e-FEMINISM: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

How can men be included

as allies in digital activism?

Miriam Sastre Portillo

Communication for Development One-year master 15 Credits Degree Project-VT20 Supervisor: Tobias Denskus

e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing up this thesis has been like walking an endless tunnel without seeing a single ray of sunshine. On numerous occasions, I have been tempted to throw in the towel, but now I take great pride in finally submitting this dissertation.

It would not be fair to take all the credit, as this DP would have not been completed without the help and support of too many people. Thank you all for taking the time to fill in a questionnaire, answer a few questions on the phone or respond to an email; your availability has been key for my research.

I would like to thank Florencia Enghel for answering quickly to all my doubts even if sometimes a bit silly. Thank you, Tobias Denskus, for allowing this paper to be my own work, but providing me with sound advice and direction when requested.

I would also like to acknowledge my classmate and old friend, Natalia Hernández, as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments on this thesis, for always answering never-ending audio messages and for being a companion during this Master’s programme.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents, my sister and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my life adventures and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you.

Gracias a mi familia y mis amigos por animarme a seguir cuando me flaqueaban las fuerzas, por apoyarme en todas las decisiones que he tomado y por darme lo mejor de vosotros para ayudarme a ser una mejor versión de mi misma.

Gracias. Thank you. Merci.

1 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

ABSTRACT

The fresh idea of including men in feminist campaigning might be a reaction to a postfeminist context with much uncertainty towards the feminist movement and arises a never-ending complex and contested issue within the feminist theory.

This research aims at understanding the rise of feminist communication on social media, particularly on Instagram, with a special focus on men’s representation and involvement. Therefore, this paper will study men’s engagement in feminist digital campaigning on Instagram; and their representation and participation in this type of activism without ostracizing women.

In recent years, social media have gained an increasing number of users, transforming these platforms into daily communication tools. Notably, Instagram has achieved considerable success with a growing use in e-commerce campaigns and social activism. In this context, this report will reduce its scope to Instagram feminist accounts in Spain and will consider the potential of social media for change by conducting surveys to feminist organisations and social media users and analysing the contents published by feminist influencers.

All in all, this study responds to existing debates on how (or if) men should be included in the feminist movement. The clear conclusion to this DP is that there is not a simple answer to this matter.

Keywords: Social media, feminism, social change processes, media, representation, Instagram, citizens, activists, Spain, activism, gender, women’s rights, gender equality, Public sphere, social media

Word count: 13,628

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 6

1.1. Introducing the Topic ...... 6

1.2. Background and Context ...... 7

Feminism in Spain: Historically Lagging Behind ...... 8

The Fourth Wave in Spain: the Beginning of a New Era...... 9

The Rise of Digital Activism into Focus ...... 12

Men, Feminism and New Masculinities ...... 14

1.3. Research Purpose ...... 15

1.4. Research Questions ...... 16

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 16

2.1. The Rise of Social Media, #feminism and Instagram ...... 17

Instagram: a Space of (re)Presentation and Activism ...... 18

2.2. Digital Technologies: Highlights and Challenges for Feminism ...... 20

2.3. Men doing Feminism ...... 23

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 26

1.1. Definitions ...... 26

1.2. The Visual Communication Theory ...... 28

1.3. The Cultivation Theory ...... 29

1.4. Media for Development ...... 30

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4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...... 31

4.1. Surveys ...... 31

4.2. Case Studies ...... 37

5. ANALYSIS ...... 39

5.1. Do Spanish people use Instagram? ...... 39

5.2. Instagram Users and their Perception on Feminist Accounts ...... 39

5.3. Feminist Organizations and their Gender Involvement for Real Equality ...... 43

5.4. Men Representation on Instagram Feminist Accounts ...... 44

6. CONCLUSIONS ...... 48

6.1. Answering the Research Questions ...... 49

How do feminist organisations and influencers use Instagram in Spain as an activist communicative tool? ...... 49

How do Instagram users engage and value feminist Instagram accounts? ...... 50

How do feminist Instagram accounts/campaigns represent or address men in that context as a way of fostering feminism? ...... 51

6.2. Contributions ...... 52

6.3. Limitations and Future Research ...... 52

7. REFERENCES ...... 54

8. APPENDIX ...... 65

Appendix I ...... 65

SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS ...... 65

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Appendix II ...... 66

SURVEY FOR ORGANISATIONS ...... 66

Appendix III ...... 67

SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM USERS ...... 67

Appendix IV ...... 72

Instagram Publications 24/02-15/03 ...... 72

Moderna de pueblo: ...... 72

Feminista Ilustrada: ...... 72

Roy Galan: ...... 74

Appendix V ...... 75

ORGANISATIONS SUMMARY ...... 75

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introducing the Topic

“It is crucial that men get active in feminist campaigns and that gender equality initiatives specifically target men. The very future of feminism depends on it” (Banyard, 2010, p. 234).

With the advent of Social Media, the world is experiencing a major transformation in the way we socialise and communicate. Social media have provided new tools, new interaction mechanisms, new forms of expression, and spurred and facilitated social participation. Furthermore, social networks are proving to be key for social change since they are capable of creating a sense of community and lead public mobilisation (Tufte, 2017). As a matter of fact, in the last decade, we have seen a social uprising thanks to social media support, from the Arab Spring to the anti-austerity movement in Spain or feminist-oriented strands such as #metoo, #cuentalo, #TimesUp, #NiUnaMenos or #WhyIStayed to name a few.

All these social movements used social media to raise a common voice and bring about political changes. They, somehow, fostered bottom-up approaches and leaderless movements, but although social networks prone everybody to speak up, there is always key players that light the fire. We can, then, identify some of the key actors within feminist communication in digital media:

1. Online Activists | Celebrities | Influencers 2. NGO’s | International Organisations 3. Civil society | Users-followers | “Victims”

In this era of the Internet communication, there is no denying that influencers get to a wide audience. According to Enke and Borchers (2018), social media influencers are those Internet users that have built up a high number of relationships and that create periodically specific content and liaise via social media with their followers, which can lead to influencing their actions or thoughts by raising awareness about certain topics or making people think about concrete themes. Frequently, feminist influencers start as

6 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain activists, posting about issues that really concern them and by being argumentative and using the right hashtags to reach a wide audience. We can also include celebrities, such as Beyoncé and Emma Watson, within this category, since, as public figures, they already count on a high number of fans, and they have been key in popularising the word “feminism”.

Hundreds, even thousands and sometimes millions of people follow what influencers do, what they say, what they think, but if we focus on feminist influencers we soon realise a critical factor: where are men? It is not a surprise that women worry more about gender equality than men, since they are the ones most suffering and experiencing a patriarchal system, unfair with them. I refuse, however, to believe that men cannot be feminists or women’s allies in this fight.

The hashtag #feminism is increasingly present in our living environment, so much that it was even the word of 2017 for the American dictionary Merriam-Webster (Criss, 2017). Hashtags have become a powerful tool to give voice to those who can seldom raise their voice. Thus, social networks are undoubtedly contributing to social justice and women empowerment. Besides, there are a growing number of Instagrammers1 devoted to educating people and raising awareness about feminism, while creating an invaluable sense of belonging to a bigger community.

The broader theme of this paper would be communication for social change in a transnational public sphere using social networks, in particular, Instagram. Social media are essential to modern feminism, gathering different identities and allowing feminists to be more inclusive, transversal and plural. Thus, if the feminist agenda wants to have an effect on the political dimension, it must reach those, women and men, who are still not convinced.

1.2. Background and Context

Since the Enlightment period in Europe, feminism has become intrinsic to human society and a constant battle to gain the right to vote, reproductive rights, abolish

1 Influencers specialised on Instagram.

7 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain gender-role stereotypes and so on. The feminist fight continues and it has now reached a wider scope thanks to digital media.

It was not until the XIX century, with the suffragettes2, that feminism was really born as a social movement (Martínez, 2004). Social movements are “informal networks, based on shared beliefs and solidarity, which mobilise about conflictual issues, through the frequent use of various forms of protest” (Della Porta and Diani, 1999, ref. in Crossley, 2007). With this in mind, feminist social movements can be considered a continuation of Tufte’s “third generation” based on rights-based demands (2017) .

Feminism in Spain: Historically Lagging Behind

Although the First Feminism Wave was developed between the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century -until the II World War-; in Spain, this movement did not start to emerge until the very last two decades of the nineteenth century (Universidad de Barcelona, n.d.). Particularly, the biggest achievements were acquired during the Second Republic (1931-1939), fundamental for women’s rights, acquiring the female vote, civil marriage and divorce, etc. However, there was little room for the change to become a reality and with the establishment of Francoism3, women’s situation fell back 40 years (Seara, 2019).

Afterwards, moving from an authoritarian regime to a democracy in a brief period of time allowed rapid social change, with an overall steady relevance towards gender equality as a governmental priority (Bustelo, 2019). Therefore, from then on and taking into account the functioning of the Spanish feminist movement, we can divide the history of the feminist activist praxis into particular stages:

2 First feminist organised groups to carry out collective actions.

3 Set of ideologies and movements related to the Franco dictatorship and that political regime, which emerged in Spain after the civil war of 1936-1939 and lasted until the dictator's natural death in 1975; the bases of this regime were, among others, Spanish nationalism, Catholicism, fascism and anti- communism, which supported a totalitarian military dictatorship.

