Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

As one of many socio-political movements that take place across social networking communities, the “Me too” response to a call on Twitter immediately took off, filling up Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. The call was a seized opportunity to discuss the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault. Taken by the number of “Me too” posts on my own page, I collected screenshots of the images and articles related to the fast phenomenon to demonstrate what it looked like on Facebook and to analyze the response and discussions around it to facilitate dialogue around digital image-based activism and its implications, particularly where sensitive or personal topics are concerned. Since by the time of this conference, the Me Too phenomenon will likely be replaced by a series of similar visual social activisms, I will focus on visual activism within social networking communities, using the “Me Too” moment as an example and providing more current examples as appropriate next year. This visual presentation will feature screenshots of visual representations of “Me Too” posts, women/men/non-binary folks offering their stories, men acting as allies and sharing their own stories, and critiques around the “Me too” practice. I will frame the discussion with research related to online activism, feminist theory, and image analysis.