To Be Heard Through The #Metoo Backlash
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21695628 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sabrina Moro (0000-0002-7731-795X), Giuseppina Sapio, Charlotte Buisson (0000-0002-9415-6676), Noémie Trovato (0009-0008-0804-2949), Zoé Duchamp |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue | 83 |
| Pages | 90-101 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Soundings (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1362-6620 • E-ISSN: 1741-0797 |
| Publisher | Lawrence and Wishart (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3898/soun.83.06.2023 |
| OpenAlex | W4379649580 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
The Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial constitutes what Sarah Banet- Weiser (2018) calls a 'feminist flashpoint': it has become a media event that facilitates and shapes discourses around gender-based violence in the public sphere. The cultural significance of the social media commentaries on the trial is threefold. First, the sheer volume of media traffic turns sexual violence into a media spectacle. Second, commentary featured discussion of domestic violence and situated it within the legacies of #MeToo. Thirdly, the stark divide between Depp and Heard supporters reveals shifts in cultural understandings of sexual violence since #MeToo but also a backlash against the movement. Cultural understandings of gender-based violence and feminism, popularised by #MeToo, are acknowledged, but the same digital tools that enable online feminist activism are mobilised in the backlash. The authors explore the re-activation of the myth of the 'ideal victim' Heard's resistance to dominant representations of the passive victim; and the 'memeification' of Heard (Valenti 2022) as a form of gendered surveillance and policing. The trial exemplifies a new iteration of postfeminism, one that acknowledges the cultural and political significance of #MeToo yet upholds the same rape myths that were previously criticised
Audience reception · Backlash · Criminology · Cultural politics · Feminism · Media studies · Mythology · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Sexual violence · Situated · Sociology · Spectacle · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |