The Politics of Protest and Gender: Women Riding the Wings of Resistance

Abstract

The #MeToo movement, from its creation by activist Tarana Burke back in 2006 to its explosion on social media during the 2017 Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations, has continuously propagated images of gendered resistance from around the globe. In South Korea, Poland, Mexico, Bangladesh, and more, large numbers of women protest a variety of gendered topics: from unjust rulings in cases of domestic violence, to the lack of reproductive rights, to femicide, to inaction by law enforcement on cases of stalking, harassment, or sexual assault, and more. These images clearly demonstrate that public resistance is dominated by women, even in societies that are seen to traditionally subjugate women—though this is not new, and women have always been involved in resistance even when there was no way to document their participation. However, in countries where conservative institutions, public opinion, and government policy that contribute to gender inequality are paired with punitive action for opposition, women face a higher risk of being punished, ostracized, or brutalized for their resistance. In Thailand, a military state with perhaps the strictest lèse majesté laws in the world, activists are frequently fined, imprisoned, kept under surveillance, disappeared, or forced to flee. Despite this, Thailand experiences frequent surges of public resistance, dominated by youth and overwhelmingly by women. Since February 2020, a large portion of the Thai population, consisting primarily of students, has taken to public demonstrations demanding a fair democracy and constitutional reform, joined together in exasperation over an uncertain future, a crippling economy, an untouchable elite, and a rigged election. In this now years-long movement, fueled by global support and sophisticated protest tactics learned from watching Hong Kong, we observe the inclusion of gendered protest topics and demands by Thai women and girls. This paper demonstrates how Thai women utilize the movement to demand progress in gendered areas by examining examples taken throughout the 2020 pro-democracy protest movement, with the overall objective of contributing to understanding the relationship between public resistance and feminism.