‘Me too!’: individual empowerment of disabled women in the #MeToo movement in China

Abstract

This study examines the role of disabled women in the #MeToo movement by analyzing their voices in the movement. Through online participatory observation, we discovered that the movement has individually empowered disabled women on three levels: as women, as disabled people, and as resisters. These disabled women described two ways in which they were empowered at each level, a total of six ways: they realized that they were not guilty, not ashamed, not stereotyped, not going to tolerate abuse, awakened, and united. However, the empowerment of the #MeToo movement only works at an individual level for some disabled women with higher economic and social status through online platforms, with few offline actions being taken and few responses from society to their appeals. There is thus still a long way for disabled women to go in order to be fully included in society.

Keywords:

• Individual empowerment
• #MeToo
• disabled people
• sexual assault
• sexual harassment

Introduction

Women across the world are embracing the #MeToo movement in order to share their own experiences with sexual abuse and assault and to seek empowerment. This movement has sent shock waves through Chinese society, as powerful figures in academic institutions, journalism, and non-governmental organizations have been identified as abusers and suffered consequences (Fan 2018).

Despite the attention this topic is gaining nationally, one group has been conspicuously absent from the conversation: disabled people. Unfortunately, this group is among the most vulnerable in our society. People with disabilities are 3.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than people without disabilities, and thus have an especially urgent need for empowerment (Harrell 2017). This article focuses on how to increase the individual awareness of people with disabilities in #MeToo to reconceptualize themselves and call for social change. Empowerment is defined as the need to increase the personal, interpersonal, and political power of oppressed and marginalized people so that they can band together as communities and improve their situations (Turner and Maschi 2015). Total empowerment includes many levels, such as individual empowerment, organizational empowerment, and structural empowerment. Individual empowerment is the first and most important level in awakening individuals to recognize they can make their own choices in their lives (Thomas and Velthouse 1990; Peterson 2004).

Therefore, this article explores how disabled people are being empowered and integrated into the #MeToo conversation. By using participatory observation involving online #MeToo groups for disabled people, such as ‘Sisterhood’, ‘For girls’, and ‘Anti-sexual violence angels’, we draw on three internal resources – gender, disability, and resistance – to explain the contributions of Chinese disabled people to this movement.

Individual empowerment as women

Women with disabilities face the same problems as non-disabled women, such as gender discrimination and stigma. #MeToo changed many of these women’s understanding of female identity, making them aware that victims are not guilty and should not be ashamed.

Not guilty

#MeToo has brought victim-blaming to people’s attention. Survivors of sexual assault have often been asked what they were wearing, what they did to ‘encourage’ the perpetrator, or even why they did not fight back. As women in the WeChat group ‘For girls’ have discussed, this thought was based on the assumption that women make this violence happen for lack of discipline; for example, dressing like a ‘good woman’ and not a ‘slut’. A woman said she stopped wearing skirts in high school because the boy who was sitting beside her used to touch her legs and underwear. Instead of telling her teachers or parents, she blamed herself, wondering whether she was dressed inappropriately.

Not ashamed

Some people also use slut-shaming to deter victims of sexual harassment and assault from complaining. As already discussed, some people assume the victim encouraged the crime.

For this reason, victims are often not able to share their stories because they are afraid their reputation might be damaged or their families shamed, so instead they bottle up these stories. With #MeToo, this seems to be changing. As another woman has shared:

I was already a useless person to my family, and such a humiliating thing happened to me. I thought if I told my story, nothing would be changed, and I might become after-dinner gossip and people would feel sorry for me. Until recently, when I read passages from the internet, which said it is the abuser who should be ashamed, not us. I started to think … yeah, it is true, it is the rapist who lost his honor, not me.

Inspired by #MeToo, victims are finding individual empowerment as women. Telling their stories gives them a chance to change how they see their female identity. As a female victim in the sexual assaults, they are no longer guilty and ashamed.

Individual empowerment as disabled people

For disabled people, their disability can feel like an additional level of disempowerment. Women are already in a disadvantaged position, and their disabled status can make them suffer further. In addition, they might resent their disabled identity and blame assault on their own disabilities. However, in #MeToo, we can see these women being inspired to reject stereotypes and the tolerance of social bias.

Not stereotyped

Many people hold the stereotype that people with disabilities do not experience sexual attraction, or even do not function sexually. Therefore, when they are sexually violated it may not be taken seriously. The #MeToo movement provides disabled women with the chance to discuss the stereotypes they face in their daily life, and to realize that these societal attitudes are damaging. One woman in a #MeToo group asked: ‘Who says disabled women are not good-looking! Who says we are not sexually attractive! Who says we are not sexually assaulted! We do not want to be stereotyped!’

