After Nirbhaya: Anti-Sexual Violence Activism and the Politics of Transnational Social Media Campaigns
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After Nirbhaya: Anti-Sexual Violence Activism and the Politics of Transnational Social Media Campaigns Ayesha Vemuri, Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal June 2016 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Communication Studies, Graduate Option in Gender and Women Studies ©Ayesha Vemuri 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) .................................................................................................................................... 4 ABSTRACT (FRENCH) ..................................................................................................................................... 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................. 6 LIST OF IMAGES .............................................................................................................................................. 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 8 THE NIRBHAYA CASE: THE VICTIM’S BODY AS A SITE FOR COMPETING CLAIMS ............................. 14 The Assault ................................................................................................................................................ 14 Protests and legal reform .............................................................................................................................. 15 Media discourse and the politics of representation .......................................................................................... 17 International media and the making of global causes ..................................................................................... 20 TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST SOLIDARITY: A FRAMEWORK .................................................................... 24 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 26 WHY THESE CAMPAIGNS? ........................................................................................................................... 29 METHODS ...................................................................................................................................................... 32 PARTICIPATORY CULTURE, VIRAL MEDIA, AND INTERNET MEMES .................................................. 35 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SOCIAL MEDIA .......................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 1: BRUISED, BATTERED, BLEEDING .......................................................... 44 MOBILIZING ABUSED GODDESSES FOR “WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT” ..................... 44 ABUSED GODDESSES: A BRIEF HISTORY ................................................................................................... 48 Calendar Art and portrayals of the Nation .................................................................................................. 51 A Visual Analysis of Abused Goddesses .................................................................................................... 55 THE TRANSNATIONAL CIRCULATION OF ABUSED GODDESSES .......................................................... 58 The Socio-Political Economy of Social Media Platforms ............................................................................... 60 ANALYZING THE DISCOURSE GENERATED BY ABUSED GODDESSES ................................................. 63 CONCLUSION: BEYOND CRITIQUE AND TOWARDS ACTION .................................................................. 71 CHAPTER 2: GODDESSES TO THE RESCUE! ................................................................. 73 PRIYA’S SHAKTI AND THE PROBLEMATIC QUESTION OF AGENCY ........................... 73 PRIYA’S SHAKTI: AN INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 76 2 Conceptualizing and Creating Priya’s Shakti ............................................................................................... 78 PRIYA’S SHAKTI IN THE CONTEXT OF COMICS IN INDIA ......................................................................... 82 Amar Chitra Katha: Hinduism, Nationalism, and Ideal Femininity ........................................................... 84 Priya’s Shakti: an analysis .......................................................................................................................... 89 UNCRITICAL DISCOURSE, UNINTENDED HARM ....................................................................................... 94 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................... 101 CHAPTER 3: EVERYDAY RESISTANCE AS FEMINIST PRAXIS ................................ 103 THE WORK OF THE BLANK NOISE COLLECTIVE ......................................................... 103 BLANK NOISE: COLLECTIVE ACTION AGAINST STREET SEXUAL HARASSMENT .............................. 105 Action Heroes as neoliberal feminists ......................................................................................................... 108 Blank Noise as a space for feminist pedagogy ............................................................................................. 112 Online and Offline Activism ...................................................................................................................... 114 THE TALK TO ME CAMPAIGN ................................................................................................................. 118 The Dialectics of Space in Urban India ..................................................................................................... 120 Challenging Biases and Producing Counternarratives .................................................................................. 121 Talk to Me as a Transnational Media Campaign ..................................................................................... 124 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................... 128 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 131 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 137 3 Abstract (English) In December 2012, the brutal gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus in New Delhi resulted in widespread protests across India. Now known as the Nirbhaya case, this incident generated a mass media furor around the globe, bringing intensified attention to sexual violence in India, as well as revealing orientalist and neocolonial perceptions about gender violence in India. In this thesis, I analyse three campaigns that went viral on social media following the Nirbhaya incident. The Abused Goddesses advertising campaign uses images of battered Hindu goddesses to create awareness about domestic violence. Priya’s Shakti is an augmented reality comic book that presents a rape survivor as a ‘superhero’ who embarks on a journey to overturn rape culture and victim blaming. Finally, Talk to Me is a site-specific performative art project that addresses the fear that defines the experience of many women in India’s public spaces, by using the tools of dialogue and community building across borders of class, caste, gender, and language. I view the discourse surrounding these three campaigns through the conceptual lens of transnational feminist solidarity, as articulated in the work of postcolonial feminists such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Jacqui Alexander, Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. I argue that international media reports which uncritically celebrate the use of Hindu mythology in campaigns about sexual violence contribute to the persistence of orientalist and neocolonial perceptions of India. In addition, they help render invisible the ongoing and increasing violence of Hindu fundamentalism in India. I advocate a conscious effort to move away from such narrow discursive portrayals of sexual violence in India, towards a more reflective and nuanced narrative. This move, I argue, creates the opportunity for forming coalitions and solidarity amongst transnational feminists across borders of class, race, caste, nationality, religion, sexuality and gender. 4 Abstract (French) En décembre 2012, le viol collectif brutal d’une jeune femme dans un bus à New Dehli a généré une vague de manifestations a travers l'Inde. Maintenant connu sous le nom d’affaire Nirbhaya, cet incident a généré un scandale médiatique mondial, attirant une attention renforcée sur la violence sexuelle en Inde, révélant aussi des perceptions orientalistes et néocoloniales sur la violence à caractère sexiste en Inde. Dans cette thèse, j’analyse trois campagnes qui sont devenues virales sur les réseaux sociaux a la suite de l’affaire Nirbhaya. La campagne publicitaire Abused Goddesses utilise des images de déesses battues pour sensibiliser le public à propos de la violence domestique. Priya's Shakti est un magazine de bandes dessinées utilisant la réalité augmentée et qui présente la survivante d’un viol comme une ‘super hero’ qui se lance dans une aventure pour renverser la culture du viol et la logique de déresponsabilisation.