A Shameless Ideology of Shameless Women

Positioning the Other in Social Media Discourse Surrounding a Women's Rights Movement in Pakistan

Bibliographic Data

ID2414432
AuthorsShomaila Sadaf (0000-0002-2684-0847, University of Jyväskylä, corresponding author), Marko Siitonen (0000-0002-5138-437X, University of Jyväskylä)
Year2022
Volume8
Issue1
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Media + Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/20563051221086933
OpenAlexW4226079252
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited41

This study analyzes social media (YouTube) discourse related to Aurat March 2019, a women's rights movement in Pakistan. Using a discourse analytical approach that draws on the premises of Positioning theory, the analysis reveals the following two major storylines from the data: 'The women who stray from the path, and the men who will return them to it,' and 'Islam under threat from the outside.' Social media platforms allow their users to express opinions in online spaces, often resulting in polarization and clustering of like-minded people in so-called echo-chambers. This study demonstrates how social media users actively participate in the discursive construction of the 'other,' and how the women's rights movement in Pakistan continues to struggle against hegemonic scripts of gender and sexuality

Aesthetics · Fundamentalism · Ideology · Islam · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Scripting language · Social media · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Media and Politics