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First Stage (1975-1979)

In the 70s, during the Second Feminist Wave, Spanish women, although still under a patriarchal system, started to shape a movement echoed by what was happening in the States. Franco died in 1975 and two weeks later the "First Day of the Liberation of Women" was celebrated in Madrid (still in hiding) (Seara, 2019). Furthermore, during the 70s and 80s, several measures were introduced: equal and public education for boys and girls, divorce, legal equality…, but other issues, such as the right of abortion were pending for a really long time.

Second Stage (1980-1988)

This period “was defined by organizational de-structuring and the end of collective action” (Nuñez Puente, 2016). A new, independent feminism raised, arguing for a break between the feminist movement and the institutional sphere (Nuñez Puente, 2016)

Third Stage (1989-early 2000)

During the 90s and the first years of the 2000, with the Third Wave, Spanish feminism went through a decay in participation, but two elements characterized this period: the institutionalization of feminism with the appearance of organisations focused on the promotion of gender equality; and the consolidation of academic feminism. (Nuñez Puente, 2016). The victory of the PSOE in 2004 was representative, making possible the creation of the Integrated Law Against Gender Violence -2004-, and the Organic Law for Effective Equality of Women and Men -2007- (Nuñez Puente, 2016).

The Fourth Wave in Spain: the Beginning of a New Era

After years of slumber, new technologies and, in particular, social media propelled a feminist tsunami in an increasingly globalized world, with the economic crisis, anti and alter-globalisation movements and a growing use of smartphones. From 2008 and the case of Hillary Clinton4 (Zimmerman, 2017), a new way of protesting came up as a

4 The devastating sexism experienced by Hillary Clinton during her campaign to the US presidential elections made women stand up and somehow built an “anti-postfeminist collective consciousness” (Fortini, 2008 in Zimmerman, 2017).

9 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain sharp reaction to neoliberal globalization (Eriksen, 2014). This has been called the Fourth Wave, defined as ‘‘a sharing of voices, engagement with global politics, focus on intersectionality’’ (Jackson, 2018) and a migration into digital spaces (Matich, et al., 2018). It pursues similar goals to the third - reproductive justice, trans inclusion, sexual- minority rights, intersectionality5, and the deconstruction of privilege- (Vogel, 2014), but it has meant the beginning of an era of online activism and the use of digital tools to modify gender relations (Matich, et al., 2018). Therefore, this would be its political strength: raising the voice of all the “women still marginalized” (Munro, 2013).

In Maclaran’s words (2015):

”The ‘F’ word has finally made a comeback”

Nonetheless, some still insist on calling it a fad, despising the success of the movement to gather the voices of millions of women and focusing on belittling the power of social networks to create viral, feminist contents, messages and symbols that have been adopted on a massive scale. In Spain, the 21st century brought many advancements in the feminist fight. Notably, one of the most remarkable ones is the spread of a “diffuse feminism” (Varela, 2019), which represents those women who do not consider themselves as feminists, but, however, they defend their autonomy and rights daily.

A vertiginous legal development started in 2004, when the country had, for the first time, a parity-based government: measures against gender violence, equal marriage, abortion... All this reform was placed at risk in 2013 when the right-wing accessed the presidency and presented a project to eliminate women’s abortion rights. That is when feminism in Spain woke up, creating “El tren de la libertad” (The train of freedom6), a spontaneous movement that stopped that project.

5 “Intersectionality” (Crenshaw, 1989) – as well as intergenerationality-, can be understood as the interconnection of social categories such as race, class, gender, sexuality and age, as the framework to combat discrimination or privileges, “demonstrated time after time with hashtags like #solidarityisforwhitewomen, which resonated, angered, and divided many feminists” (Zimmerman, 2017).

6 This author's translation.

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This new wave fights against the trivialisation and commodification of feminism with its technological and communicational revolution, where social media is used as a tool to convey a message and somehow rebelling against silence

Illustration 1. El tren de la libertad. Source: and offering an open conversation https://cadenaser.com/ser/2014/02/01/espana/1391215817_850215. html space (Fernández, 2019). Thus, social networks are acting as the microphone to disseminate real actions and mobilisations, while allowing any women to speak up and feel supported and listened. In recent years, many campaigns defending women’s rights have had an impact in diverse topics such as workplace harassment or sexual assault. Influencers such as Moderna de Pueblo7, Leticia Dolera8, Feminista Ilustrada9, Roy Galan10, or Barbijaputa11, amongst others, are playing a significant role to explain feminism and spreading the feminist concerns to a wide audience.

This current cyberfeminism12 can be considered as fast and superficial, but it is also building bridges and answers against a neoliberal globalization. Moreover, feminism has moved from being stigmatized to being backed up by most citizens, which implies a clear mainstreaming regarding politics, ideologies, race, gender etc (Fernández, 2019).

7 A Catalan illustrator who became a viral phenomenon in 2018 for publishing vignettes with the story of "a village girl" with a touch of comic irony.

8 A Spanish actress, screenwriter, film director, writer and feminist activist.

9 A Spanish cartoonist, writer and feminist activist on Instagram.

10 Writer, columnist, influencer, and one of the few male, feminist activists in Spain.

11 The pseudonym of a Spanish writer, columnist and tweeter who keeps her identity hidden and talks about various topical aspects of feminism and politics

12 A community, philosophy and set of practices concerned with feminist acts in cyberspace.

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On balance, this wave mixes on-site activism with online communication and actions, placing sorority at the centre of this movement. There are also more links with the LGBT and queer movements and new images of what being a feminist is have appeared: black women can be feminists, fat women can fight against fashion standards and transsexuals and non-binary people can as well find their place within this wave.

Notably, the International Women’s Strike on March 8, 2018, had an unprecedented impact in Spain with over 5 million women supporting the strike, and almost 3 million people attended demonstrations in more than 100 cities and with a continued success in 2019 (G. Abrisketa & G. Abrisketa, 2020). Social media has proved to be paramount for feminist activism ever since (Larrondo, et al., 2019). Furthermore, this outburst was preceded by diverse factors, primarily, the sexual aggression by a gang of five men against a young woman in the San Fermín festival in 2016 (the wolf-pack case) and all the political struggles that hit the Spanish society afterwards. This case created a sense of solidarity amongst women as a way of confronting the “structural tolerance of sexual violence in Spain” (G. Abrisketa & G. Abrisketa, 2020)

The silence was over.

The Rise of Digital Activism into Focus

With the popularisation of the Internet, many women encountered an ally for activism in digital technologies. In Spain, cyberfeminism developed during the 90s together with a “theoretical critique which idealised the internet as a space of empowerment for women” (Nuñez Puente and García, 2011c in Nuñez Puente, et al., 2017). Notwithstanding, it was, above all, the aforementioned wolf-pack case that stirred a new wave of protests, interventions and publications, together with a rise in street-based protests (Baer, 2016).

According to Athina Karatzogianni (Kaun & Uldam, 2018), digital activism can be divided in four waves: 1. Linked to the Zapatista movement and anti-globalization movement; 2.Linked to anti-Iraq war; 3. After 2007, digital activism spreads beyond Europe and the States; 4. Characterised by Wikileaks and Snowden. This fourth wave coincides with Gerbaudo’s second wave of the 2010’s, which included the cyber- populism used during the anti-austerity movements (Kaun & Uldam, 2018).

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As stated by Treré and Mattoni (2015 in Kaun & Uldam, 2018), there is a continued need for historicizing digital activism […] following the complex activist digital media ecology over time. Chiefly, Spanish activists rely “heavily on technologies emerging from the free culture movement” as a tool to develop political economies of communication (Kaun & Uldam, 2018).

Currently, fourth-wavers are women, digitally natives, “who harness the power of the Internet and social media to challenge gender inequity” (Maclaran, 2015). They work on creating attractive content to guarantee that they are read, liked and shared, reaching a wider audience, although often still composed of white middle-class women (Munro, 2013). Along with this barrier to overcome, the fourth wave is criticized for being concerned only about visibility and connections, which, according to Jouët (2018), “cannot lead to much social change”. However, these easy connections facilitate face- to-face mobilisations in the public sphere, which is, in the end, what will drive political responses and thus, social change.

All in all, in 20 years digital activism has become key for social movements, mixing online and offline “to the extent that the online and offline are not, and perhaps never were, separate spheres” (Zimmerman, 2017). It is

both individual and Illustration 2. Women's March. collective, and allows the influence and interaction with a wider group of people and a “rapid reaction to sexism and rapid mobilization of activists” thanks to consciousness-raising and to challenging sexism and misogyny openly, which unifies all women irrespective of their class or race (Dean & Aune, 2016).

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Men, Feminism and New Masculinities

Nowadays, the issue of men’s relationship to feminism has become a topic of public debate and is gaining more a more academic attention (Nardini, 2016), but it has always been a contested matter.

The rise of the interest of social scientists on the debate about masculinity began in the 1980s. It is beyond question that there are different constructions of masculinity, and that these patterns of masculinity depend on the society where the subject has been raised. Therefore, differences between sexes are created, not by birth, but by culture and society and thus, men should be also involved in gender equality campaigning.

