If you roamed the forums of the early 2000s, perhaps you’ve come across the famous Internet “rules,” a sort of ironic compilation of what can and cannot be done online. Among them, rule 30: there are no women on the Internet. A schoolboy joke that quickly turned into reality. Being a woman on the Web is a combat sport: you only need to spend a few minutes on social networks to realize that insults, threats and sexist reflections abound through screens. A Plan International study published in 2020 reported that almost 60% of young women between the ages of 15 and 25 have been victims of cyberbullying, and that 39% of them say they have been threatened with sexual violence online.
However, this last decade has been marked by a new generation of feminism, raised on social networks, pro of the hashtag, drawing Facebook or Instagram publications faster than its shadow. “It’s not that far. Feminists really arrived on the Web and social networks in the early 2000s. There was a proliferation of collectives and individual authors. It’s very interesting to see this ferment of feminist discourse”, explains Josiane Jouët, sociologist, professor emeritus at the University Panthéon-Assas and author of Digital, feminism and society (Presses des mines, 2022). Feminist discourse has developed online, through the prism of new social media, despite the proliferation of misogynist resistance on all sides.
The #MeToo turning point
Some will say that there was a before and after #MeToo. When the hashtag flooded Twitter in 2017, the place of feminist discourse online took on another dimension. “It spread and it raised a public issue, it brought it to light. It has become a question that has crossed the whole public debate and, thanks to journalists, the questions of female domination have been highlighted through in-depth investigations,” analyzes Josiane Jouët. Since then, hashtags have multiplied, and the expression has returned to everyday language. “I think that, for the general public, if we want feminist ideas to spread, social networks play a major role in raising awareness of all these discourses and behaviors of ordinary patriarchy which belittle them”, adds the sociologist.
However, #MeToo did not have the expected success. Noémie Trovato, Info-Com student at IFP and specialist in digital discourse analysis, worked on this movement. She believes that “it has changed almost nothing”: “there have been some laws and mentalities have remained at the status quo”.
“This speech around the liberation of speech was direct performative, and we said that it was going to change things. This is why I speak of the discursive failure of #MeToo. In five years, we harped on the same things, and it was difficult to envisage the aftermath, ”she continues. Especially since recent cases, such as the defamation lawsuit between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, have been marked by a proliferation of disinformation and anti-feminist propaganda online. “To be able to insult and depreciate Amber Heard, to portray her as an evil witch, it was borderline “necessary”: a scapegoat was needed”, points out Noémie Trovato. In five years, the masculinist rhetoric and the backlash [ou « retour de manivelle »] anti-feminist have only grown.
The proliferation of masculinist rhetoric and attacks
Any woman or gender minority who spends some time on social media knows that online misogynistic attacks abound. According to Josiane Jouët, sexist rhetoric and discourse are insidious in the public space, “but online, it’s completely different”. THE backlash is present, online or offline, despite the entry of a “mainstream” feminist current into the ranks of political parties or in the media.
“Online hate against feminists is unimaginable, everyday, aimed at demeaning and attacking. These masculinists are going to send messages of hate, in waves. Even if they are minority currents, they are active and powerful minorities, ”says the sociologist.
Beyond online violence, Noémie Trovato also points to a more insidious discourse: post-feminism, where the idea that feminism is no longer necessary because equality would be achieved. “A lot of people, including those who think of themselves as feminists, say that feminists go too far,” she explains. However, in fact, if only on the issue of violence against women, a woman dies every three days under the blows of her spouse or ex-spouse.
“These attitudes of boy club [d’entre-soi masculin] aim to defend the privileges of men, and therefore aim to muzzle women,” explains Josiane Jouët. Here again, the Depp/Heard trial is a good example of the attempt to silence women and victims of violence, through an organized and massive smear campaign.
“Online feminism takes up space, but in itself it is a place that is deceptively large. The feminist discourse has calmed down a lot, and there is this backlash which is enormous, whereas the advances in fact are not gigantic” sighs Noémie Trovato. Faced with smear campaigns, cyberbullying, insults, some suspend their account, choose to ignore to continue the fight, or end up leaving social networks for good. “Online hate is officially prohibited, but very few people are convicted,” recalls Josiane Jouët. Not to mention the policies of Silicon Valley platforms, which are not the most progressive in this area.
And the platforms in all this?
Female nipples banned on Instagram, Twitter accounts shut down in shambles, lack of moderation or even censorship: online activism comes up against many obstacles on the platform side. “I think activists find themselves finding solutions, and we must not forget that online feminism remains a counterpart to offline feminism, it is a continuum. Activists who are banned from Twitter will continue to go to protest or stick, “says Noémie Trovato. But these repeated attacks are detrimental to mental health, and can have serious consequences on the psychological state of the victims. “Perhaps this will allow a renewal, the creation of our own online spaces, because we have no choice. When all feminists have been banned, I don’t see how it can be viable, ”she continues.
Especially since the conservative and far-right movements have always been very present online, by adopting the codes of the Web. Faced with the avalanche of misogynistic rhetoric and anti-feminist discourse, have feminist activists lost the battle online? “The dissemination of feminist ideas has never been so important as today, the Web is a sounding board. Apart from those who post, there are those who comment, and many who share. And I think that even at this level, the audience is much larger than that of the haters, ”says Josiane Jouët.
For the sociologist, it is not a question of two opposing tendencies, “it is not a political fight”. However, Josiane Jouët wants to be optimistic: “despite all these attacks, the activists are still there”. On the side of the street, feminist activists denounce the lack of action on the part of the government, which had nevertheless spoken of gender equality as the “great cause” of the Macron five-year term. “In fact, we remain in a society that is fundamentally very patriarchal and misogynistic,” concludes Josiane Jouët. Online, or offline.