Not going to tolerate

Disabled people may be constrained by their condition – for example, a physical disability could prevent the woman escaping, or an intellectual disability might mean that she is living with constraints on her free choice – and therefore suffer more easily from sexual assaults. In such circumstances, victims of sexual assault might blame their disabilities for their suffering. For instance, they may imagine that if they could have run away or fought back, the assault would not have occurred, or that the assaulter would not have assaulted a non-disabled woman.

Although the #MeToo movement is not enough to end all marginalization of disabled women, recognizing the need to change the current agenda into a more inclusive one is a good start. As another woman said, ‘tolerance or behave like normal is just giving succor to the abusers’.

Individual empowerment as resisters

In addition to raising individual awareness of people as women and disabled, #MeToo is helping disabled victims realize that sexual assault is a direct violence, and the abusers must be punished. Therefore, they have been empowered to resist and appeal for equal rights, in addition to calling for everyone to fight together.

Awakened

By recognizing how vulnerable their situation is, Chinese disabled women are awarded the recognition they need to directly resist these misconducts and safeguard their rights. As a disabled woman observed online, ‘Somebody might ask, since the disabled women are so marginal and vulnerable, is it worth our efforts to protest? The answer is definitely yes! Against sexual harassment, we also have the right to say NO!’ We have witnessed disabled women start to awaken and protect their rights, saying things like ‘Let’s reveal what the abusers have done, and be brave enough to say no! We have the same rights to life as the able-bodied, we have the rights to be protected as everybody else’ and ‘Those evil perpetrators are supposed to be trembling and should be published in jail’.

Participants empowered by #MeToo have also taken action offline; for example, one woman asked the WeChat group how to find a lawyer to help her sue her sexual harasser. Another woman in this group was glad to offer her assistance. Unfortunately, the assault had happened months ago, and even though she had kept some evidence such as written records of the spoken harassment, they were not enough for the court to sentence him. Even though the results were unsatisfying, compared with their previous attitude of avoidance, the disabled women were more empowered to resist the sexual violence and abusers. As one woman proclaimed: ‘Getting it started is important, disabled women! Me too!’.

United

#MeToo provided every single woman in this group a chance to be united. The power of one woman is limited, but a group is much stronger, and they will only gain more opportunity to raise their voices to draw the attention of their society.

One leader of the movement has claimed:

You have the brotherhood, we have the sisterhood! Sisters who have been hurt, let’s unite in groups. Because of your courage, scum will be in jail. Because of you, our society can be better. We will back you up, you are not fighting alone! (Sisterhood 2018)

Additionally, disabled women have realized that social structures are what make them incapable and vulnerable. It is the non-responsive society, the traditional culture, as well as the powerful people who are in control that oppress vulnerable people into marginal conditions, which can only be changed if marginalized people unite and fight together. As one of the disabled women has shared:

This is a structural power system, controlled by those in dominant positions of this society, that caused our situations. Within this system, women were taught that they should be tolerant, polite, gentle, and introverted; as for disabled women, they cannot even be counted as females. Those stereotypes are difficult to change, but we should have hope, energy, and courage. Let the fire of #MeToo go on! The whole world will watch! Let’s work together to end gender violence! Me too, we together.

Discussion and conclusion

This article has discussed Chinese disabled women against the background of #MeToo. As one of the most vulnerable groups in Chinese society, disabled women used to be taught to stay silent and seldom come forward. However, they are overcoming this in the #MeToo movement, which empowers them to leave behind their guilt, shame, stereotypes, and tolerance of abuse to awaken the rights that unite them.

This movement has clarified many disabled people’s views of themselves, abusers, and society. However, we must still realize that to fundamentally change the situation we must first create a regulatory system to ensure equal rights, and then change the subconscious biases present in the dominant discourse.

Therefore, it must be admitted that the empowerment of #MeToo in China is still limited to disabled persons with higher economic and social status through online platforms, with few offline actions being taken and few responses from society to their appeals. There is still a long way for disabled women to go in terms of inclusion. As a woman eloquently expressed in a poem she wrote, willing the fire of # MeToo to continue spreading:

Thanks again,

our brave warriors.

There is nothing impossible,

open your heart,

dig deeper and harder,

until one day,

evidence talks.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.