Each society creates a specific ideal of being a man, the way they must behave, and the common and institutional design of men’s relations and lives. Without exception, men being born in patriarchal societies are exposed to these pressures about how to be a man and consistently, these “rules” are internalised and will shape the way that men relate to women (Pease, 2015).

Therefore, transforming masculinity has become essential in order to engage men in gender equality; this can be achieved by changing the cultural and social norms that guide men’s behaviour, rather than by tackling the basis of gender inequalities (Cornwall, et al., 2011).

Social structures under patriarchal societies disadvantage both men and women (Cornwall, et al., 2011), and thus, gender equality matters should be considered everybody’s issues instead of being labelled incorrectly as “women’s issues” (Cornwall, et al., 2011). Furthermore, societies where there is a hegemonic masculinity that allows men’s dominance over women to continue (Connell & W. Messerchmidt, 2005) usually privilege concrete and particular ways of being a man, turning other masculinities into the “subaltern” variants of masculinities (Edström, et al., 2014).

Since their participation in the first women’s rights convention (1848), men have always campaigned for gender equality, but in a tiny minority (van der Gaag, 2020). However, there has been a recent increase in the number of men marching against violence against women. Furthermore, men often start their engagement with profeminist activism by

14 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain supporting actions against gender-based violence, which normally leads them to be more gender-ware (Nardini, 2013)

Overall, as stated by Nardini (2013) men need to rethink on what normative masculinity means. While many men could recognised themselves as feminists, there is a clear need for them “to have the kinds of discussions that women have had for so many years, about their role in society, about sexism and patriarchy, about how to prevent violence and to move forward both as men and with women” (van der Gaag, 2020), and in order to do so, they have to acknowledge patriarchy and realise their implications in it (Hearn, 2020; van der Gaag, 2020).

With this objective, some organisations of men were created in order to build spaces of reflexion, since men are both “actors of gender norms as well as subjects of social change” (Nardini, 2016) and make them aware of the benefits they could gain when reaching a more equalitarian masculinity (Nardini, 2013).

1.3. Research Purpose

The feminist subject has become political again, which has strengthened the movement and created a new wave based on a global and heterogeneous spirit. In other words, feminism tries to transform life’s meaning. It is no longer only about women wanting to be equal to men, it is also about men realising that the patriarchal system is also imposing limitations on them and about gathering different struggles (Reverter & Medina-Vicent, 2020): “It’s not only about women’s issues, it’s about the issues women care about” (This is Personal, 2019). The fourth feminism wave (see The Fourth Wave), raised with the new millennium, aspires to unify different troubles under a feminist approach and therefore, taking into account different genders, ages and races, and rising them via social media.

This study seeks to understand the problem of men’s engagement in feminist digital campaigning via Instagram in Spain from two different perspectives: how they are represented by Instagram feminist influencers, and how they are (or could be) further influenced by feminist campaigns so as to be more engaged in feminism.

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So as to make a broader approach as possible, this analysis will also take into account organisations’ and users’ vision and objectives on the role of feminist communication on Instagram and men’s involvement and, to a lesser extent, the kind of contents shared by Spanish feminist influencers on Instagram to foster social change towards gender equality. Chiefly, I will focus on knowing those Spanish Instagram users following feminist Instagram accounts, their thoughts and impressions about feminist content on this social network, and their views on the current and potential involvement of men in digital campaigning.

In sum, the purpose of this research will be understanding the use of Instagram as a feminist activist communication channel. Further, I will probably analyse the data using an interpretative approach, which means analysing everything and relating the data to build a holistic picture of the situation.

1.4. Research Questions

The objectives of this paper highlighted and explained further above are also reflected in my research questions. My main research questions will be:

- How do feminist organisations and influencers use Instagram in Spain as an activist communicative tool? - How do Instagram users engage and value feminist Instagram accounts? - How do feminist Instagram accounts/campaigns represent or address men in that context as a way of fostering feminism?

Thanks to answering to these questions, the research will allow me to analyse the types of content women versus men Instagrammers offer and to consider how men could be further engaged on Instagram in order to become feminist supporters.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

In this item, I will mainly give an insight on the following topics based on existing research and books: Social Media and Instagram, feminist digital activism, and men’s involvement in feminism. Although I have tried to focus on men’s engagement in

16 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain digital feminist campaigns, to my knowledge, there is not much research focused solely on that, let alone on Instagram particularly.

2.1. The Rise of Social Media, #feminism and Instagram

After the women’s rights revolution of the 60s and before the social media culture, feminism fell into a light sleep, far from being popular or relevant in society. With the emergence of the “network society” (Castells, 2009) and Smartphones into our pockets, we had a greater and instant access “to information and exchanges of ideas as enhancing political participation, civil society, and democracy” (Şen, 2012). Consequently, women started to use social media as a tool to promote and convey feminist ideas.

Social Media create a “media-centric dimension” (Tufte, 2017) that brings about “media-centric and citizen-driven processes of enhancing social justice” and build a sense of togetherness and empowerment, while using a “soft leadership” coming from influencers and feminist organisations (Tufte, 2017). Hence, Instagram becomes the tool to educate on equality while building sorority and support amongst feminists.

Nowadays, reaching a high number of people is cheap, fast and easy (Della Porta & Mosca, 2005) and social media have played a crucial role in creating social movements. Therefore, social media can be considered a political public sphere that can “monitor and criticize the state, and groups that take political action” (Ibidem), and thus feminism also find a space for political pressure.

“Global justice activists have made innovative use of global computer networks, informational politics, and network-based organizational forms” (Castells, 2005) to “constitute the basic infrastructure for transnational social movements, providing arenas for the production, contestation, and dissemination of specific movement-related discourses and practices” (Diani, 1995, ref. in Castells, 2005).

Internet gives voice to everyone and facilitates the birth of opinion leaders, those who speak up and influence their network (Ibidem), in social media commonly known as influencers. That is why, the feminist cause, “operating at both local and global levels”

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(Castells, 2005), has used this tool as a way of raising awareness and pushing the fight from social media to the streets.

Nonetheless, it is worth noting that face-to-face reunions, such as the 8M demonstrations, celebrated on the International Women's Day to demand full equality between men and women, or other kind of protests, where people can interact in a closer way, are essential to build a sense of “imagined community”, while “rendering the collective more concrete, cohesive and structured”, since social media is just the tool that creates feelings of solidarity, which is the predecessor to the actual action (Kavada, 2014). Besides, this activism needs to be also backed up by a large press coverage and the support of convinced MPs to obtain new legal rights (Jouët, 2018).

Today, the hashtag feminism has given birth to a new form of doing and advocating feminism, and feminist organisations and collectives use different hashtags to unite women for the same cause. Young feminist activists are good at producing creative, visual contents, while using an attractive tone (humour, satire, etc) and at networking (Jouët, 2018) as we can see in many Spanish Instagram accounts, such as Moderna de Pueblo – viral illustrator that promotes womanhood with a touch of comic irony -, La vecina rubia -a famous anonymous Instagrammer with more than 1 million followers on Instagram -,or Feminista Ilustrada - a Spanish illustrator, author and feminist activist on Instagram -. These attractive interactions rise their number of followers and hence, the participation and the interest in these issues; making the activists become influencers and increasing, in turn, the quantity of activists, online, offline or both (Ibidem.). Yet, at the same time, considerable doubts arise regarding the real engagement and value that Instagram users give to these accounts, and how they represent and address men in the same context.

Instagram: a Space of (re)Presentation and Activism

Instagram is a photo sharing app which allows users to edit, add captions, engage with others and explore by using hashtags. The posts can also use location-based geotags and hashtags to be searchable by other users. Moreover, Instagram users can comment and bookmark others’ posts and send private messages via the Instagram Direct feature. On balance, this social network is increasingly displacing other networks such as Twitter

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and Facebook, mainly amongst the younger generation (Gen Z13 and millennials14), but there is a clear general tendency to use Instagram instead of other social sites (Leaver, et al., 2020).

Therefore, this platform has shown a

Illustration 3. Source: substantial rise in recent years and https://nilefm.com/tech/article/807/instagram-to-notify-users-if- their-stories-get-screenshot-or-recorded-soon with increasing use in social media activist campaigns. Although it has been long considered just as a photosharing app, its use in marketing and e-commerce, providing information, and in social relations, makes evident the huge potential of this platform, that increased its users from 15 million to 100 million thanks to its partnership with Facebook in 2012 (Serafinelli, 2018) .

Social media are now part of people’s daily grind, allowing them to create and keep an online image. This is further emphasised with Instagram celebrities that must respect the precise image they have built and that their followers value in order to keep growing their audience (Serafinelli, 2018).

Furthermore, Instagram highlights user’s active role characterised by three fundamental features (Serafinelli, 2018):

1. Consumer behaviours: comments, likes, connections…, 2. User-generated content (UGC), posts, stories, texts, images…, and 3. Viral advertising, including participation in contests, social campaigns via hashtags…

13 Generation Z is the demographic group following Millennials and going before Generation Alpha. It refers to those born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s.

14 Also known as Generation Y, these are commonly known as the children of the baby boomers and they are following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Media and experts tend to use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years.

