Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

The global #Metoo movement began in America and has spread throughout the world, including passionate articulations of dissent against gender based violence in the Global South. In this paper I discuss the global flows of transnational feminist movements such as #Metoo and their effects in localized contexts such as India and Mexico. The overreliance on #hashtag movements as a form of globalized movement building also obscures the reality of the lack of Internet access that many women and LGBTQ people have in the Global South. Activists in India further discuss the effects of Internet voyeurism in a country where gendered power is often resolved by feudal patriarchy. As Michael Safi writes citing activist Rituparna Chatterjee, using the Internet to call out sexual harassment and assault has been a mixed blessing for some Indian women. It has enabled and encouraged them to finally speak up; but in an arena that has not always provided the legal and moral support they need. “People were just waiting to see who’s next, with no stake, with a salacious sort of interest in this. Voyeuristic,” Chatterjee says. “Meanwhile there were hundreds of women getting in touch saying, ‘My husband threw acid on my face’, but those cases never moved forward.” Can transnational feminist movements that originate in the United States fully comprehend cultures of misogyny in the Global South?