Revisiting digital defense and Black feminism on social media

Digital Violence and Women: Systematization of Researchs and Suggestions for Future Research

“…Violence shows its face more in black, poor, helpless and immigrant women (Gonzalo, 2018;Boudiaf, 2019;Williams, 2021;Choi et al, 2022). There is a significant gap in the evidence regarding the prevalence, magnitude and forms of violence against certain groups of women, such as older women, those with disabilities, immigrants (Henry, Vasil, Flynn, Kellard and Mortreux, 2021;Sabri, Saha, Lee and Murray, 2022), indigenous and ethnic minorities, and trans women who may be at higher risk of violence (WHO, 2018;Sibrian, 2021;Taha-Thomure, Milne, Kavanagh and Stirling, 2022).…”

Shining the light: Black women thriving in graduate school

“…Likewise, technology has undoubtedly expanded access for Black women to attend graduate school and has created opportunities for digital counterspaces (Bertrand Jones et al., 2022). Black women have utilized social media networks to share information and disrupt problematic norms associated with their identities on an array of topics including breastfeeding (Robinson et al., 2019), activism (Williams, 2021), and mental health (Stanton et al., 2017). Navigating graduate school is no exception to this relatively recent phenomenon.…”

‘I wanna kill my rapist’: Margaret Cho’s #12DaysofRage campaign as promotional digital activism

“…Digital media is one of the cornerstones of 'fourth wave' feminism (Retallack et al, 2016), because it opened the door to more accessible forms of feminist movement organizing (Zheng, 2015) and wider distribution of feminist knowledge (Keller et al, 2018). Demographic groups typically dissuaded, if not at times outright barred, from more formal spaces of political participation, including young women (Flores et al, 2018;Harris, 2008;Sills et al, 2016), transgender people (Jackson, 2018), and Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC) (Jackson, 2016;Williams, 2015Williams, , 2016Williams, , 2021 are able to connect with other feminists forming communities of care and support (Click et al, 2015;Powell, 2015).…”

“…Williams (2015) argues that Black feminists use social media to fill the ‘gap in national media coverage of black women’s issues’ (p. 343). For instance, the hashtag #SayHerName, developed by legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw in 2014, brought much needed attention to ‘police violence against Black women’ (Williams, 2021, p. 2), when media was overwhelmingly concentrated on violence against Black men. Similarly, the hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick, started by Suey Park, an online social justice advocate shined a spotlight on the exclusion of Asian American Pacific Islanders from mainstream feminism (Kuo, 2016).…”

“…Celebrity activism is not a new phenomenon, but social media allows for celebrities to perform what Ellcessor (2018) calls connected celebrity activism, which is ‘ongoing, seemingly authentic, technology-facilitated performances that forge connections between a celebrity persona, projects, interactions, causes and activist organizations’ (p. 256). At the forefront of connected celebrity activism is building relationships with fans, adding a veneer of authenticity to their public persona (Williams, 2021).…”