1 Rape Culture and Social Media: Young Critics and a Feminist Counterpublic Sophie Sills,
[email protected] Chelsea Pickens,
[email protected] Karishma Beach,
[email protected] Lloyd Jones,
[email protected] Octavia Calder-Dawe,
[email protected] Paulette Benton-Greig,
[email protected] Nicola Gavey,
[email protected] (corresponding author) School of Psychology, University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand This study was supported in part by the Marsden Fund Council from New Zealand Government funding, administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand, and by the University of Auckland. Accepted for publication, Feminist Media Studies, November 2015, to be published in 16(6) 2016 2 Abstract Social media sites, according to Rentschler (2014) can become both “aggregators of online misogyny” as well as key spaces for feminist education and activism. They are spaces where ‘rape culture’, in particular, is both performed and resisted, and where a feminist counterpublic can be formed (Salter 2013). In this New Zealand study, we interviewed 17 young people (16-23 years) who were critical of rape culture about their exposure and responses to it on social media and beyond. Participants described a ‘matrix of sexism’ in which elements of rape culture formed a taken-for-granted backdrop to their everyday lives. They readily discussed examples they had witnessed, including victim-blaming, ‘slut- shaming’, rape jokes, the celebration of male sexual conquest, and demeaning sexualized representations of women. While participants described this material as distressing, they also described how online spaces offered inspiration, education and solidarity that legitimated their discomfort with rape culture.