19 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Ultimately, as defended by Tufte (2017), feminist digital campaigning on Instagram reaches three goals:

1. Engagement and mobilisation: Directing people to physical protests; 2. Collective Identity: Giving advice on how to act; 3. Collective Action: Building an “emotional narrative to sustain their coming together in the public space”.

This “multi-vocal narrative” (2017) has “femfluencers” as the agents of social change that along with a clear increase on citizen engagement in social change could potentially reach an evolution in thoughts and behaviours. On the one hand, Instagram (and social media) is also participatory communication and it can spark heated discussions and food for thought towards key topics. On the other hand, Instagram can “serve as [a tool] for enhancing development and social change agendas” (2017).

2.2. Digital Technologies: Highlights and Challenges for Feminism

The intensive use of social media is central in feminist activism. It facilitates organisation and communication of protests, by fostering fast, mass user activity while creating leadership and collective identities (Poell & van Dijck, 2018) together with the emergence of new creative modes of protest (Baer, 2016). As Illustrated in “Feminist hashtag activism in Spain” (Larrondo, et al., 2019), social media can be valid tools for the feminist cause as a fast way to reach awareness and give further visibility to the cause.

Sebring (2019) explores the political trends within hashtag feminism and the opportunities and limitations that digital campaigning offers.

Moreover, she also focuses on Illustration 4. #Feminism on Instagram. Instagram and highlights that posts are “often concerned with addressing male privilege, claiming an unapologetic feminist identity, representing women across races, engaging humour to address everyday sexism and racism, attention to sexual assault

20 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain awareness and activism, and solidarity among women” (Sebring, 2019). Considering this is essential in order to be able to understand the objectives behind feminist publications and how feminist use Instagram as a communicative tool. These mainstream feminist campaigning also may communicate too simple messages, just promoting “girl power” and not real political action, without providing a good basis on feminism’s history and theories (Sebring, 2019). This is one of the biggest critiques towards the Internet and it will be worth bearing it in mind when analysing publications on Instagram.

Digital campaigns are often driven by influencers capable to create collective identities and to exercise their power by “triggering, shapping, and incorporating user contributions”, since “personalisation, realtimeness, and virality are part of social media’s DNA” (Poell & van Dijck, 2018). Therefore, comments and reactions towards Instagram publications would also help deduce the scope of concrete publications.

Social media have been essential to empower young feminists to become digital activists. Jouët (2018) analysed how French feminists use digital media to promote their cause; she defends that the net has offered a space to “all trends and new collectives” and thus, pacifying the feminist community. Activists are willing to be seen and are experts on digital media use, and are able to use “new creative cultural formats” (Jouët, 2018). In short, “feminist collectives master the buzz and the viral potential of social media” as a way to create political strategies in the public sphere (Jouët, 2018).

According to her survey (Jouët, 2018), digital media are “communicative devices and tools for action in order to stay connected and to recruit new members”. However, the rise in visibility of feminism also led to a rampant cyber-sexism (Jouët, 2018), aggressive online harassment and “virulent new forms of online sexism and misogyny” (Bates, 2014; Penny, 2014 in Dean & Aune, 2016). Feminism has always found some kind of rejection, but “[digital] feminist views are often met with greater rejection and aggression” (Carstensen, 2013) due to the easy access to digital spaces. Instagrammers can also suffer some kind of harassment and men and women can react differently towards feminist contents.

Furthermore, feminist digital activism encounters many more challenges, such us the invalidation of their activism as less useful in comparison to groundwork, burnout rates

21 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain of digital feminists, or the gendered construction of social media – i.e. activists succeeded in making Facebook break the binary male-female gender option for profiles -. That is, social media are male domains fraught with stereotypes and inequalities, but feminists find also room for politics and activism (Carstensen, 2013).

Essentially, online feminist communities foster consciousness raising and produce different kinds of engagement (Jouët, 2018); for instance, influencers on Instagram receive hundreds of comments and generate debates in the pictures feeds, and specific campaigns can lead to bigger changes in perspective (Matich, et al., 2018). Considering Instagrammers as continuous campaigners, one can deduce that they could somehow foster feminism and a modification in patriarchal behaviours.

In “Young feminists, feminism and digital media”, Jackson (2018) presents social media as user-friendly tools for anyone to take part in feminist politics, and notably, “a key hub for sharing information, educating others and critiquing culture”. Feminist Instagrammers share a great deal of information on feminism, which helps people understand specific situations and raise awareness about their cause. As well as influencers, anyone can spread awareness, share information, challenge women representation and teach/learn via digital tools, with the only difference that Instagrammers reach a broader audience and carry out this task as a job.

Nuñez and García (2011)study the connection between gender and technology in online Spanish feminist praxis and defend that different community-building actions lead to various responses to cyberactivism, which is basic to maintain social change. Although at the beginning, online feminist portals emerged as a continuation of political action, Nuñez and García (2011) show that Spanish feminists encounter on the Internet the “same inequalities and hopeful possibilities” as in any other space (Nuñez Puente, 2011), following a mixed perspective of technofeminism, that defends that society’s heteropatriarchal structures are reproduced online (Reverter, 1992 in Fernández Rovira, 2019)and cyberfeminism that believes that new technologies can help reduce gender inequality (Valera, 2013 in Fernández Rovira, 2019). That is, Instagrammers can represent a new way to foster equality, but at the same time they may as well be still victims of patriarchal attitudes online. Moreover, in 2017, Nuñez, et al. also propose that women should not be recognised as victims, but to encourage them to feel their

22 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain agency and autonomy (Nuñez Puente, et al., 2017), which is what feminist Instagram accounts usually succeed in communicating.

It is worth stressing that digital publications follow a road difficult to foresee and that depend on the way they are read and receive (Matich, et al., 2018).

2.3. Men doing Feminism

After a few pages writing about feminism, I have realised that men have mostly been left out of the movement. Most articles about feminism issues are made by women and rarely do we see men’s interactions with feminism mentioned in any of them. However, taking into account that society is made of women and men, and if intersectionality is crucial to current feminism, should not men be also included in feminism and its communication actions?

Building an inclusive, plural and transversal movement is key and will be essential for feminism in the years to come. As stated by Alabao (2018) amongst others, today’s feminism cannot be based on the construction of a single political subject, a "woman", understood as a closed identity that is opposed to that of "man". Thus, the work of feminist activists is to foster critical discussion and debate to promote social justice and equality, all together.

Kimmel (1998) identified two approaches related to men’s involvement:

1. A men’s auxiliary model, in which men support women; 2. An equal partners’ model, in which men and women decide and participate in feminist tasks equally.

Baily (2012) also raised another possible role, which we could name the “men working with men” approach, in which their role is working on their own to challenge their own privileges and masculinities. Overall, feminists accept the idea of including men, but generally defend that women should lead and that some issues, such as rapes, should be women-only matters (Baily, 2015). According to Flood (2015), these spaces are necessary “to support those who are most disadvantaged by pervasive gender

23 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain inequalities; to maintain women’s solidarity and leadership; and to foster women’s consciousness-raising and collective empowerment”.

On the whole, one could argue that there is not a “a universal men’s relationship with feminism”, but different manners of acting (Tienari & Taylor, 2018), from supporting gender equality or speaking up against gender violence to adopting caring father roles or exploring emotions and corporeality, to name a few (Nardini, 2013).

According to a study by van der Gaag (2020), younger feminists have started to see the involvement of men in feminism as fundamental in recent years and that many defend that women and men can work together, although others acknowledge that some feminists are also strongly against including men.

All the things you suggest men should do; mobilizing other men, challenging one another, voting for women, working in trade unions, I agree they MUST do. Not as a favour to women. But because they want to, and they must do it if they are so called democrats, human rights activists/believers that they claim to be. The biggest thing men must do however is to change their personal behaviours, attitudes, and relationships with women.

Everjoice Win (van der Gaag, 2020)

Furthermore, in Fisher’s “Involving Men in Building Gender Equality” (2015), he defends that engaging men in promoting gender equality could also translate into an approach to capture male audiences’ interest and support, instead of alienating men with accusatory messages; they could also raise awareness, be observers and learners on new skills for gender equality, and be fervent supporters of the cause (Fisher, 2015).

In Baily’s study (2012), she presented different reactions towards men’s engagement: some stated that men were just being allowed to be involved just to show some kind of fairness and “real” equality; others highlighted that few men were actually taking part in feminism, even when admitted, and suggested that men might not be truly interested

24 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain in getting involved but only felt entitled to it, as defended also by Kimmel (1998). Therefore, allowing or even encouraging men to play a part in feminism does not mean that they will. Nonetheless, it is a common belief that men’s involvement was required for feminism to go a step forward, as men are considered to be “the primary agents maintaining and supporting sexism and sexist oppression” and thus, they should take responsibility and consciousness. Besides, some people argue that they are also harmed by feminism and this implies that they will also benefit from gender equality (Baily, 2012).

Today, there are two distinguished strands regarding the participation of men in feminist activism: those that think that the way ahead must involve them and those believing that only women can understand the feminist struggle. For instance, Banyard (2010) is certain that men must both be active in feminist campaigning and be the target of gender equality initiatives. Others, however, fear that involving men could entail a de- radicalisation of feminism and that their participation is unlikely as it would mean risking their power (Baily, 2015).

