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Rachel Loney-Howes describes the effect of social media as a “double-edged sword”

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Rachel Loney-Howes describes the effect of social media as a “double-edged sword”

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Do you agree with this analysis? What impact do you think social media/the digital world has had on anti-violence feminist movements?

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I agree with the analysis of social media as a "double-edged sword", because while it helps give a voice to people who might not otherwise be heard, critiquing social media has also become one of the main ways people push back against the MeToo movement which detracts from the movement's focus and main purpose. Social media has become an accessible way for survivors to share their stories, find community, and make their voices heard, and that is 100% progress in every way. However, the rhetoric surrounding social media is incredibly polarized -- many focus on its negative characteristics without seeing any positives, and so many critique the MeToo movement by pushing back against its method (social media) rather than paying any attention to its focus and greater purpose. I think social media is an incredible way to connect people and truly help make a larger impact, but it does give people a loophole to critique and detract from the focus of these movements.

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There are a lot of cultural trends that need to be changed in order to effectively fight against violence towards women (believing survivors, demanding equality, etc.)

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There are a lot of cultural trends that need to be changed in order to effectively fight against violence towards women (believing survivors, demanding equality, etc.)

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What demands do you think need to be prioritized when creating systems of community accountability?

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I think the demand that needs to be prioritized is believing survivors. Regardless of the demands for equality or restorative justice, progress will nonetheless be impaired if we don't as a culture shift towards believing women who come forward and abolish rhetorics of victim-blaming and blowing worries of "false accusations" way, way out of proportion. First and foremost we need to change the way we treat survivors by creating a safe space for people to continue coming forward, and that is the only way to begin getting a true handle on the problem. Assault goes underreported by a huge percentage because of the price of speaking out, and so no progress can truly be made until we begin to believe survivors above all else.

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Do you have any other questions or comments?

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Do you have any other questions or comments?

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This is a wall padlet.  To respond to a question, simply click on the plus sign at the top of the column. 

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This is a wall padlet.  To respond to a question, simply click on the plus sign at the top of the column. 

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Yes, I believe social media to be a double edged sword. It helps give a voice and an audience to victims of the me too movement. Also social media led to the spreading of the #metoo and people were able to find a community online of similar victims. This let women know they weren't alone and could contact each other for support. However, social media can be manipulated and social media can be fake. This means there's difficulties surrounding a movement that's based online. Additionally, social media is a place of constant ridicule and judgment/sexualization of women. As someone in the industry im aware of the flaws and the benefits of social media.

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I think absolutely there needs to be restorative justice, believing survivors, and there needs to be an end of victim blaming. Women who are victims are constantly blamed for their abuse, the infamous "what was she wearing" is especially common. For there to be reform to the systems in place to protect and end VAW and in society with its perception of VAW, these things need immediate action. Restorative justice can bring peace and justice to the victim without humiliation. Believing survivors can help spread awareness and scope of the issue as well, and make women feel heard and connected.

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I very much agree with this analysis. I think that social media and the internet in general have helped so much to give all people the voice to share their experiences and opinions, however this is the very double-edged sword that Loney-Howes describes. Just as these women can share their stories and gain some sense of community, other people can begin to use their stories without their consent or knowledge to fit a narrative. It also opens the door to people who would detract and demean the people sharing their lives (as we have seen so much since the explosion of social media). The effect that this has had on anti-violence feminism has been incredible. So many people have hopped on feminist movements and ideas only to hijack them for their own gains; social media makes it easier than ever for history to repeat itself.

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We read and know that this fight has been going on since (at least) the "second wave" era, with some advances in tactics and technologies, most notably the ideas of restorative or transformative justices and social media. Would you consider this movement/fight to have moved past its nigh obsession with incarceration as a solution in the mind of the general public or the average feminist? If not, how can we actively push for it to abandon those carceral roots?

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I think it’s hard to “demand” anything in this age of digital anonymity as there’s no sure way to change how people think and limiting what people can say online can be tricky even when those things are hateful and cause harm. However, I think somehow creating safe spaces where people can share their experiences in a more true consciousness raising like situation would be effective in encouraging more people to share their stories and reducing the stigma.

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I agree with Laney-Howes' argument that using social media as a platform to share your story is a "double edged sword". I have seen several times how cruel people in comments can be in response to someone sharing their story of sexual violence especially people already in the public eye. In addition to the hateful messages harming the person they’re aimed at, I feel it has created a culture where people feel unsafe using the internet as a form of consciousness raising.

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I definitely think it is a double-edged sword since in a lot of social media trends where activism and politics were thrown in, women become the center of the targets of both overvictimization and a lack of agency. And more time we make the survivors the center of the arguments without questioning the system of oppressions. At the same time problems like de-criminalization of sex work, which is way more nuanced than "anti-rape" or "me too", need more attention and a better way to be processed on social media.

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In the end of "The Politics of the Personal", Rachel calls for inclusion of more voices to be counted in any future movements especially containing "whose voices and personal experiences count, what constitutes rape and sexual assault, who perpetrates sexual violence and the underlying political causes of violence" (p. 32). What do people think are some methods we can use to achieve such a vision? And how social media can better/worse make us achieve/fail such a vision?

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When it comes to drawing attention to a cause that is largely hindered by gaslighting, victim-blaming, fears of sharing personal stories, and lots of vulnerability in general, social media can be a powerful mechanism through which these forces are mitigated—when people share instances of sexual assault online, they can quickly find others with similar stories and similar struggles, and connect with the people who make them feel related to or empathized with, however specific their instances may seem. In this way, it is easy to cultivate a shared community that extends across many physical regions. However, I agree with the analysis of social media being a double-edged sword in that

When people choose to share their stories online, subjecting themselves to scrutiny often how because people are more forward online and are willing to be harsher with their words. I think that while social media movements like #MeToo have allowed for more visibility towards sexual assault and have garnered this community of women who share the experience of sexual assault, it has also made them vulnerable to the exposure of denialists and gaslighting still, because of how much more public their issues are exposed to. Therefore, while this extra exposure allows for more sympathetic and relatable people to be reached, it has also reached the ears of those who may regress the movement by spreading hateful remarks online.

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The reading by Howes presented a tension between navigating the balance of approaching anti-rape activism a sa political versus personal matter. For example, it was brought up as a concern that by “heavily punish[ing] offenders from marginalized social and economic backgrounds,” it could result in sexual assault being regarded as an infrequent, extreme matter as opposed to a regular occurrence that is enabled through several societal norms and patriarchal climate. Checks and balances to ensure that there is equity in the approach to who is held responsible for their actions, as well as making sure we are not criminalizing particular instances but rather addressing a general patriarchal climate that facilitates the suppression of women’s sense of freedom. The reading discusses the existence of self-defense courses, as well as police rulings in Canada that resulted in women being told to dress more conservatively as well as be more equipped in general for sexual violence. While I agree that, as much as this should not be the case, women’s choice of dress and/or lack of self-defense devices are often correlated with how vulnerable they are towards sexual violence, I firmly believe that these should be irrelevant to their safety and wellbeing. Therefore, how do we navigate this balance between ensuring that women are protected without perpetuating the narrative that their risk of sexual violence is in their own hands and is their responsibility? Is there no way to separate these? Can we continue to equip women o protect themselves without creating the narrative that it is their job to do so and that sexual assault is inevitable and is n occurrence that must be surrendered to?