Table Of ContentGENDER VIOLENCE, SOCIAL MEDIA,
AND ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS
This book examines contexts, practices, and activism on issues of gender vio-
lence at the intersections of online and public spaces. Through individual case
studies, the volume considers the interplay between the virtual worlds of online
spaces including social media, physical spaces and bodies, and the ways in which
ofine and online dimensions of experience can serve as motivators for, exten-
sions of, or limitations to each other.
Examining both problems and potential solutions, chapters explore the impacts
of, and potential resistance to, the intersections of gender violence, social media,
and our complex lived environments across national boundaries. Throughout
the volume, close attention is paid to the difcult issues highlighted when prior
conceptions of basic foundations such as public space, individual rights, and pro-
fessional responsibility are confronted by new examples that further trouble the
boundaries of long-held frameworks of legal, social, professional understanding,
and even our comprehension of the “real.” Each chapter grapples with a dif-
cult reality related to gender violence, underscores possible ways forward, and
highlights limitations, resisting easy answers to complex and persistent questions
about rights, personal integrity, and social responsibility.
Ofering clear insights into a critical issue, this book will be of interest to
scholars and students in the areas of media studies, social media, gender and
women’s studies, sociology and criminology, digital humanities, and politics.
Lisa M. Cuklanz, PhD, is a Professor of Communication at Boston College.
She has published several books and many other publications in the areas of
media studies and gender studies. Her research interests center on violence in
media.
Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics
8 Populist Disinformation in Fragmented Information Settings
Understanding the Nature and Persuasiveness of Populist and
Post-factual Communication
Michael Hameleers
9 Hate Speech and Polarization in Participatory Society
Edited by Marta Pérez-Escolar, José Manuel Noguera-Vivo
10 White Supremacy and the American Media
Edited By Sarah D. Nilsen, Sarah E. Turner
11 Tweeting Brexit
Social Media and the Aftermath of the EU Referendum
Maja Šimunjak
12 Knowledge Resistance in High-Choice Information Environments
Edited By Jesper Strömbäck, Åsa Wikforss, Kathrin Glüer, Torun Lindholm, Henrik
Oscarsson
13 A Media Framing Approach to Securitization
Storytelling in Confict, Crisis and Threat
Fred Vultee
14 Gender Violence, Social Media, and Online Environments
When the Virtual Becomes Real
Edited by Lisa M. Cuklanz
https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Media-Communication-
and-Politics/book-series/RSMCP
GENDER VIOLENCE,
SOCIAL MEDIA,
AND ONLINE
ENVIRONMENTS
When the Virtual Becomes Real
Edited by Lisa M. Cuklanz
Cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Lisa M. Cuklanz; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Lisa M. Cuklanz to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
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means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cuklanz, Lisa M., editor.
Title: Gender violence, social media, and online environments : when the
virtual becomes real / edited by Lisa M. Cuklanz.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022035712 (print) | LCCN 2022035713 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032186450 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032197913 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003260851 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women’s studies. | Women—Violence against. | Violence in
mass media. | Women in mass media. | Social media and society.
Classification: LCC HQ1180 .G4657 2023 (print) | LCC HQ1180 (ebook) |
DDC 305.4—dc23/eng/20220812
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022035712
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022035713
ISBN: 978-1-032-18645-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-19791-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-26085-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003260851
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
CONTENTS
List of Contributors vii
PART I
Contexts 1
1 Introduction 3
Lisa M. Cuklanz
2 From Street to Screen: On the Right to Public Space
in the Age of Algorithms 19
Claudia Alvares
3 Scrutinizing Sexual Persecution in Digital Communication
Through the Field of Haptics 37
Soumen Mukherjee and Leslie Ramos Salazar
PART II
Practices 57
4 Female Corporealities of Blame & Invasion in Cases of
Sexual & Sexist Cyberbullying in the Basque Region 59
Estibaliz Linares Bahillo, Maria Silvestre Cabrera and
Raquel Royo Prieto
vi Contents
5 Busting Trolls: Examining the Hate Campaign Against
Actress Leslie Jones 76
Benjamin Brojakowski and Gabriel A. Cruz
6 Drivers Against the Machine: Reproductive Labor and
Reproductive Justice in a Phantom Public 94
Kasturi Ray and Julietta Hua
7 “Suddenly We Were the Story:” Women Journalists,
the #MeToo Movement, & Online Misogyny in India 113
Paromita Pain
PART III
Activism 131
8 #RhodesWar: Contesting Institutional Silencing in the
Struggle Against Rape in Post-Apartheid South Africa 133
Gavaza Maluleke
9 Rectifying Gender Violence within Religious
Communities through Hashtag Activism 152
Kristin M. Peterson
10 “You Can Start a Movement with a Hashtag”: An
Exploration of Student-led Social Media Activism 170
Candace Parrish, Rowena Briones Winkler, Avina Ross,
Tremayne Robertson and Alyssa Glace Maryn
11 Using Social Media Tools to Contribute to and Challenge
Gendered Violence 192
Victoria Carty
Index 209
CONTRIBUTORS
Claudia Alvares, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Sociology Department,
ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute and researcher at the Centre for Research
and Studies in Sociology (CIES) in Portugal. She is elected member of the Acad-
emy of Europe since 2020 and former president of ECREA (2012–2016). Her
areas of expertise focus on Media and Gender Studies.
