Toward Mainstreaming of Feminist (Counter)Publics? The Networked Structure of Feminist Activism on Twitter

Abstract

This study investigates the roles of feminist actors in the Twitter discourse about sexualized violence that came up during the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in October 2018. We theorize the discourse from the perspective of feminist counterpublics because it helps in understanding the extant power relations in public debate that are also manifest in digital networks. In this empirical study, we reconstruct the Twitter network discourse about the judge’s confirmation and examine the role of feminist actors and their counterpublic characteristics. Our findings indicate that the discourse network was highly polarized, but feminist voices were well integrated within the (progressive) center. Although feminists acted in the role of challengers seeking the attention of established political actors and news media, they did not remain isolated. Instead, they positioned themselves in the center of the progressive network and therefore influenced the general public discourse.