level aspects, primarily harmful social norms that circulate and become reinforced in digital media spaces. Moreover, while bystander intervention has traditionally been approached as an offline pursuit to intervene in face-to-face situations of VAW, this paper argues that we can understand and value these VAW prevention efforts as an online form of bystander intervention. Finally, resource challenges and VAW prevention workers’ experiences of harassment and abuse related to their online work highlights a need to strengthen social and institutional supports for this work.

Highlights

The emergence and proliferation of social media has made it a critical tool for public mobilization about violence against women (VAW)
While bystander intervention has traditionally been approached as an offline pursuit to intervene in face-to-face situations of VAW, this paper argues that we can understand and value social media-based efforts as a form of online bystander intervention that moves beyond individual-level risk factors to target community- and societal- level risk factors such as harmful social norms that circulate and become reinforced in social media
Social media is an important space for many pre-social media violence prevention strategies such as raising awareness of VAW as a social problem and challenging sexist and misogynistic attitudes

Summary

Introduction

The emergence and proliferation of social media has made it a critical tool for public mobilization about violence against women (VAW). This became visible in 2017, where the explosion of the #MeToo movement (founded by activist Tarana Burke in 2006) drove exponential growth in awareness about women’s experiences of sexual violence [1]. While there is still much to be done to pursue structural change [1,2], the #MeToo movement has been a pivotal time for consciousness-raising and engaging wider audiences in conversations about sexual violence [3]. (pp. 236–237) explain: #MeToo is perhaps one of the most high-profile examples of digital feminist activism we have yet encountered, it follows a growing trend of the public’s willingness to engage with resistance and challenges to sexism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression via feminist uptake of digital communication.

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