#freethenipple – digital activism and embodiment in the contemporary feminist movement

ABSTRACT

Contemporary, or so-called fourth-wave feminism has heralded an era of online activism which celebrates the potential of this space to reconfigure and reorder gender relations. In this paper we explore an example of an online campaign, #freethenipple, which attempts to disrupt and destabilise a highly sexualised patriarchal breast ideal. We examine both the mechanisms of (re)inscription that feminist activists are using in the campaign and the readings and interpretations of the campaign. We find subtle slippages between these intentions and interpretations. In closing we question the ability of the campaign to revoke dominant patriarchal inscriptions of female bodies, and raise questions about the efficacy of the online environment in effecting real world change.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital activism
• social media
• fourth wave feminism
• embodiment
• new materialism
• intersectionality

Notes on contributors

Maggie Matich is a feminist activist and PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool Management School. Having achieved a Masters in Art, Aesthetics and Cultural Institutions, her doctoral research centres on the contemporary feminist movement, visual culture and consumption. More specifically, her research interests include zine culture, digital protest, the aesthetics of resistance and feminist theorisations of the body.

Rachel Ashman is a Lecturer in Marketing and early career researcher at the University of Liverpool, UK. She holds a BSc (hons) in Fashion and Textile Retailing, and a PhD in Digital Consumption from the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests include fashion retailing, digital marketing and cultural aspects of consumption. In addition to other outlets, her work has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Business Research and Computers in Human Behavior.

Elizabeth Parsons is Professor of Marketing at the University of Liverpool Management School. Her research is interdisciplinary in nature covering consumer culture theory, sociology of consumption and critical marketing. Recent topics of interest include food and the family, food poverty and marketplace exclusion. She is joint editor in chief of the journal Marketing Theory – which publishes alternative and critical views on markets and consumption.