The Speech Acts of #MeToo (original) (raw)
Related papers
Beyond Silence, Towards Refusal: The Epistemic Possibilities of #MeToo
APA Newsletter on Feminism, 2019
There are many ways to understand the meanings of the #MeToo movement. Analyses of its significance have proliferated in popular media; some academic analyses have also recently appeared. Commentary on the philosophical and epistemic significance of the #MeToo movement has been less plentiful. The specific moment of the #MeToo movement in which Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony garnered a widespread social media response from sexual violence survivors highlighted the power of a particular form of epistemic response, what I call ‘epistemic refusal.’ In breaking our silence, those of us who are sexual violence survivors have used this strategy to refuse the dominant epistemic structures that have kept us tightly in check. Mass informal disclosure of survivor status represented in conjunction with hashtags such as #MeToo, #WhyIDidntReport, and #BelieveHer creates space for epistemic, ethical, and political community between survivors of sexual violence by denying hegemonic epistemic discourses of contemporary rape culture. Regarding Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony and the social media response it garnered, analysis of three main elements proves particularly illuminating: the nature of mass informal disclosure of sexual violence, what the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport reveals about refusing silence, and what the hashtags #BelieveHer and #BelieveSurvivors can show us about what it takes to begin to overcome epistemic gaslighting.
He Said/She Said: Truth-Telling and #MeToo
"He Said/She Said: Truth-Telling and #MeToo" analyses how the conversation about sexual violence changed when millions of women worldwide raised their voices to say “Me Too.” It historicizes the #MeToo movement within feminist activism in communities of colour around sexual assault advocacy and in relation to Anita Hill's testimony in 1991 that Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her. The #MeToo moment offers a clear representation of the scale of sexual violence and presents a vivid example of the power of testimony to conjure a scene of witness through the power of truth-telling. Leigh Gilmore argues that truth-telling is dynamic and that survivor speech in the form of #MeToo has disrupted the routine minimization of women's accounts of harm into the "He said/She said" pattern.
Letting Silence Have a Voice in #MeToo
Sapiens, 2018
Storytelling plays a vital role in addressing sexual assault, but what of the safety and well-being of survivors—both those who speak out and those who don't?
The Epistemic Significance of #MeToo
Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 2020
In part I of this paper, I argue that #MeToo testimony increases epistemic value for the survivor qua hearer when experiences like hers are represented by others; for society at large when false but dominant narratives about sexual violence and sexual harassment against women are challenged and replaced with true stories; and for the survivor qua teller when her true story is believed. In part II, I argue that the epistemic significance of #MeToo testimony compels us to consider the tremendous and often unappreciated costs to the individual tellers, and the increased credibility they are owed in virtue thereof.
Graphic Witness: Visual and Verbal Testimony in the #MeToo Movement
New Feminist Literary Studies, 2020
, the status #MeToo was shared twelve million times on social media. 1 In response to allegations of sexual assault and rape directed at Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, an unprecedented virtual assembly emerged on social media that was public, voluntary, and global. By sharing the trending hashtag, anyone could add their presence to an emerging collective, thereby enabling it to grow through repetition across platforms and to visualise the scale of sexual violence. Like flipping on a light switch in a darkened room, #MeToo revealed what had always been there: sexual violence and abuse against women and girls (with men, non-binary, and trans survivors also sharing #MeToo). Yet because the scale of participation mapped anew the widespread, albeit widely known, existence of sexual abuse, what enabled #MeToo to transcend the impact of previous awareness-raising campaigns about the prevalence of sexual violence and translate internet virality into a new era of accountability? I will argue that accountability emerged through the verbal and visual representation of #MeToo as a graphic witness, which I define as testimony about sexual harassment, abuse, and violence rooted in feminist, intersectional activism by and on behalf of survivors. The #MeToo movement resonated within a long history of feminist activism and allied with other historical and contemporary social justice movements. As a practice of bearing witness, #MeToo is graphic in content because it concerns sexual violence, and graphic in form because images immediately became central to its uptake as justiceseeking rather than primarily awareness-raising, focused on accountability rather than exposing again a well-known problem, and connecting the dots from celebrity culture to everyday experiences of sexual abuse and histories of violence. Graphic witness makes these connections visible. In 2006, #MeToo was founded by Tarana Burke as a grassroots organisation. Burke chose those words in order to place shared experience and 25
2019
Sample…………………………………………………………………………………………. 144 herself, and tell her story exactly as she wants to, is nothing short of admirable. And for that, I thank her. I thank her for embracing the pain, terror, contradictions, and hope that all come with surviving sexual violence, because it gave me the words to describe so many complex emotions brewing within my soul, emotions I couldn't begin to understand before reading her book. Lastly, I need to thank my wonderful family for their infinite sacrifices that have made my education here at Dickinson possible. I never thought I would be in college, never mind writing a senior thesis that I would end up submitting for honors consideration. I am so proud of myself for getting here, but it does not escape me for one minute that it takes a village. So thank you to my village, my biggest supporters, the people I love most in this world.
Metoo Movement: Backlash or Rhetoric
Journal Space and Culture, India, 2024
Any form of sexual assault stems from the intersection of power, patriarchal structure and gender. While different countries take different measures to tackle cases of sexual assault, cases continue to rise like a pandemic. This study is a revisit to the # Metoo Movement that took the catbird seat in 2017 after Tarana Burke founded it in 2006. Although the #Metoo movement started with women calling out names of abusers, the movement was not confined to female voices alone. It helped expose the cases of sexual abuse across all genders. Taking examples of various instances of sexual assaults against gender across societies, committed under the bulwarks of power, domination and (or) patriarchy, and the newly emergent ways of exploitation of gender, such as Catfishing and Love Jihad, this communication aims to probe whether the #Metoo movement has faced backlash or is simply a rhetoric or both.
Good Survivor, Bad Survivor: #MeToo and the Moralization of Survivorship
American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy, 2019
An open access version of full article can be found here: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.apaonline.org/resource/collection/D03EBDAB-82D7-4B28-B897-C050FDC1ACB4/FeminismV19n1.pdf This article analyzes the issue at the heart of the viral social media “Me Too” campaign (#MeToo) that began in the fall of 2017: disclosure. Survivor disclosure is a key defining feature of the campaign that distinguishes it from other anti-violence campaigns—including Tarana Burke’s original version of Me Too. Unlike previous anti-violence campaigns, #MeToo relies exclusively on survivor disclosure to educate the general public about issues of sexual violence. This article examines how #MeToo’s reliance on disclosure has led to moral dilemmas for survivors, and a moralization of survivorship itself. Section I outlines the central features of both versions of the Me Too movement—Burke’s original version and the viral #MeToo version—paying careful attention to how #MeToo has departed from Burke’s original movement. Section II focuses specifically on the issue of disclosure in #MeToo. I argue that the impetus to disclose has created a moral hierarchy of survivors, with survivors who publicly disclose being given greater moral standing than survivors who remain silent. Finally, in section III I recommend #MeToo realign itself with the priorities of Burke’s original Me Too movement, which is to provide resources for survivor healing—especially survivors from marginalized communities. Ultimately, I argue that in order to be truly inclusive of all survivors, #MeToo must expand beyond mere disclosure.