Men do not experience the feeling of being treated like a woman and therefore, they cannot have the feminist consciousness that is essential to feminism (Stanley & Wise, 1993). However, although some might regard men as unlikely feminist allies, others consider that they could use their male power to promote the feminist cause (Baily, 2015). Indeed, in recent mobilisations, there has been a growing number of mixed- gender feminist groups, which contradicts these claims. Some men, such as the influencer Roy Galan15, are challenging their own power and privilege (Baily, 2015) and hence, some women have welcomed them as fellow feminists (Hooks, 2000).

According to Flood (2015), at least four approaches to engaging men in strengthening gender equality can be determined: (1) activism and advocacy; (2) local programmes and interventions among men; (3) national and international policy commitments; and (4) research and scholarship. Yet, hardly any men are public advocates for gender equality, as we will analyse further on. For a matter of fact, there is the “profeminist activism” strand which considers men as the direct agents of change, being them the

15 Writer, columnist, influencer, and one of the few male, feminist activists in Spain.

25 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain promoters of a change for equality; and on the other side, there are those that see men as the objects of change, being the target to numerous interventions (Flood, 2015). Profeminist men listen to women’s voices and learn, and then, they reconsider and rebuild masculinity (Hearn, 2020).

There is a need to uproot men from the processes and creations of the patriarchy so that they can really support building gender equality (Pease, 2015). Although there are more and more kinds of men, many have not given the real step to challenge the power structure of a society that favours men, and their support towards gender equality is only partial and weak, and in relation to the women in their lives (Flood, 2015).

All in all, this debate is out there and some men are trying to find their space to help out promoting feminism, transforming it into a common-sense norm that everybody should comprehend and respect.

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

After describing and presenting a careful selection of different bibliographic materials and academic literature of relevance, in this section, I will include a set of theoretical ideas and concepts that will provide different perspectives, information and data to be used when seeking to answer my research questions. Thus, I will clarify the meaning of some key concepts and present the theories that will work as the “lens” through which I will analyse my data and draw some conclusions.

3.1. Definitions

Feminism has been a contested topic since its inception and it has generated significant academic interest from a wide range of angles: culture, sociology, history etc. However, browsing through all the information at hand, it has not been easy separating the wheat from the chaff.

It is necessary to begin with defining the multiple concepts related to feminism and therefore, used in this thesis. A core concept of my research is clearly feminism, by which I mean a theory and a social movement that advocates for a change in social relations that leads to the liberation of women - and also of men - by eliminating

26 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain hierarchies and inequalities between the sexes. This embraces many theories defended by numerous authors and, like many of them, I agree on the fact that feminism is not a homogeneous theory and has diverse strands.

Simone de Beauvoir, in 1949, declared that one becomes a woman instead of being born woman, from then on, the Feminist Theory was developed (Darling-Wolf, 2009). This approach aims at comprehending gender inequality while contesting patriarchy and examining gender roles, experiences, and interests. Therefore, this theory can be considered when analysing men/women representation and engagement of men versus women on Instagram. All in all, the objective of feminism is raising consciousness and supressing sexism, which is the discrimination of a person due to their sex or gender.

Lately, a new concept has become quite popular: postfeminism. This term supports the idea that equality has already been achieved and in consequence, feminism has no sense to be (McRobbie, 2009). This might be also linked with the recent feminism upsurge, as many feminists reassert the need to give importance to feminism.

The idea of a presumptive equality is intriguing, since even in the 21st century, we keep seeing inequalities, abuse over women, and men exerting their male power over women. For Foster (in Pease, 2015), this can represent three aspects:

1. the supposition that equality for women has already been achieved; 2. the assumption that women and men are equals in state and problems; 3. the premise that men are as disadvantaged as women in society.

Overall, all feminisms defeat patriarchy, which, according to Dolors Reguant (2007), is a form of political, economic, religious and social organization based on the idea of authority and leadership of males and on the predominance of men over women.

“Patriarchy is not simply another way of saying ’men’ [...]A society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male identified, and male centred [...] a general system through which women have been and are subordinated to men. As Sylvia Walby has succinctly put it, patriarchy is “a system of

27 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women”.” (Bennet, 2006)

3.2. The Visual Communication Theory

Throughout the 21st century and with the rise of new communication modes, such as Instagram or Flickr16, more visual per se, new visual communication studies emerged with specific targets of analysis (Hill, 2009). In this study, the Visual Communication Theory must be suitable to have alternative perspectives from which to interpret different features of visual representations (Hill, 2009), notably, focusing on gender representation and women’s versus men engagement on feminist accounts.

This Theory defends that images are signs and as such, they can be analysed. Some authors, like Ronald Barthes, distinguish between the denotation – what appears in the image- and the connotation – the reaction and emotion that the image triggers- (Hill, 2009). We can therefore say that the connotations will depend on the image composition (colours, frame etc), the content itself and the experiences of the receptor; all this leading to different perceptions and interpretations, as social and cultural factors also instil an effect on the perception of images. Furthermore, “unlike paintings or drawings, the photograph proves the reality of what it represents” (Hill, 2009). Instagram posts, therefore, are not just images, but meaning behind those images accompanied by a written text that supports what the author wants users to imply.

Perception and interpretation respond to an interaction between the recipient, the message and the context, and all together establish the meaning-making. Namely, there is a top-down approach, what the Instagrammer wants to convey, and a bottom-up approach, users’ engagement and interpretation of the publications, depending on each own background, knowledge and expectations. (Machin, 2014). Thus, a connection must be made between the producer of the content and the views so as to differentiate the intended meaning and the interpreted meaning. Hence, some rebel against the content, in the comments, or might feel offended or wounded by the idea they

16 An American image and video hosting hosting service, as well as an online community centered on audiovisual materials.

28 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain understand. Instagrammers usually aim at using their own experiences and knowledge to present positively the outcome that the change they promote could make on the viewer and will study the engagement and value that users, in turn, give to these ideas.

3.3. The Cultivation Theory

Social media images often represent and strengthen pre-existing values and behaviours within our society. Indeed, the Cultivation Theory defends that mass communication can influence culture (Gerbner, 1966) and that social media are already changing and modifying our lives drastically (Gretry, et al., 2017). This theory was formulated by George Gerbner in the 60-70s as a way to uncover the outcomes that could come up on a society due to visual products.

It is true that in its inception this theory focused on television content, but, at the moment, it can be perfectly adapted to analyse social media contents to which users are exposed. Taking this into account, this theory could allow me to evaluate stereotypes, women’s image etc. on Instagram accounts whose aim is defeating popular conceptions about feminism and patriarchal ideas as a way of challenging power structures. Indeed, these profiles may promote certain behaviours and attitudes related to feminism. The idea that the more people is exposed to specific messages, the greater the chances of them assimilating these values could work here as a starting point.

In much the same way as the TV is a learning model (Morgan, 2002, in Rodríguez, 2008), nowadays social media perform a similar role, providing information, teaching and by extension, fostering attitudes and thoughts. Newer generations have, in fact, moved from television towards an online environment where to consume information, entertainment and communicate (Yuste, 2015)17. As stated by Stuart Hall (2013), mass media images help create our “social reality”, and thus, change perceptions and behaviours. He also divides the reactions to media images into three categories: those that acknowledge the meaning intended by the creator, those that accept the meaning but, somehow adopt it to fit their own experience, and those who do not accept the

17 A study -“Marco General de los Medios en España. 2019” (AIMC, 2019)- made to people over 14 years old in Spain clearly demonstrated that TV consumption is decreasing while Internet media are experiencing a progressive increase.

29 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain message of the image. It would be interesting to also check the different reactions that the audience has towards these feminist publications; and how they participate.

On the whole, “cultivation is about the implications of stable, repetitive, pervasive and virtually inescapable patterns of images and ideologies” (Shanahan & Morgan, 1999) that can create a relationship between the communication tool and the user and that can lead to a modification of thoughts or conducts.

3.4. Media for Development

As we have previously discussed, social media have been able to give voice to everyone, and shaping civil society’s opinion as a way to pursuit social change. It is evident that they facilitate digital activism for social change as we have seen with the Arab Spring or #Metoo movements, since these media can connect millions of different actors and engage them towards the same objective.

Participation is an intrinsic part of social media. These social networks offer a two-way engagement unlike other mass media more focused on top-down, one-way communication, such as radio or TV. This participatory approach allows the “subaltern”, the marginalised, to have a voice and, at the same time, receive useful information to develop coherent thoughts, and therefore, fostering bottom-up dialogues in an inclusive and open space (Waisbord, 2014). This paper will take also as reference Manyozo’s (2012) Media for Development approach, which focuses on content that creates public awareness on important matters as a way to achieve social change. In Manyozo’s own words, it is the “strategic employment of media and communication as facilities for informing, educating and sensitising people about development and pertinent social issues”.

Regarding our subject of study, I will analyse how specific Instagram accounts disseminate relevant information and promote participation and critical thinking amongst Spaniards. It will be interesting to see how and if the diffusionist and participatory approaches are complementary or not, as explained by Manyozo (2012, p. 169), and how Instagram accounts can foster feminism and social change so as to produce an impact on society.