Benjamin Brojakowski, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Communication
and Mass Media Department at Angelo State University. He teaches a variety
of undergraduate and graduate courses and conducts research related to sports
communication, pop culture & computer-mediated communication.
Victoria Carty, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology at Chapman University. She has
written dozens of articles and two books on how new information technologies
impact emerging social movements. She has also published three books on immi-
gration on the southern border of the United States.
Gabriel A. Cruz, PhD, Bowling Green State University, is an Assistant Professor
of Media Studies at North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. His
research in critical media studies focuses on pop culture and white nationalism.
His work has appeared in academic periodicals such as Howard Journal of Commu-
nications; and the book Expression in Contested Public Spaces: Free Speech and Civic
Engagement.
Lisa M. Cuklanz, PhD, is a Professor of Communication at Boston College. She
has published several books and many other publications in the areas of media
studies and gender studies. Her research interests center on violence in media.
viii Contributors
Julietta Hua, PhD, is a Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Fran-
cisco State University in the United States. In addition to Spent Behind the Wheel
(co-authored with Kasturi Ray), she is the author of Trafcking Women’s Human
Rights (Minnesota 2011). She works on migration, labor, and race.
Estibaliz Linares Bahillo, PhD, Faculty of Social & Human Sciences, University
of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain served as a Basque Government predoctoral fellow from
2014 to 2017. She combines academic work, teaching, and coeducation work-
shops. Her research focuses on adolescence, technologies, violence prevention,
and coeducation.
Alyssa Glace Maryn, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Cal-
gary in Canada. She researches sexual consent, masculinities, and gender-based
violence prevention. She is also interested in the way that these topics are dis-
cussed online on social media, such as among involuntary celibates or Incels.
Gavaza Maluleke, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at
the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Her research interests are in digital
activism, transnational feminisms, migration, gendered violence, masculinities,
and media studies in Africa. Her current work focuses on digital activism and
gendered violence in Post-Apartheid South Africa.
Dr. Soumen Mukherjee, PhD, is presently an Associate Professor of English at
a technological university in South India. His research interests are in subaltern
literature, cultural readings, sexuality studies, and strategic communication. He
is the recipient of the BESIG-IATEFL Scholarship in 2007, from IATEFL, Kent,
UK for his pioneering research on Chronemics.
Paromita Pain, PhD, has published research in refereed journals including Jour-
nalism and Mass Communication Educator, Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice,
Media Asia and Feminist Media Studies. As an Assistant Professor of Global Media
Studies at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno in
the United States, she explores emerging newsroom practices and concerns in a
global context.
Candace Parrish, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations at Penn-
sylvania State University. Candace spearheaded the development of the frst
VR-enhanced SCPR Online Master’s Program at Sacred Heart University. She
has gained national & international recognition for her research regarding visuals
used in public relations and health communication.
Kristin M. Peterson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Communication
Department at Boston College in the United States. Her research focuses on
Contributors ix
religious expression in digital media, and she is the author of Unruly Souls: The
Digital Activism of Muslim and Christian Feminists (Rutgers University Press, 2022).
Raquel Royo Prieto, PhD, Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty, Univ. of
Deusto, Bilbao, Spain is Director of the Master in Intervention in Violence against
Women. She teaches courses in the felds of gender studies, sociology, psychol-
ogy, and community social work and is the author of numerous publications.
Leslie Ramos Salazar, PhD, is Associate and Abdullat Professor at the Paul
and Virginia College of Business at West Texas A&M University specializing
in interpersonal health communication. She edited the Handbook of Research on
Cyberbullying and Online Harassment in the Workplace and is the editor-in-chief of
Sage Business Communication Foundations.
Kasturi Ray, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies at San
Francisco State University in the United States. She writes on issues of gender
and labor. Her most recent publication, coauthored with Julietta Hua, is Spent
Behind the Wheel: Drivers’ Labor in the Uber Economy (Minnesota 2021).
Tremayne Robertson, PhD candidate at Syracuse University, is Director of
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Com-
monwealth University. He has previously served as dean of students at the Uni-
versity of Virginia.
Avina Ross, PhD, has served as the frst sexual assault prevention specialist at
Mary Washington University, and as Associate Director of the Sexual Harass-
ment, Assault Advising, Resources and Education (SHARE) ofce at Princeton
University.
Maria Silvestre Cabrera, PhD, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Univer-
sity of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain, has been Dean of the Faculty of CCPP & Soci-
ology, and Director of the Master in Intervention in Violence against Women.
Her research interests and publications focus on political-social values and gender
perspectives in the social sciences.
Rowena Briones Winkler, PhD, is a women’s authenticity coach, marketing pro-
fessional, higher education consultant, and instructor who develops and teaches
courses in strategic communication and writing.
