Digital Dilemmas Conference August 2016

1. (Re)Centering Minoritized Voices:
Social Media and Intersectional
Sexual Violence Activism
Chris Linder, PhD
University of Georgia, College of Education
Digital Dilemmas Conference, University of Waterloo
August 6, 2016
Thanks to Jess Myers, University of Maryland-Baltimore County;
Marvette Lacy, University of Georgia; and Colleen Riggle, Georgia
Institute of Technology for their contributions to the project as
members of the research team.

2. Assumptions & Foundations
• Informed by my salient identities: highly
educated, queer, white cis woman from
working-class background in the US.
• Sexual violence is a tool of power and
control.
• Sexual violence is highly racialized and
gendered.

3. Historical Context for Sexual
Violence Activism
• Myth: Sexual violence activism largely emerged in
the consciousness-raising days of second wave
feminism.
– Fact: Black women have been organizing around
sexual violence, from an intersectional perspective,
for hundreds of years (Giddings, 2007; Freedman, 2013; McGuire, 2010).
• Myth: Activists on college campuses have
historically led sexual violence organizing.
– Fact: Sexual violence activism largely emerged from
grassroots, community-based organizing, led by
working class and women of color (Bevacqua, 2000; Incite,
2006).

4. Sexual Violence Activism on Campuses
• Since 2014, increased attention to sexual assault
on campuses:
– Know Your IX
– End Rape on Campus
– White House Task Force
• Power and identity-”neutral,” woman-focused:
– Heavy focus on enforcement & compliance
– Excessive focus on (woman) victims and potential
victims rather than perpetrators or potential
perpetrators
– Invisibilization of white male perpetrators
– Rare mention of sexual violence directed toward
trans* people and men and same-sex sexual assault

5. Identity & Activism
• Responsibility, survival, or “burden,” not
activism (Linder & Rodriguez, 2012, p. 388)
• Non-intersectional (urgency, pain &
trauma, media)
• Administrators/educators privilege
service-learning and leadership over
identity-based activism
• Access to resources (time, money,
networks) (Altbach, 1989; Rhoads, 1997)
• Differential consequences for activism
(Linder, 2015)

6. Social Media & Activism
• Amplifies voices previously ignored (Bonilla
& Rosa, 2015; Yang, 2007)
• Creates space for connecting, community-
building, and healing (Conley, 2014; Rapp et al.,
2010; Williams, 2015)
• ....also additional space for hatred, bigotry,
and harm
• “mundane internet tool” (Nielsen, 2013, p. 173)

7. Current Study & Focus
• Overall Research Questions:
– What are the strategies of campus sexual
assault prevention and response activists?
– What role does social media play campus
activism?
• Power-conscious, Intersectional
examination

8. Methodology & Methods
• Internet-related ethnography (Postill &
Pink, 2012)
• Prolonged engagement online
– Know your IX (Facebook & Twitter)
– End Rape on Campus (Facebook)
– Surviving in Numbers (Facebook & Tumblr)
– HuffPost Sexual Assault Month
– Evernote Collection of News Articles
– White House Listening Sessions
• Interviews with Activists
– January-July 2014

11. Social Media as a Tool
• Intentionally Shaping Messages
(Amplifying Voices)
• Raising Awareness
• Connecting with other Activists &
Survivors
• Reducing Power Dynamics

12. Increasing Awareness

13. Connection

14. Reduce Power Dynamics

15. So you believe that the only kind of real activism
involves putting your body and your life on the line?
That’s something that’s not really available to all people
and so the ability to step out into daylight and define
yourself as a survivor with whatever that term means to
you means that you ... [likely come] from an upper class
background, from a white background where you're like,
yeah, “I can say that about myself and I can claim these
experiences for me and no one is going to look at me
twice about it. I can say that I’m a survivor” and nobody
is going to say, “no, you're not.” You want to know
what that means? That means being a white,
cisgendered, straight woman who experiences an
opposite sex assault.
- Peter

16. And if we're talking about at risk communities,
marginalized communities, communities that have
been historically marginalized are not welcomed
into the same spaces and so to a lot of people the
only thing that they have access to and the only way
that they are able to participate is through social
media because of that anonymity that’s allowed that
isn't allowed for if you put your name to it…It's the
same as an international student not being able to
speak up for fear of losing their visa status, it's the
same as a trans person not wanting to speak up to
have to then come out, same with a queer person.
-Peter

17. Power, Identity, & Intersectionality
• Negotiating Disclosure of Personal
Identities
– Peter & Lynn
• Continuum of Understanding of
Intersectionality
– Textbook, cursory understanding to nuanced,
complex understanding and lived experiences
• Varied Commitment to Addressing Power
– “people don’t want to talk about it”
– Minimization
– Calling it out

18. So What?
• Experiences with minoritization results in
deeper understanding and commitment to
addressing power in sexual violence activism
(e.g., men, queer people, and people of Color)
• White women campus activists frequently re-
create the same mistakes as our predecessors,
minimizing power based on race, gender
identity, and sexual orientation.

19. Now What?
• Get off campus! This is bigger than a campus issue.
• Understand, examine, and teach history in activist
movements.
• Center minoritized voices – addressing oppression
at its roots works toward eradicating violence, not
minimizing it.
• LISTEN to each other. Focus on healing and
solidarity.
• Build coalitions to address issues of oppression
together. Consider BLM as an example:

20. “Sexual assault is the second most commonly reported
form of police misconduct, but the majority of
departments have no policy or measures in place to
prevent, detect or ensure accountability for this form of
police violence disproportionately affecting Black
women, cis and trans, gender nonconforming, and queer
people. Accountability for police sexual harassment,
assault, and violence is usually solely the responsibility
of police departments and prosecutors, preventing many
survivors from coming forward or obtaining
justice.” (https://policy.m4bl.org/community-control/)

21. “For Black girls, the U.S.’s failure to address gender-based
violence, which they experience at greater levels than any
other group, is paramount to the criminalization they
experience. In fact, sexual abuse is one of the primary
predictors of girls’ entry into the juvenile justice system, with
girls often being routed to the system specifically because of
their victimization. For instance, girls who are victims of sex
trafficking are often arrested on prostitution charges. The
punitive nature of this system is ill-equipped to support
young girls through the violence and trauma they’ve
experienced, which further subjects them to sexual
victimization and a lifelong path of criminalization and
abuse.” (https://policy.m4bl.org/end-war-on-black-people/)

22. Now What? (cont’d)
• Work outside current systems. Establish
community accountability systems. Do
NOT rely on police for accountability –
consider racism, classism, homophobia,
and transphobia in criminal justice
systems.
• Pay attention to social media – stay on top
of blogs like Crunk Feminist Collective,
Feministing, Colorlines, Black Girl
Dangerous.

23. !
Contact
Information
Chris Linder, PhD
linder@uga.edu
Twitter: @proflinder
Website:
www.drchrislinder.wordpress
.com
Book: Forthcoming January,
2017, Stylus Press