F.5.b.i. General

Margaret Attwood’s argument that the #MeToo movement should not turn into ‘vigilante justice’ – i.e. condemnation without a trial. She voiced her opinion following the firing of an employee, Prof. Steven Galloway, from the University of British Columbia in Canada. Serious allegations were cited without further comments on their nature. The accusations were presumably related to allegations of sexual assaults, but the hearing found no evidence and Galloway was fired after signing a non-disclosure agreement. Attwood’s view met with a backlash of accusations that she used her power to silence less powerful victims.

For a follow-up by The Guardian, please visit: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/15/margaret-atwood-feminist-backlash-metoo

The widespread problem of sexual harassment has made headlines around the world, including in political legislatures. Using public reports of sexism and sexual harassment, the authors highlight these problems in three countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Although sexual harassment is a global issue, the aim of this article is to show how the shared rules, practices, and norms of these Westminster-style bodies perpetuate sexist cultures that produce unequal and unsafe work conditions for female politicians. The findings highlight some of the unique challenges women face in their representational and policy-making roles.

This thesis scrutinises the conversation about violence against women on social media. The main research question is: ‘Does social media reproduce colonial ideologies such as racism and sexism?’ Indigenous women experience the highest rates of sexual violence in the United States: they are twice as likely to be as all other women. Social media is praised as a tool for activists and marginalized groups to raise awareness. The thesis explores whether this applies to Indigenous women and sexual violence, or whether their voices are generally overlooked.

This article, which explores both differences and similarities between the two movements, begins by comparing both internal and external definitions of success within Black Lives Matter and MeToo. It also considers both movements from the standpoint of ‘intersectionality’. The authors then assess how both movements have influenced scholars, teachers, lawyers and community activists, their impacts on law and popular culture and how these external factors influence the movements. Finally they ask what the next steps should be for each movement.

This paper reports on a #MeToo campaign by a mainstream news organisation. The ‘Me Too’ campaign led to a large number of disclosures adopted a survivor-led approach to minimise potential harm. It offers lessons for reporting on #MeToo issues, including the best practice for dealing with survivors, campaign management and ultimately the implications for changing editorial news values. Journalists showed greater awareness of the feelings of survivors and were able to reconcile this with traditional journalistic norms.

Widely reviewed and recommended account by the two journalists who wrote the New York Times article that exposed and documented Harvey Weinstein’s systematic abuse of women actors and employees over decades. The book reveals the unfolding story they uncovered, exposes in detail the mechanisms of power that silenced many women, and reveals those who resisted these pressures. The second part of the book covers the Senate hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh and Blasey Ford’s accusation against him.

A study of how digital technologies and social media are used to challenge rape culture, misogyny and harassment, conducted after the #MeToo movement’s explosion in October 2017.

The authors examine violence against women and gender-based discrimination around the world, today. They provide a global perspective on the history, causes, and complex underpinnings of gender and violence from a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary perspective. The regions covered are North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Each chapter begins with an overview of its world region, and then focuses on particular forms of violence against women in the more specific contexts of particular countries and in relation to the wider region.

The authors link the rise of ‘the fourth wave of feminism’ to the impact of cyberspace on social movements. They argue that social media offer accessibility, a potentially wide audience, low cost and a user-friendly environment, which encourage women to publicise sexual violence, and to then tackle wider issues such as the gender pay gap. The Internet-based feminist movement is also trying to highlight intersectionality, i.e. the impact of multiple forms of institutionalized oppression based on sex, gender, race, class, etc.

This article compares the positive impacts of the #MeToo movement in two different jurisdictions in the United States of America - namely California and Texas - in Brazil, and in the United Kingdom. It highlights the reforms promoting the prosecution and prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace.