Women Movements Essay

Women Movements Essay

The media have a role to play in the way people understand claims made by social movements. The way individuals, societies, and groups perceive and communicate a concept determines the way the audience will receive the information. In most cases, social movements rely on stereotypes to understand and respond to events. In mass communication, news media frame news items in a manner that emphasizes specific values, facts, and other considerations. As a result, they promote particular definitions, evaluations, interpretations, and recommendations. Therefore, the media framing of SlutWalk and MeToo is critical because it explains the impression that the campaigns created in the minds of ordinary citizens. Thus, the way the media frames the women’s movements determine their success or failure.

SlutWalk was a protest movement that began in 201, responding to the sexual shaming of women by law enforcement officer Michael Sanguinetti. While speaking to a crime prevention summit in Toronto, the constable made the remarks that “women should avoid dressing like sluts” if they wish to prevent sexual assault. Using Facebook, Twitter, and emails, students organized protests against victim shaming. The purpose of the slutWalk movement was to push back the narrative that society uses to justify violence against women. In their opinion, women’s participation in the sex trade or enjoying sex does not give another person the right to assault them sexually. The success of the Toronto protest led to other demonstrations in other cities such as London.

The SlutWalk movement was a feminist agenda that began on the Social Media platform. The issues that the protestors articulated on Social Media were reported differently by the mainstream media.

After the first march, more than 1000-3000 women marched in the streets of Toronto for several days. At the same time, more organizations sprout up from the grassroots across the world to pass the same message. As a result, the campaign received adequate media attention with the papers, websites, and magazines around the globe covering them. However, the news was not as clear as to whether activism could be succeeding in creating social changes.

At the same time, there was a discrepancy between the messages articulated in the Social Media platforms and by mass media. In Social Media, feminist activists have a unique opportunity to represent their views as they wish without censorship. Therefore, under these platforms, they communicate as privileged individuals. However, they cannot carry the same rights to the mass media because they lack control. Their views find a way in the mainstream media through the assistance of pro-feminist writers and editors. Therefore, they only have privilege in Social Media, where they have absolute control and not in mass media where other individuals determine the method to use in covering the events.

The first message that the SlutWalk protests sought to address was to reclaim the word “slut” from misuse by their male counterparts. The protestors began by advancing the idea on their blogs, creating the impression that they were confident that the plans were appropriate and necessary. According to (Framing SlutWalk), once the message moves from the first mode of communication and the first line of communicators (blogs and online activists), it changes significantly. For example, the newspapers reframe it from feminist to “postfeminist” sensibility. The mass media consider other issues such as feminism and antifeminism, a resurgence of the ideas of natural sexual difference, femininity as a physical property, choice, and empowerment, among others. Thus, although the message of the movement was precise and framed adequately by the protesting bloggers, it took a new dimension once the mass media began to report it.

At the start of the protests, women were willing to march wearing bras and short pants and waving placards to show their displeasure in the shaming of sexual offenses victims. The blog writers were feminists arguing that people should stop the narrative that they rape women because of their dressing code. As a result, they remove the blame from the victims and place it squarely at the feet of the system that fails to protect women and other vulnerable groups. However, women writers in national newspapers behave in a postfeminist manner. They decline to participate in the marches while scantily dressed, arguing that they are not “sluts.” The latter focuses on the individual, and the attire makes it hard for them to understand the political message that the campaign seeks to address.

The slutwalk campaigns received praise and criticism in equal measure. Supporters argue that it returned feminism to the public domain after a long lull. They praise the movement as an essential plan that invests in a grassroots campaign. More importantly, they appreciate it for being media-oriented and for its use of outrageous tactics to push feminist ideas. Supporters praise them for dramatizing their battles to create awareness about women’s oppression. The purpose of the term slut was also critical because it is a phrase common in patriarchy societies. The development of the idea shows that it is essential to develop terms that they can use to define themselves and their sexuality and avoid relying on patriarchal definitions.

Critics argue that the white privilege was prevalent in the slutwalk campaign. Women of color did not have the opportunity or the luxuries to call refer to themselves as “sluts” without validating the entrenched ideology from their history in the United States. In the history of slavery, women of color were framed as sexually excessive while their white counterparts were said to be pure. Therefore, it is difficult for black women to use the term “slut” freely as their white counterparts do because it stigmatizes them. As a result, slutwalk protests do not represent the interests of all women in the world. In the opinion of the African Women, these protests were reinforcing the idea that the ideal “woman” is a white middle-class person.

The black feminist wrote a protest letter to the organizers. Although they did not oppose the activities, they brought to the attention of the movement that it was marginalizing a large section of the population that it seeks to represent. The purpose of the letter was to encourage a deeper understanding of the need of the African American population. In their opinion, the only way to achieve universal representation of all women, it was essential to understand the sexist connotations that the community continues to face to date. The bring to the attention of the organizers that white privilege makes it difficult for them to understand the needs and the experiences of African Americans.

However, black women agree with the message of the “slutwalk.” They agree that what women wear, line of work, class, level of intoxication, does not mean that she is ready for sexual violence. Despite African American women passing such a strong message to the event organizers, they did not get space within the movement. They were also concerned at the objectivation of the African American body, as was the case during the enslavement era. Therefore, they had no control over their sexuality, reproductive organs, and children. Enslavement, Jim Crow Segregation, and histories of state abuse have made it difficult to join the slutwalk movement. Thus, they have always occupied an insecure place in the social space of American history. As a result, they do not have the freedom to call themselves “sluts” because the term ais already projected to them.

The framing of MeToo was critical to its success. The organizing idea of this movement was that victims were coming together to shame the perpetrators of sexual assault. The use of Social Media proves the universality of sexual assault and harassment. The movement encouraged victims to break their silence about their suffering. Social Media is essential in this regard because it allows every person to air their grievances. It is a forum that enables people to disclose sexual assault, secure resources, and connect with allies. It is a movement where survivors talk to each other and encourage one another. Its primary purpose is to use the power of empathy to stomp out shame. It also seeks to promote women who come out in the open about suffering that they are not alone. It is to give them the confidence to speak about their experiences without feeling isolated. Many people who suffer abuse internalize the blame and are afraid to speak aloud. However, when many women declare that they suffered, it encourages the silent ones to come forward to confront the perpetrators. As a result, they can deal with the problem once and for all.

The SlutWalk and MeToo movement are critical instruments in addressing the challenges that women face in society as far as sexual assault and harassment are concerned. It is an important debate to have because harassment undermines the authority of women in the workplace, reduces them to a sexual object, and reinforces sexist stereotypes. Feminist scholars place sexual assault and harassment in a broader power structures and patterns of discrimination. Therefore, it is crucial to have a conversation about sexual assault and harassment today so that it does not continue taking place in silence. The movements are critical today because they seek to break the cycle of silence among victims. They try to empower women to speak out and not to be afraid of the perpetrators of the violence.