Kaitlynn Mendes | University of Leicester (original) (raw)

Books by Kaitlynn Mendes

In 2005 a group of seven New Yorkers created the website Hollaback! as a way to combat the street... more In 2005 a group of seven New Yorkers created the website Hollaback! as a way to combat the street harassment they experienced regularly. The website quickly became a popular portal for girls and women to share photos and narrative accounts of gendered street harassment that had previously gone undocumented. Now active in 31 countries, Hollaback! has been crucial in shaming perpetrators, raising awareness, and encouraging both women and men to challenge street sexual harassment in diverse local communities.

In 2015, after being reprimanded for wearing a crop top to school, an Ontario teenager started the hashtag #CropTopDay to organize a protest day in which over 300 girls wore crop tops to school. The protest was used to challenge the ways girls’ bodies are policed and subject to gendered body-shaming (“slut-shaming”) in school settings. The teens used Twitter as both an organising tool and as a platform to circulate alternative narratives about school dress codes, producing a space where teenage girls were seen as feminist, activist, and political – identities they are often denied (Keller 2015; Kearney 2006; Harris 2004).

These are two examples of the innovative ways girls and women are using participatory digital media as activist tools to dialogue, network and organise in order to challenge sexism, misogyny and rape culture. In doing so, these activists expose, critique and educate the public about sexism and offer counter discourses to the “popular misogyny” that Sarah Banet-Weiser (2015) argues is increasingly prevalent in twenty-first century media culture. Yet, despite these often highly visible forms of activism and the growing body of research interested in digital feminist activism (Dimond et al. 2013; Horeck 2014; Puente 2011; Rapp et al. 2010; Rentschler 2014; Shaw 2011, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c; Thrift 2014), little research has yet to explore feminists’ experiences in using digital platforms to challenge on and offline misogynistic practices and dialogue, and none has attempted to collate these into a book-length project.

Digital Feminist Activism is the first book to explore how girls and women negotiate rape culture through the use of digital platforms, including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and mobile apps. Based upon a 21-month study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, this book explores three primary research questions: What experiences of harassment, misogyny and rape culture are girls and women responding to? How are girls and women using digital media technologies to document experiences of sexual violence, harassment, and sexism? And, why are girls and women choosing to mobilize digital media technologies in such a way? We address these questions through an analysis of the following five case studies:
• Hollaback! (anti-street harassment website)
• The Everyday Sexism Project (where users post instances of sexism)
• The Tumblr site Who Needs Feminism (where users create and post signs)
• Twitter anti-rape culture hashtag communities including #BeenRapedNeverReported, and #CropTopDay
• A diverse range of international self-defined ‘Twitter Feminists’ (women and some men) who use Twitter to challenge rape culture, which a specific focus on Teen feminists’ use of social media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook to challenge rape culture and misogyny both online but also inside the institutional space of schools.

In order to capture the experience of doing digital feminist activism, this project combines several methodological approaches, including qualitative content analysis, thematic textual analysis, and ethnographic methods such as in-depth interviews and close-observations of online communities. Across the five case studies listed above, we conducted interviews with over 50 girls and women from 9 countries (Canada, India, Ireland, Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, US, UK, and Venezuela), and have analysed eight hundred pieces of digital content, including blog posts, tweets, and selfies. In this sense, our methodological location is unique, drawing on traditions of “virtual ethnography” (Hine 2000 2015), “netnography” (Kozinets 2010) and “social media ethnography” (Postill and Pink 2012), while simultaneously considering questions of personal experience, power, and difference that anchor feminist research methodologies (Hesse-Biber 2012; Shaw 2013; Taft 2011; van Zoonen 1994). In this sense, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of how feminists can study digital media cultures that are often fluid, dispersed, and challenging to access as researchers.

Feminist Erasures presents a collection of original essays which examines the state of feminism i... more Feminist Erasures presents a collection of original essays which examines the state of feminism in North America and Western Europe. It focuses on a range of cultural and political contexts to interrogate the apathy toward, erasure of, and interventions in feminist discourse and analysis from popular and political culture. In providing a scholarly critique of feminism’s erasure from various social and political contexts, including news media, popular culture, labor, motherhood and feminist activism, this collection makes visible the systematic marginalization of women and women's rights in contemporary culture.

This is a four volume selection of key and current articles around Gender and the Media. It is di... more This is a four volume selection of key and current articles around Gender and the Media. It is divided into four parts:

Volume I (Body Counts)
Volume II (Representing Gender)
Volume III (Gender and Media Uses)
Volume IV (Occupational Status, Experience and Ownership)

SlutWalk: Feminism, activism & media provides the first extensive empirical analysis of how one m... more SlutWalk: Feminism, activism & media provides the first extensive empirical analysis of how one modern feminist campaign has been constructed in global news coverage, feminist media, and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. As a result, this study contributes to the continued “storying” of feminism – a project which seeks to understand how feminism has “come to be told and accepted” (Hemmings 2005) in particular cultural contexts.

