Activism and affective labor for digital direct action: the Mexican #MeToo campaign

Since it first originated in the United States, #MeToo has spread around the world, giving rise to the most powerful and widespread global campaign against sexual violence in history. In March 2019, Mexican women created Twitter accounts and hashtags to share their experiences of sexual assault at w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Rovira Sancho, Guiomar
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10256/21860
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10256/21860
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Violència envers les dones -- Mèxic
Women -- Abuse of -- Mexico
Xarxes socials en línia
Online social networks
Internet i activisme -- Mèxic
Internet and activism -- Mexico
Feminisme -- Mèxic
Feminism -- Mexico
Moviment Me Too -- Mèxic
MeToo movement -- Mexico
Descripción
Sumario:Since it first originated in the United States, #MeToo has spread around the world, giving rise to the most powerful and widespread global campaign against sexual violence in history. In March 2019, Mexican women created Twitter accounts and hashtags to share their experiences of sexual assault at workplaces and schools, in a country where nearly eleven women are murdered every day. The #MeToo campaign was intense and brief. It was trending at the end of March 2019, but by mid-April interest in it had plummeted. This article examines how the hashtag depended on activists' efforts in order to build an affective community for disclosure of sexual harassment. Based on the voices of participants, this study argues that although activists were able to handle affective labor to solve collectively urgent problems arising within the campaign, they failed to withstand the backlash which followed the suicide of Armando Verga Gil, a famous rock musician, after being accused of sexual abuse online. From the perspective of social movements theory, #MeToo is characterized as digital direct action forming part of the repertoire of contention of feminist crowds