"Bailey Parnell & Tesni Ellis Slut Shaming, Victim Blaming and Sexual Harassment on Social Media This session will discuss the forms of violence against women, and projects that seek to combat such violence that take place in the online world. The talk will discuss rape culture and the forms of harassment that women and youth experience online, from threatening trolls to discourses that blame victims of sexual assault to women in the gaming industry. We will also look at feminist projects and trends that use social media to educate, rally and combat the harassment experienced both online and offline, including groups like SlutWalk, the Everyday Sexism Project and trends like #YesAllWomen and #BeenRapedNeverReported. Join us as we discuss rape culture’s presence on social media and contemplate methods to change the cultural consciousness. With Bailey Parnell and Tesni Ellis, Ryerson Student Affairs Creative Unit. ASL provided. If you require any other accommodations, please let us know."

1. Slut-Shaming, Victim
Blaming, and Harassment
on Social Media
25th Anniversary | Montreal Polytechnique Massacre
December 6th | Canada’s National Day of Remembrance
and Action on Violence Against Women
@BaileyParnell
@TesniEllis

2. Trigger Warning
The following presentation discusses sexual assault and rape,
victimization, and violence against women in descriptive terms
and images.

3. Who are we?
@TesniEllis @BaileyParnell

4. What is all this stuff?
Slut-Shaming
The act of making a person, especially
women and trans folks, feel guilty or
inferior for their (perceived) sexual
behaviours, circumstances or desires.
Slut-shaming is a form of exercising social
control over women and trans folks’
bodies and behaviours.

5. Slut-Shaming

6. What is all this stuff?
Victim-Blaming
Victim blaming is a devaluing act
where the victim of a crime, an
accident, or any type of abusive
maltreatment is held as wholly or
partially responsible for the wrongful
conduct committed against them.

7. Victim-Blaming

8. What is all this stuff?
(Online) Harassment
Harassment is a form of discrimination. It involves any unwanted
physical or verbal behaviour that offends or humiliates you.
Generally, harassment is a behaviour that persists over time.
Serious one-time incidents can also sometimes be considered
harassment. Harassment occurs when someone:
● Makes unwelcome remarks or jokes about your race,
religion, sex, age, disability or any other of the 11 grounds
of discrimination.
● Threatens or intimidates you.
● Makes unwelcome physical contact with you, such as
touching, patting, pinching or punching, which can
also be considered assault.

9. Online Harassment

10. How common is this?

11. How common is this?

12. How common is this?

13. How common is this?
93.1% CONVERSATIONAL (actual conversational
usage)
6.9% COMMENT (commenting on usage of these words)

14. How common is this?
MOST HOSTILITY
➔ Female journalists
➔ Male celebrities
➔ Male politicians
BUT...
➔ Women are targeted specifically because of their gender
➔ Men are overwhelmingly those doing the harassing
DISPROPORTIONATELY TARGETED
➔ Women of colour
➔ Members of the LGBT community

15. Why does it matter?
Rape culture affects all of us
We’re all on social media
It reflects broader societal behaviours and thoughts
Creating and reproducing unsafe spaces
You can be the change

16. Social Media

17. Social Media

18. Social Media
OPPORTUNITY OPPRESSION

19. Social Media
SYMPTOM DISEASE

20. Slut Shaming & Victim Blaming
Real world impacts:
the online and offline
are connected
“She asked
for it.”
“She should
have said
no.”
Innocent until
proven guilty?
Privilege:
class and
race
Reproducing oppression:
controlling/limiting women’s bodies,
choices, and behaviours

21. Slut Shaming & Victim Blaming

22. Slut Shaming & Victim Blaming
Real world impacts:
the online and offline
are connected
“She asked
for it.”
“She should
have said
no.”
Innocent until
proven guilty?
Privilege:
class and
race
Reproducing oppression:
controlling/limiting women’s bodies,
choices, and behaviours

23. Slut Shaming & Victim Blaming
Slut shaming has been going on for
centuries but now there’s a new tool
– instead of shaming hussies in the
town square there are thousands of
Facebook and web pages literally
called “exposing hos.”
- 16 year old Temitayo Fagbenle

24. Slut Shaming & Victim Blaming
Steubenville, Ohio Rehtaeh Parsons Amanda Todd

25. Online Harassment
Women are being driven out; they’re being driven offline. This isn’t just in
gaming. This is happening across the board online...So the harassment
actually has a very real effect on us as a society, in terms of making this
space unwelcoming for women.
Anita Sarkeesian

26. Online Harassment
Online harassment, especially gendered
online harassment, is an epidemic.
Anita Sarkeesian

27. Online Harassment: Cyber Misogyny
Women have long been controlled through violence and
some people derive benefits from that fact that they are
loathe to give up. Bullies and abusers who thrive in our
culture where many insist violence against girls and
women - real or implied - isn't a big deal, that we're
exaggerating and should stop complaining. Who does this
approach serve? Bullies and abusers. The violent and
gender-specific aspects of the online harassment and
threats are qualitatively and quantitatively different from
other common forms of trolling and abuse because they
take place in a world where violence and rape are
pervasive, real and epidemic.”
- Soraya Chemaly

28. Why Social Media?
Reach
Immediacy
Anonymity
Slow response from networks
Sparks offline campaigns

29. Social Media

30. Using Social Media to Combat
#FBRape #YesAllWomen
Everyday
Sexism Project
#BeenRapedNeverReported
Bye Felipe

31. #FBRape
Targeting Facebook,
using Twitter
Next up: Twitter’s
abuse reporting
policies

32. Everyday Sexism Project

33. #YesAllWomen

34. Bye Felipe
“This is just a
symptom of a
larger
problem...Until we
change the
cultural
atmosphere,
women will
continue to
receive these
hurtful messages
online and in real
life.” - Bye
Felipe’s creator

35. #BeenRapedNeverReported
“Because I had been drinking, and didn’t remember everything.”
“Because even my ‘friends’ told me I shouldn’t cause I would ruin HIS life.”
“Didn’t know I could say because I was sixteen and he was my boyfriend.”
“Because when you’re young and no one really believes you anyway.”

36. Current Campaigns to Follow

37. Where do we go from here?
Not a social media problem, but a people problem
Reproducing and reinforcing oppressive spaces that
already exist offline
Connects to the broader discussion of gender roles
More guidelines and policies from social networks

38. Where do we go from here?

39. Questions?

40. Tweet Us!
@TesniEllis @BaileyParnell

41. “The Unsafety Net: How Social Media Turned Against Women” by Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/10/the-unsafety-net-how-social-media-turned-against-women/
381261/
“Sorry, we haven’t reached a ‘watershed’ on violence against women” by Denise Balkissoon
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/sorry-we-havent-reached-a-watershed-on-violence-against-women/
article21452668/?utm_source=Shared+Article+Sent+to+User&utm_medium=E-mail:+
Newsletters+/+E-Blasts+/+etc.&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links
Demos Report: Misogyny on Twitter
http://www.demos.co.uk/files/MISOGYNY_ON_TWITTER.pdf?1399567516
Cyber Bullying by Christopher Palmeri http://www.bloombergview.com/quicktake/cyberbullying
“After arrest, let’s not forget lessons of Jian Ghomeshi affair” by Emma Healey
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/11/26/after_arrest_lets_not_forget_lessons_of_jian_ghome
shi_affair.html
“Sexual Cyberbullying: The Modern Day Letter A” by Temitayo Fagbenle http://www.wnyc.org/story/259398-
sexual-cyberbullying-modern-day-letter/
Everyday Sexism Project: https://twitter.com/EverydaySexism
PEW Research Centre “Online Harassment” report
http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/10/PI_OnlineHarassment_102214_1.pdf
Resources