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ABSTRACT
Feminist media scholarship has been keen on explicating the ways that digital media have shaped feminist politics in recent decades. Through analyzing the MeToo movement in China, this study contributes to a further understanding of the role of digital media in facilitating feminist activism and movements. We propose a framework of intersectional digital feminism that embraces the perspectives of inclusion/exclusion, visibility/invisibility, and impact/backlash to assess feminist protests and actions in the digital age. The framework also calls for a contextual analysis that accounts for political, social-cultural, and historical circumstances. Drawing upon textual analysis of public and media discourses about China’s MeToo movement, the study finds that the formation of the movement in China was attributed to the online and offline formation of feminist, subaltern, and pro-change counter-publics; the backlash came mainly from censorship and misogynistic attacks; and rural and working-class women are largely marginalized and underrepresented in China’s present feminist movement. We argue that MeToo manifests both the potential to change gender hierarchies in the digital age and the limitation that structural inequalities cannot be changed by technologies per se. Feminist activism should develop more inclusive agendas and mobilizing strategies pertinent to specific contexts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
3. The denotation of米兔 is RiceBunny, which is the Chinese version of mi tu with the same pronunciation of MeToo in English.
4. Li Youyou’s original post on Douban was deleted due to censorship. China Digital Times reposted her original article to expose Shen Yang: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2018/04/%E6%9D%8E%E6%82%A0%E6%82%A0%EF%BC%9A%E5%8D%97%E4%BA%AC%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6%E6%96%87%E5%AD%A6%E9%99%A2%E8%AF%AD%E8%A8%80%E5%AD%A6%E7%B3%BB%E4%B8%BB%E4%BB%BB%E3%80%81%E9%95%BF%E6%B1%9F%E5%AD%A6%E8%80%85/.
5. In 2014, Xianzi was an intern at CCTV (China Central Television) and was assaulted by ZhuJunea nationally renowned host. Xianzi immediately reported it to the police, but her case was not handled at all due to the fame of ZhuJuneIn 2018, inspired by MeToo, Xianzi posted her suffering experience on her WeChat moment, and her friend Maishao reposted it on Weibo, which soon attracted media and public attention: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/2018/10/%E6%98%BE%E5%BE%AE%E9%95%9C-%E5%BC%A6%E5%AD%90%EF%BC%9A%E6%9B%BE%E7%BB%8F%E7%9A%84%E6%9C%8B%E5%8F%8B%E6%88%90%E4%BA%86%E6%9C%B1%E5%86%9B%E7%9A%84%E8%AF%81%E4%BA%BA/; https://matters.news/@jidongjie/20180727-%E8%B4%A2%E6%96%B0%E7%BD%91%E9%87%87%E8%AE%BF%E6%9C%B1%E5%86%9B%E6%80%A7%E9%AA%9A%E6%89%B0%E6%8C%87%E6%8E%A7%E8%80%85-zdpuAwxDbjcvoCooxbajTLwsp5RDnQhYv6fL9EL2y2oUfo2Nn; NGOmetoo, a volunteer anti-sexual harassment group recorded Xianzi’s case: https://ngometoo.github.io/Zhu-Jun/.
6. Both Deng Fei and Lei Chuang were influential leaders among non-profit organizations and activism in China. They were reported to have sexually harassed and assaulted female volunteers, and their exposure has generated wide public attention and discussion: https://ngometoo.github.io/Lei-Chuang/; https://www.chinanews.com/sh/2018/07-23/8576786.shtml; https://matters.news/@youngcao104/%E4%BB%8E%E9%9B%B7%E9%97%AF%E6%80%A7%E4%BE%B5%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6%E6%83%B3%E5%88%B0%E7%9A%84%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%9B-zdpuAvzs2niKMEbyTgnzhsy2VwREoAyL3K5xvkg2gWwGE1HQ7; https://ngometoo.github.io/Deng-Fei/; https://user.guancha.cn/main/content?id=29770; http://www.sohu.com/a/244634061_506393.
7. News, 2018, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-43708415.
9. Chang Jiang published an article in his WeChat public account to introduce the hashtag activism #I will be your voice# that he started to support China’s MeToo movement.
12. Xi Jinping, current chairman of China, made a statement about women’s development with Chinese characteristics: http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2018/1103/c64094-30379694.html).
13. A blog article by a feminist recording the public exhibitions on MeToo in China: https://matters.news/@Nikko/%E5%86%B2%E7%A0%B4%E5%B0%81%E9%94%81%E7%9A%84%E9%87%8D%E7%94%9F-%E8%AE%B0-%E7%B1%B3%E5%85%94%E5%9C%A8%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD-%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6%E5%B1%95-zdpuAopZxV3FFVLd8KwxzSRXCRrKhBmUc6E8NhMZ4yWayEJjv).
18. Zou Sicong helped his friend post an exposing article about Deng Fei’s committing sexual assault and later was sued by Deng Fei for violating his reputation: http://www.sohu.com/a/276149060_642628.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Siyuan Yin
Siyuan Yin is an assistant professor at the school of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Siyuan's research areas include cultural studies, feminist media studies, political economy of communication, and social movements.
Yu Sun
Yu Sun is a postdoc research fellow at the College of Media and International Culture at Zheijang University. Her research interests are everyday political talk, online deliberation, online public sphere, data technology innovations, and data activism in China.