Abstract
In this work, we explore cyberactivists’ engagement with social media through different hashtags that challenge rape culture and the perceived-to-be patriarchal Spanish legal system. To do this, we carried out ethnographic work of the hashtag landscape that emerged within the context of the heavily mediated and controversial gang-rape court case known as “the Wolf Pack” case. We identified that cyberactivists constructed an online framing of the events through hashtagging practices that addressed three salient points relevant to the case: (a) the existence and reproduction of rape culture; (b) the institutional misogyny that enables its prevalence; (c) the patriarchal justice system that fails to condemn it. A thick conversation emerged, underpinned by affective unification of those involved, resulting in a debate about the legal treatment of the rape in Spanish society, thus becoming a feminist “legal school.” We argue that by doing so, Twitter opened up a space for activists to share their knowledge, understanding, and rage about the case, thereby evincing the pedagogical effect of social media, which echoed in analog settings through the mobilization of women to take to the streets and lobby for an amendment of the Criminal Code which emerged from technical feminist circles.
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Notes
- 1.
The name of the case is due to the nickname that the five assailants gave themselves in a WhatsApp group that they used to brag about sexual harassment of women.
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- 3.
- 4.
Press release published in 2018 available at: https://www.mujeresjuristasthemis.org/prensa/noticias/188-comunicado-de-prensa-sentencia-caso-la-manada
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our colleagues from the University of Brighton and Universidad Complutense who discussed with us the analytical proceeding and did proof reading of the manuscript, namely Igor Sádaba.
Data Availability Statement
The data set used was scrapped using NodeXLPro and extracting information from the two most representative hashtags (#HermanaYoSiTeCreo and #YoSiTeCreoHermana) between June 21 and 29, 2018. The data set used is available by personal email to elisgarc@ucm.es
Declaration of Conflicting Interests and Funding
The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research conducted to this article to the Centre for Digital Media Cultures, the Centre for Transforming Gender and Sexuality and the School of Media of the University of Brighton.
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García-Mingo, E., Prieto-Blanco, P., Díaz-Fernández, S. (2023). #NoIsNo. Shaping Public Debate on Rape Culture and Sexual Assault in Spain through Social Media. In: Wiesslitz, C. (eds) Women’s Activism Online and the Global Struggle for Social Change. Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31621-0_8
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