Mediating Slutwalk is consequently an important intervention into modern day feminist activism, appearing at a time when no other books examine the relationship between feminist activism, mainstream, alternative and social media. "

Feminism in the News is a detailed exploration of how the women's movement, its members, and thei... more Feminism in the News is a detailed exploration of how the women's movement, its members, and their goals were represented in eight British and American newspapers between 1968 and 2008 – a period covering the height of the Second Wave, and a more contemporary Third Wave. Examining over 1100 news articles, the book analyses the nuanced ways feminism has historically been supported, marginalized and debated in the mainstream press.Mendes asks questions such as: How have feminists and the women's movement been historically represented over time and space? What problems and solutions have been provided regarding women's subordinate position in society? Who has the power to frame feminism and how do they do it? What is feminism seen to be fighting for today? In addition to tracing coverage over aforty year period, this book raises questions about the future of feminism, and what journalists and activists can do to help reclaim the F-Word.

Papers by Kaitlynn Mendes

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2018

On 24 th October 2017, the #MeToo hashtag began trending on Twitter.

The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism, 2013

Feminism in the News, 2011

This paper examines the ways in which girls and women are using digital media platforms to challe... more This paper examines the ways in which girls and women are using digital media platforms to challenge the rape culture they experience in their everyday lives; including street harassment, sexual assault, and the policing of the body and clothing in school settings. Focusing on three international cases, including the anti-street harassment site Hollaback!, the hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported, and interviews with teenage Twitter activists, the paper asks: What experiences of harassment, misogyny and rape culture are girls and women responding to? How are girls and women using digital media technologies to document experiences of sexual violence, harassment, and sexism? And, why are girls and women choosing to mobilize digital media technologies in such a way? Employing an approach that includes ethnographic methods such as semi-structured interviews, content analysis, discursive textual analysis, and affect theories, we detail a range of ways that women and girls are using social media platforms to speak about, and thus make visible, experiences of rape culture. We argue that this digital mediation enables new connections previously unavailable to girls and women, allowing them to redraw the boundaries between themselves and others.

... UK This book offers an evocative cross-cultural exploration into the everyday lives and music... more ... UK This book offers an evocative cross-cultural exploration into the everyday lives and music practices of young peo-ple ... E (C $109.00) TAURIS ACADEMIC STUDIES FEMINISM IN THE NEWS Representations of the Women's Movement Since the 1960s Kaitlynn Mendes An ...

... Research Institutes and Groups: Centre for Media Research. ID Code: 12125. Deposited By: Prof... more ... Research Institutes and Groups: Centre for Media Research. ID Code: 12125. Deposited By: Professor Maire Messenger Davies. Deposited On: 22 Feb 2010 09:40. Last Modified: 22 Feb 2010 09:40. Repository Staff Only: item control page.

Volume I (Body Counts)
Volume II (Representing Gender)
Volume III (Gender and Media Uses)
Volume IV (Occupational Status, Experience and Ownership)

European Journal of Women's Studies, 2018

On 24 th October 2017, the #MeToo hashtag began trending on Twitter.

The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Journalism, 2013

Feminism in the News, 2011

This paper presents the findings of a one-year study investigating children's perceptions of... more This paper presents the findings of a one-year study investigating children's perceptions of the British Broadcasting Corporation's news program Newsround and its website (Newsround is the UK's only children's television news program; it has been broadcast continuously since ...

Feminist Media Studies, 2012

This paper seeks to trace the ways in which the British suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was rep... more This paper seeks to trace the ways in which the British suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was represented in British national newspapers between 1913 - the year she died - and 2013. Davison was killed at the Epsom Derby in June when she ducked under the railings onto the racetrack and was fatally trampled by the king’s horse, dying from her injuries four days later. While Davison was mourned, commemorated and lionized as a “martyr,” “soldier” and a “fallen comrade” by the suffragette movement, elsewhere she was vehemently attacked as a lawless and deviant hysteric. While Elizabeth Crawford (2014) shows that commemorations of Davison reveal the various and competing ways she has been constructed in historical memory, June Purvis points to the continuing salience of the myth that Davison was “an unbalanced suicidal fanatic” (Purvis, 2005).

The granting of suffrage to women on equal terms to men is now broadly accepted as a legitimate, democratic and necessary historical development of the early twentieth century. However, the public celebration and commemoration of women’s suffrage occupies a considerably less privileged and visible place in British culture than ‘masculinist’ historical events. The somewhat uneasy and relatively marginal position the first wave feminist movement occupies within public memory points to the enduring ways in which women are “hidden from history” (Rowbotham, 1973), as well as the broader discursive context in which feminists are pilloried as “deviant” (see Mendes 2011, 2015).