30 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

There is no denying that one of the main objectives of these Instagrammers is educating through entertainment, what Scott (2014) calls “edutainment”, which is usually an effective tool to reach social change by giving importance to developing adequate behaviours, as presented before in the Cultivation Theory (Scoot, 2014). Culture and education are then key to talk about development in this paper, as Spanish Instagram accounts try to educate while taking into account a given culture. In essence, their content is created to target audiences, influence them and drive real change (Manyozo, 2012).

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

After a thorough presentation of the research and the key themes related to it, in this section, I will explain how this research was conducted, its limitations and the analysis approach.

This study combines, mainly, two paths of analysis: 1) surveys to different stakeholders, and 2) case studies, as a way to have a mixed qualitative and quantitative research. Besides, I mostly followed an interpretative, analytical approach, paying attention more to the meaning than to the linguistic sides of the retrieved data (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) and being constructivist and reading beyond the literal answers, since the message behind the numbers and words was essential to really deduce some ideas. It is clear that I was guided by my research questions and preconceived ideas, but I was also open to new ideas coming up from the data.

4.1. Surveys

This research was, at the beginning, based mainly on three surveys to be undertaken with three different groups of people: 1. Feminist Influencers; 2. Feminist organisations; 3. Instagram users. With the aim of having a broad, holistic picture, the research selected three influencers and three organisations, so as to be able to have a representative overview and to analyse the data thoroughly. The selection of these three samples was based on specific reasons that will be stated below.

31 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Illustration 5.Survey for Instagram Users' Results on Sunet.

1. Instagram Users (see SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM USERS) Spanish citizens of legal age that have an account on Instagram, and follow feminist Instagram profiles. 2. Feminist Influencers (see SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS). As there is a growing number of feminist influencers flooding Instagram, I decided to select the three accounts with more followers and most mentioned in the survey for users, and at least, one man so as to be able to make a comparative analysis.

 Moderna de pueblo: Raquel Córcoles is the illustrator that works on representing, in a comic style, women’s common circumstances and Carlos Carrero supports her to write the scripts. They have 1,5 million followers - 24/09/2020 - and use Disney characters to create satires and ironize about women stereotypes with the aim of granting female empowerment by helping women to reject an ideal of perfection and embrace their flaws without complexes.

 Feminista Ilustrada: Marina Murnau, a cartoonist and writer from Madrid, is the face behind @feministailustrada. Her motto is "fighting against machismo 24 hours a day, 365 days a year". Therefore, she creates inspirational phrases, always accompanied by original illustrations with a

32 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

fun touch to fight against women stereotypes and in favour of women’s body, equal opportunities, sexual freedom, amongst other topics. With over 649,000 followers - 01/03/2020 -, her success has led her to publish several books: Feminismo Ilustrado, Diario de una rebelde, No puedo vivir sin mí, Manual para incendiar el paraíso.  Roy Galan: Roy Fernández Galán is a writer, columnist, influencer, feminist activist and LGTBI+ Spanish activist. He considers himself a feminist and writes about feminism and women in most of his texts: books, articles and publications on social networks (313,000 followers on Instagram and 20,000 on Twitter - 01/03/2020 -). 3. Feminist Organisations (see SURVEY FOR ORGANISATIONS) The election of the organisations was key in order to depict the real Spanish feminist system. Therefore, and taking into account the research purpose and questions, having the view of the main profeminist association in Spain was the main objective, AHIGE, together with the perception of the main feminist, national association, Coordinadora Feminista, as will be briefly explain hereafter. Together with these and due to the importance of the media and the common lack of a gender perspective in public communication, a well-known magazine in this field was complementary and thus, Pikara become the third objective.  AHIGE (Asociación de Hombres por la Igualdad de Género): A Spanish profeminist men’s association for the promotion of gender equality and anti- violence amongst men. It started in Málaga from men’s desire to stop gender violence and became a national NGO in 2001. It has a pyramidal structure with members, executive board, research coordination, presidency and treasury. Their motto: every man is a personal revolution to come.  Coordinadora Feminista: Spanish State Federation of Feminist Organizations created in 1978. It is a network of women's groups that works in assembly with the idea of uniting and coordinating efforts, and sharing experiences, debates and activities so that their claims are placed at the political and social forefront.  Pikara Magazine: Spanish digital magazine, born in 2010, for the dissemination of feminist theory and practice, which incorporates the gender perspective in the conception of journalistic work by the media.

33 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Three different sets of questions for these three aforementioned groups were created following a similar structure so as to be able to make comparisons, while having different approaches in order to really gather the diverse perspectives of these groups. They had plenty of conditional questions, where depending on the answer, the user could see another question or not, or see one question or another one, as a way to lead the path to the most optimal data. In essence, I wanted a quali-quantitative approach and throughout the survey, I added many “why” questions in order to also receive perceptions and personal emotions. Besides, this technique does not require a representative sample, which seemed difficult in my study (Given, 2008).

They were all developed in Sunet and then shared with two colleagues to use their feedback in order to improve them before disseminating them. One of the main risks I assessed was the fear of not reaching a broader enough an audience so as to be able of provide a comprehensive analysis on users or not being able to get answers from the selected organisations and influencers. Thus, I created surveys with direct, simple questions and quick to answer.

Once the users’ survey was designed and tested, I spread it through digital media such as WhatsApp, Email, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook to men and women irrespectively. This was very useful thanks to their flexibility and common use among the respondents of the study, but as I decided to use more than one channel to reach a bigger sample, the first “eliminatory” question was required: “Do you use Instagram?”. Therefore, as some people answered that they did not use Instagram, they could not provide much information on the matter and they did not have access to further questions.

Regarding reaching Instagrammers and organisations, the contact was more direct, sending them a brief explanation of the study and an invitation to participate via Instagram direct messages and via website emails. As a way to facilitate their involvement and get higher chances of obtaining a positive response, I also offered other kind of contact such as phone, or email if easier for them.

34 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Answers

To better understand the final methodology I followed, it is worth to mention that my approach to the three groups was done during the COVID-19 emergency in Spain in March and April 2020, which might have been positive for our research for some groups and negative for others.

As Spanish citizens were under lockdown, most of them had time to spare and therefore, more willingness to collaborate with surveys such as mine, just as a way of entertaining and keeping their minds busy. This, along with a snowball- sampling technique to disseminate my users’ survey, allowed me to reach a wide audience, as my interviewees shared the link with their own acquaintances, broadening the scope, mainly geographically, and helping me build an adequate sample (Baltar & Brunet, 2012). The overall objective was to know their perceptions on men representation on Instagram posts, their vision of feminist Instagram campaigns Illustration 6. Message to share the survey on WhatsApp. and their interests and opinions regarding the inclusion of men in feminist communication. A total of 186 surveys were answered by Spanish citizens.

Instagrammers and organisations surveys aimed at understanding their communication perspectives and how they involve men or which kind of mixed-gender initiatives could be carried out in order to foster social change, and their vision on counting on men for feminist objectives. However, their collaboration turned out to be more complicated. Despite my insistence in contacting the three influencers via direct message on Instagram and via their website emails, I did not get any answers, which caused a change of plans. As due to the situation, Instagrammers were probably more focused on

35 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain creating content, notably Insta Stories18, as a way to contribute to society, by entertaining, educating, and offering additional content during the lockdown. Hence, I decided to approach their vision by analysing their content on Instagram as I will explain in the next sub-section.

Concerning the organisations, reaching AHIGE and Pikara Magazine was just not as complicated but, while at first I had selected “Coordinadora feminista”, contacting them was more complicated than expected, probably due to the existing situation with the COVID-19. Thus, I decided to get in touch with other feminist organisations with Instagram accounts and I was able to get the online survey responded by Zororak Elkartea. This association of young women was born, in 2018, after more than a year of monthly empowerment meetings, in which they focused to behave in a sorority way among them, through sharing personal experiences, accepting their differences and supporting each other.

AHIGE and Pikara Magazine were more reluctant to fill in the questionnaire, and I adapted to the most suitable contact form for each of them. Therefore, I contacted both via Instagram and I received different answers. On the one hand, the representative from AHIGE Illustration 7. AHIGE Publications on Instagram. asked me to send him the survey questions via email and he briefly answered through email and then, we talked over the phone to deepen in the answers and I took some notes. On the other hand, the journalist from Pikara Magazine who answered gave me her phone number so as to talk via Whatasapp and we went through the questionnaire via audio messages. These connections allowed me to solve some doubts, ask questions on the spot and have a clearer image of their work and vision. Furthermore, they were open to answer some

18 Video monologues or interviews in streaming on Instagram.

36 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain quick doubts via email that raised while analysing the data and thinking about the conclusions. As a way to order all the information gathered from organisations, I created a table in order to be able to make comparisons and a thorough analysis (see ORGANISATIONS SUMMARY).

Survey Target Number of Answers Medium Users 186* Sunet – Full report here- Influencers 0 NA Organisations 3  AHIGE – Email/Phone  Pikara Magazine – Audio Messages  Zororak Elkartea – Sunet – Answers here-

*59 indicated that they do not use Instagram, and so, they could not provide much information on the matter and they did not have access to much of the questions. Then, 127 responses were fully helpful.

