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Intersectionality and Online Miogyny
Intersectionality a theoretical understanding of feminism that takes into consideration the various social identities of an individual, including class, disability, race, sexuality, gender, nationality, religious belief. Based on your political and social identity multiple vectors of oppression work on an individual and combine in complex ways. For example, 'when a Muslim woman wearing the Hijab is being discriminated, it would be impossible to dissociate her female* from her Muslim identity and to isolate the dimension(s) causing her discrimination.
First coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Intersectionality considers the ways in which these forms of oppression overlap (intersect). Below, is her TED talk which offers a practical insight to the issues of identity and how intersectional responses are urgently needed.
https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
'While we received far fewer submissions from the global south, the papers from China, India, and South Korea indicate that there are considerably different concerns at stake in each of these places, and point to an urgent need for continued research on this topic beyond the Anglophone world/global north. In addition to this, there is a need for more intersectional work, which considers how online misogyny intersects with other forms of abuse such as racism, homophobia, classism, and ableism, not least because this is so important in terms of informing responses, whether at platform policy, legal, or activist level.' - (Ging, 2018)
A response to online misogyny which does not take into account the intersections of identity risks us becoming complicit in the issue. It is extremely important that we consider those of us who are most oppressed when navigating this issue. Similarly, collaboration with organisations in non-Anglophone countries
Caitlin E. Lawson (2018) Platform vulnerabilities: harassment and misogynoir in the digital attack on Leslie Jones, Information, Communication & Society, 21:6, 818-833 https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1437203
Madden, Stephanie & Janoske, Melissa & Winkler, Rowena & Edgar, Amanda. (2018). Mediated Misogynoir: Intersecting Race and Gender in Online Harassment. 10.1007/978-3-319-72917-6_4.
Lawson explains that 'the intersection of both misogyny and racism renders Black women particularly vulnerable to violence and abuse.' (p.821) Bailey (2016) uses the term ‘misogynoir,’ defined as ‘the co-constitutive, anti-Black, and misogynistic racism directed at Black women, particularly in visual and digital culture’. (p.2) The Amnesty International study found that black women were 84% more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive tweets.
British MP Diane Abbott is a high profile example that we've previously used in Opt Out Tools presentations. She received nearly half of all the twitter abuse directed at MP's during the 2017 general election campaign. In much of this abuse, racism is inextricable from the sexism.