While there is a relative wealth of scholarship on the alternative feminist press which was produced from within the ‘counterpublic’ sphere of the women’s suffrage movement, there is much less research on the representation of the movement in the mainstream press. In this paper, we will examine the shifting representations and historicizations of Emily Wilding Davison in four British newspapers – the Times, Guardian, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror – across ten decades. By paying attention to the framing of Davison, this article will offer important insights into how the women’s suffrage movement was discursively (de-)legitimized, supported or undermined by the mainstream press. Furthermore, by tracing these representations across time, it will present the ways in which Davison has been discursively figured and commemorated in different historical moments. We will plot these shifting representations against broader historical gender change, for example the second wave feminist movement of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as well as the ‘postfeminist’ period from 1990 onwards.

The research employs both content and discourse analysis; while the former allows us to chart the extent to which Davison has been visible (or not) across time, the latter allows us to consider the specific ways in which Davison has been constructed, as well as the political implications of this. The combination of these methods in our approach offers significant insights into how the public memory of the women’s suffrage movement has been constructed across time.

Over the past decade, all around the world, there has been a surge in feminist campaigns which em... more Over the past decade, all around the world, there has been a surge in feminist campaigns which emerge and take shape via a range of digital platforms. While examining the wide range of issues addressed in these campaigns, including sexism, misogyny, harassment, and a wider rape culture, it is clear that sexual violence is a prominent theme and popular rallying point for activists, even when these campaigns were not initially designed to address this theme. This paper draws from qualitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis to focus on narrative and discursive constructions of sexual assault in two case studies – the photo sharing Tumblr site Who Needs Feminism?, where participants post a photo of themselves holding a sign explaining why feminism continues to be relevant; and the hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported, which was established to challenge the dominant discourse that any ‘true victim of ‘legitimate’ sexual assault would of course report their assault to the authorities. In this paper, I argue that these digital platforms open-up an under-explored terrain for researchers interested in discourses around sexual assault. Furthermore, while some age-old narrative tropes have transferred themselves to the digital sphere, new vernacular practices are also emerging, shaped by the conventions, affordances and restrictions of the platforms in which they appear. At the same time, because of their popularity, and the new creative ways in which new narratives around sexual assault are able to emerge, it is clear that digital platforms provide a new, fruitful space in which researchers, and the wider public, can come to know about sexual assault.

Ever since the late 1960s when Virginia Slims cigarettes released their logo ‘You’ve come a long ... more Ever since the late 1960s when Virginia Slims cigarettes released their logo ‘You’ve come a long way, baby’, tapping into women’s liberationist tropes, scholars have been aware of the ways corporations have adopted feminist slogans and rhetoric to sell their products. While there is growing scholarly interest in the ways corporations promote ‘brand-led’ or ‘commodity activism’ (see Mukherjee and Banet-Weiser 2012), there is a surprising dearth of research on the other side of the coin - the ways activists are increasingly adopting slick PR and marketing strategies into their campaigns including, branding, commercialising, franchising, merchandising, and the increased use of celebrity icons.
Given the contemporary ‘hot-ness’ of feminism around the globe (Gill 2016), and the plethora of recent initiatives such as the global SlutWalk movement and the Women’s Marches in January 2017, this is a timely and fruitful space in which to apply theories from promotional and critical consumer studies. In this talk, I will outline a new theoretical account of what I term ‘brand feminism’, which attends to the ways feminist activists are increasingly drawing on corporate strategies to ‘brand’ their activism, using case studies such as SlutWalk, Hollaback!, and various women’s marches around the globe. While ‘framing’ (Entman 1993) may have been a key concept in the past to understand social change movements, I propose that as neoliberalism continues to gain global dominance, we need a new theoretical framework in which to understand the relationship between activism, promotional culture, and social change.

Keynote Talk delivered at the German Association of Communication Research. Cite as:

Mendes, K. (2017) ‘Brand Feminism: Promotional culture and contemporary feminist activism’ German Association of Communication Research, Frankfurt/Main, 6 October.

Report on findings from a 21-month project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH... more Report on findings from a 21-month project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Kaitlyn Mendes, Jessica Ringrose, Jessalynn Keller

Project aims:

Map out how and when rape culture, harassment, misogyny and sexual violence are occurring in on and offline spaces, and to explore and analyse feminist responses
To understand the experiences of girls and women who participate in this activism
To understand different levels or types or identifications with feminism and activism – from professional activists to amateur – those that say they can’t see what they do is ‘enough’ to qualify as activism
To document these feminist activist practices and experiences through the creation of a “living archive” of contemporary digital feminist activism