4.2. Case Studies

As getting direct access to the influencers ceased to be an option, I decided that the best way to deduce their objectives and experiences was tracking and analysing those illustrative publications related to women empowerment (and discarding those linked to irrelevant topics for my research such as coronavirus or advertising) from 24th February until the 15th March 2020 (8M being International Women’s Day) from the three Instagram accounts mentioned above–see Appendix IV-, all targeting the Spanish population, and being considered as feminist influencers due to their wide number of followers.

To begin with, I can divide social representations into three elements (Schutz & Luckmann, 1973):

1. Individuals: Typifications or stereotypes of men, such as the “macho”, the “gentleman”, “the mama’s boy”, or the consideration of typical behaviours for men, like “men don’t cry”, their potency and their tendency towards risk taking. 2. Social relations: preconceptions on how men should behave, for example, “a cavalier always opens doors to women”. 3. Deviations: Particular, different, or incorrect behaviours of men.

37 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Beside these characteristics, I can try to follow a specific structure to enable us to describe women, men and the received treatment by feminist Instagrammers by their audience.

- Explanation of women’s and men’s representation: profession, role, social class. - Description of physical characteristics. - Image: one or several, one message or more, only text or text with drawing. - Message: empowering, raising awareness, blaming, judging. - Comments: from men or women, supportive or threatening.

I opted for a qualitative methodology focused on the content and image analysis and men representation. I fixed these categories into a grid and I developed a code in order to come to reasonable conclusions. Coding consisted in studying the same specific items in each selected post and wonder about them. These selected posts were also studied using critical discourse analysis (CDA) so as to take into account not only what is actually depicted in the picture, but also the meaning implied behind the image.

Despite not being able to reach directly all the agents that I aimed for, I gathered enough data to Illustration 8.Feminista Ilustrada Instagram continue with my analysis. Furthermore, under Profile. this perspective, both the case study method and self-reporting have proved to be, in all likelihood, valuable sources of information.

Whilst analysing all the data, I took notes and comments on the side that just came to my mind to take them into account during the detailed analysis. Moreover, as I guaranteed confidentiality to the survey respondents, I could only divide my data into two big groups: organisations and users, that together with the interpretation of case studies gave substantial conclusions.

38 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

5. ANALYSIS

This section explores the findings of my research taking into account the context presented in the Introduction, the information provided in the Literature Review as well as the perspectives from the Theoretical Framework.

5.1. Do Spanish people use Instagram?

Social media have gained audience in recent years thanks to smartphones and tablets and the appearance of new kinds of contents, easy to consume and entertaining. However, as previously highlighted, in my survey, I did not want to take for granted that all the interviewees reached via snowball sampling and different channels had Instagram accounts, which is essential for the production of my research. Therefore, I added at Illustration 9. Do you use Instagram? the beginning a conditional question “Do you use Instagram?” to rule out those that answered “no”. From all the respondents, a 31,7% acknowledge not to use Instagram versus 68,3% using it, which represents the true popularity of this channel amongst the Spanish society.

5.2. Instagram Users and their Perception on Feminist Accounts

Even if my study was not entirely quantitative, I aimed at having the wider heterogeneous representation as possible, so as to be able to really have a true perception of the Spanish landscape.

In order to analyse Spaniards perception on Instagram feminist accounts, I ran a survey from the 5th of April 2020 until the 27th of the same month. As showed in the Research Methodology, I reached a total of 186 people, of which 65,6% are women from a broad range of regions in Spain, with an average age of 35 years old, and mostly heterosexual (86,0%). Most of which (81.7%) also use other social networks, such as Facebook (81.6%) and Linkedin (44.7%) and only a 17.2% of the respondents has participated in any groups or feminist associations.

39 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Furthermore, more than half of the Instagram users from my survey are active, following influencers and friends and publishing content. From these, only 50,4% follow any feminist Instagram accounts, but a 82.3% consider themselves feminists and a 52.9% of them ponder that social media have contributed somehow to it.

Illustration 10.Moderna de Pueblo Instagram Profile.

Those following feminist profiles are normally already interested in gender equality and have a willingness to learn more or keep informed. Notably, Moderna de Pueblo and Feminista Ilustrada are the most referenced, followed by La Vecina Rubia (@lavecinarubia), a famous anonymous Instagrammer who rose to fame for her witty tweets and obsession with the Spanish model, Jon Kortajarena; she has more than 1 million followers on Instagram and although she posts empowering messages for women, I decided not to include it as one of the key feminist accounts because it also reveals a touch of sexism and conservatism in some of her comments.

It is also striking to observe that from those following feminist Instagram accounts, only a minority acknowledged following any accounts managed by a man, and being Roy Galan the Instagrammer mentioned by all without exception. The solely other Instagram accounts mentioned that are handled by men are: AHIGE, Lionel Delgado and Ritxar Bacete, accounts with far less followers than the ones mentioned previously.

40 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Regarding the satisfaction degree with the actual content published in these accounts, they receive a 7.4 as average, which infers a deep level of satisfaction, but with room for improvement. Therefore, most Improving Instagram Accounts respondents would value a higher use of real cases and giving voice to actual protagonists along with promoting actions from other countries. They also highlight the Contents Give voice Promote Define basic Other(s) based on to actions from feminist importance of defining some basic real stories protagonists other concepts countries feminist concepts not understood by the bulk of the users. In a smaller percentage, other users opt for basing all contents on current examples, focusing on gender violence, giving greater visibility to women’s achievements, and avoiding further political contents not related with gender.

Concerning men’s representation, most people consider that these accounts highlight concrete facts that some men do, against a 10% that believe that they represent men as being all evil and a 3.1% that feel that men are disrespected and laughed at. Moreover, normally these accounts do not focus specifically on men but on the patriarchal system, attempting to force profound change. Amongst the most recurrent concerns, we can specify these: Illustration 11.Improving Instagram Accounts. - It is not always clear that ONLY some men behave the way they portray. - It would be interesting to see also feminist men raising their voice and supporting.

To discover what these profiles mean for the audience, we asked them to pick three adjectives that describe these Instagram accounts. While the most chosen words have been togetherness, strength and identification; the least voted have been exclusion and biased vision. This evidently shows a complete

Illustration 12. Word Cloud.

41 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain trust from their followers, who feel supported and empowered. Nonetheless, some users added “fear”, as they consider that these accounts instil that every day women have to be more afraid, but this idea is not back up by a majority of respondents.

Evaluating these accounts, it is easy to think that they have a high liability in creating a feminist sentiment. Yet, those who believe that their feminist awareness depends on these profiles corresponds to a 57.8% of interviewees against a 42.2% that reckon they were already feminists. Anyhow, many emphasize its importance in making the movement visible, reflecting on key issues and putting into words existing actions or feelings, in addition to showing references within feminism. According to a 79%, they disseminate information, which in turn promotes critical thinking and this is also supported by digital actions via hashtags etc. Overall, they develop a critical consciousness towards everyday sexist occurrences by becoming a source of information specialised in gender.

Notwithstanding, some respondent’s comments highlight the general acceptance of a patriarchal view, as some women declare to be reassured by Roy Galan’s approach because they “need” a man’s approval to feel convinced of their own convictions. Likewise, some criticize the militant language, which might be surprising since that is exactly what these accounts do: activism.

There is no denying that the engagement of men in feminism has always been a thorny issue and it is now more than ever before at the centre of the discussion. There is a high number of people (94.1%) that consider that men should be involved in the feminist movement and less than 20% think that their participation could divide the movement. However, the disagreement has to do with the degree of involvement, many considering that they should have just a supporting role.

According to our survey, most people determine that men should join forces with women-led feminist campaigns and raising, on their own, awareness about men’s troubles caused by the patriarchy. This indicates that the vast majority advocate for real involvement, while only a 5.5% defend that men should only share content created by women. Thus, joining forces with feminist campaigns, created in collaboration by men and women could transmit in itself key messages and overcome challenges more effectively since men are the main target audience and women are the central victims.

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Besides, some respondents point at the need of empathy and togetherness, not only amongst women, but also amongst men so that real behavioural change could be achieved. Accordingly, an integrated gender perspective is important to engage men in feminist digital campaigning without ostracizing women.

All in all, we can deduce that the patriarchal system influences all genders, even if women are the ones most affected, and that social networks such as Instagram are key to foster a more equalitarian reality, where both women and men have the same status.

5.3. Feminist Organizations and their Gender Involvement for Real Equality

Whilst the three organisations (AHIGE, Pikara Magazine, Zororak Elkartea) are convinced that feminism requires the involvement of both, women and men alike, none of them have an equal participation of both genders. Zororak and Pikara are composed of only women and AHIGE exclusively men, even if all of them accept both genders. It is worth stressing that women’s organisations consider important to engage men as long as they have an accompaniment role in a secondary plane. As stated by the representative in Pikara, “men are already participating in feminism and they are not dividing the movement; however, I think it is high time for them to take a step back and create their own spaces where to question their masculinity, their violence...”.

Illustration 13. Pikara Magazine Cover.

The three organizations acknowledged the importance of being present on social media in order to reach a broader audience. However, they also mentioned the risk of cyberbully, but as confirmed by Pikara, this bulling can be turned into an action of

43 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain resistance and political engagement. Furthermore, these associations consider feminism as the movement that seeks equality between men and women, but all are open to deconstruct their idea of feminism and focusing on the personal behaviour and feelings. That is, analysing the way one behaves in order to detect unfair actions and correct them.

Feminism gives many tools to interpret the world and these organizations propose that men get involved in feminist campaigning by talking and raising the issues that really affect them, such as questioning their privileges or the role that patriarchal societies have given to them and fostering collaboration between women’s and men’s associations to produce common communication campaigns.

While it is true that women’s organisations try not to criticise men heavily and opt for blaming injustices on the society or patriarchal system, there is still a long way for them to be open to really involve men to work together for a common goal.

- See ORGANISATIONS SUMMARY-

5.4. Men Representation on Instagram Feminist Accounts

While gender representation on advertising and media has been long studied, I want now to turn our attention, precisely, towards the male image portrayed by feminists on Instagram. The objective of this analysis is to observe how men are represented, if the typical gender role- related pattern is followed or questioned, and how a desire of change towards gender equality is evident in these Instagram accounts. Certainly, social media not only give a

Illustration 14.Roy Galan Instagram Profile. representation of social reality, but

44 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain they also can exert a significant influence on the creation of new social behaviours or images.

In this subsection of the analysis, I will pay attention at the portrayal itself, and at the way the audience cast and receive these representations. It is worth noting that representation connects meaning and language to culture, it uses language to convey a strong message or to represent the world to others (Hall, 2013).

With respect to men’s visual representation in these accounts, we can state that they focus more on questioning today’s patriarchal society than actually portraying men directly. When representing women/men visually, they tend to show empowered women as a way of motivating girls to do anything they want, which is usually judged as too simple, not going to the heart of the issue, but this is at the same time, the most suitable way to reach a broader audience, speaking in simple terms and facilitating the understanding. Men are usually stereotyped and fall under individual patterns.

Illustration 15. Post “Kinds of machos you should not look like” from Feminista Ilustrada.

Stereotyping means “reduced to a few essentials, fixed in Nature by a few, simplified characteristics” (Hall, 2013). This can be clearly seen in the post “Kinds of machos you should not look like” from Feminista Ilustrada, where she presents a series of men stereotypes as common patterns that should be abolished. Albeit stereotypes do not represent a reality, it can be a useful, exaggerated mechanism to highlight certain inadequate behaviours, but keeping in mind that not all men fall under those stereotypes and could, then, be considered as “deviations” by feminists. .

- See Instagram Publications 24/02-15/03 -

Although images on Instagram are of the utmost importance, the physical representation of men and women are not given much relevance, trying to show “standardized” images

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(blond, dark-haired, more thin, more fat…), but always with an empowerment item, either the body posture or putting strong sentences into these women’s mouth, such as “then, the system must be rebooted”.

While the two girl Instagrammers – Moderna de Pueblo and Feminista Ilustrada - use illustrations to exemplify a reality, Roy Galan turns to images from the media or films, which gives a sense of reality but has less power, and

thus, the text receives full Illustration 16. Moderna de Pueblo post - The system must be rebooted. predominance. Both Feminista Illustrada and Moderna de Pueblo often tend to represent the reality via dialogues that they consider commonly heard in our societies, expressing that women are not smart enough to do a career in science or stereotypes alike.

All three accounts depict common problems in the patriarchal, capitalist Global North, like romantic love, harassment, gender violence… Most messages criticize current issues without blaming anyone, but society. For instance, Moderna de pueblo states that if girls do not see scientist women winning Nobels, they assume automatically that they cannot reach that far. Even if this assumption might be true and no one would deny the fact that visibility often facilitates identification, one can also suppose that if a girl is interested in technology nowadays, she will investigate and find role models. Mainly, it should be emphasized that these accounts pick key themes and suggest next steps to change the situation into a more equalitarian one. Most texts from the two girls are motivational and judgmental, while Galan, although with a positive touch, is very critical about women’s suffering.

With regards to comments, there is one fact which stands out: while the two women Instagrammers receive a high number of critics, threats and unpleasant messages – mainly from men-, Galan receives, mostly, support and thank-you messages –mainly

46 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain from women stating how they identify with his arguments. Therefore, this aligns with the technofeminist perspective, as women keep suffering patriarchal behaviours online.

Overall, negative comments respond to neoliberal feminism, since most people claim that women have the same rights as a man, but they do not think about the reality or the social pressures that women suffer. As clearly explained by Galan, women Illustration 17.Roy Galan's Post. have been educated to be complacent and not conflictive, which might be why women, generally, do not defend themselves in these comment feeds.

All in all, we need to be aware that the audience will create the meaning of a representation based on their inner self (Hall, 2013). Hence, the feminist representation made by these Instagram celebrities could be reduced to:

- These accounts try to raise awareness to fight for real equality. They have great informative and educative content. - They raise up a matter for discussion and advice on future steps or changes needed. - Women are represented as victims, but also as strong. This is linked to Hall’s (2013) “binary structure of the stereotype” where the signified alternates continuously between two opposites: being a victim versus being strong, and somehow represents both at the same time. - The perpetuating idea that women are already equal to men (postfeminism). - Support from just a few, plenty of cyberbully and contempt, mainly towards women feminists. - The kind of society these accounts target: Global North, white women.

Comments in these accounts represent clearly that narratives of identity are a production, “which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within,

47 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain not outside, representation” (Hall, 1989), as the viewers create meaning based on their own experiences and knowledge, based on “the self”, which is demonstrated in the comment feeds, women tending to be understanding and supportive, while men opt for a more defensive and aggressive role.

Representations of reality in these profiles tell us about the world in which we live in a very direct way, but they are still very carefully crafted by Instagrammers (Hall, 2013). Besides, the viewer always has the option to believe or not what he is being told, along with the influence that his own society exerts in him. Interpretations are always followed by other interpretations, in an endless chain (Hall, 2013).

Therefore, the meaning of each post does not lie exclusively in the image, but in the conjunction of the image and text. Two discourses are required to produce and ‘fix’ the meaning (Hall 1972, ref. in Hall 2013). The Instagrammer makes a huge number of choices: the appearance of a person or not, of a woman or a man, the topic, the angle, the foreground… as a way to create a specific meaning in people’s consciousness.

6. CONCLUSIONS

In this section, I will address the research questions to summarize my main findings and then, I will evaluate the DP, reflecting upon its success in achieving my objectives, my contribution to existing research and its limitations. I will also consider the possibility of suggesting future research on the topic.

The creation of Twitter in March of 2006, and the first hashtag, just around a year later, changed forever the way we communicate. Instagram cropped up a few years later, in 2010. Along with this, feminism started a period of effervescence that continues thanks to digital media.

Since then, Instagram has experienced a continuous evolution. Nowadays, it is undisputable that it reaches a broader audience than an academic text, an essay or even a documentary by both entertaining and engaging the lay citizen with important, global, complex societal issues and offering unique views, in this case, on the feminist movement. Furthermore, some Instagrammers become influencers, and this could serve

48 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain as a good tool for awareness raising, asking their followers to stop turning a blind eye and start changing their own attitudes in order to build a more equalitarian society.

While Instagrammers can construct a discourse, the ultimate power will always be at the hands of the spectator who will interpret the message and create a meaning according to their knowledge, culture and beliefs. This is relevant for Communication for Development, since social media has become a participatory media where civil society is part and parcel of the equation: raising their voices, absorbing information and eventually, changing their thoughts or behaviours. This study proves not only the positive impact that Instagram has on a raising awareness and “teaching”, but also on its capability to build a sense of community and belonging.

Notwithstanding, fundamental change can only be attained once the civil sphere, mainly men in this case, empathise with those women suffering the problems of an unequal society and acknowledge them and the real situation. For this, digital media are doing a significant role in raising awareness, not only amongst men, but also amongst women so that they all can realise the injustices in patriarchal societies.

“Barely a year goes by without the death-knell being sounded for feminism, but such widespread negativity is unwarranted” (Munro, 2013), since, with the rise of new modes of communication and new ways of activism around the globe (online and offline), feminism has seen a clear revival, mostly propelled by the use of digital media (Baer, 2016). This is the origin of this DP: Google Analytics places #feminism in the top researched items; many journalists and influencers tackle these issues and it interests a wide audience and many contents become viral.

6.1. Answering the Research Questions

How do feminist organisations and influencers use Instagram in Spain as an activist communicative tool?

Digital technologies are now part of everybody’s social life and have the power of modifying people’s ways to interact and relate with their entourage. Nonetheless, what is key in posts on social media is the authors’ decision on what to highlight and where to direct users’ eyes. Native digital activists know how to express an idea in an image

49 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain and a few words and how to guide their audience to reach the expected conclusion. In other words, the key often is what is being shown against what is being hidden and…why?

Instagram is an open and plural platform, where users can define themselves through their publications and interactions. Engagement is a key aspect, especially, in this social network; that is why, the so-called “Instagrammers” arise as “media celebrities” that are widely followed and that have absolute trust from most of their fans. It is crucial to highlight their power to raise awareness and give a voice to those in need.

On the whole, both influencers and organisations acknowledge the importance of being present on social media in order to reach a broader audience and younger generations. Instagram feminist accounts not only raise awareness amongst their followers – diffusionist approach- , they also get to a broader scope by publications being shared, friends commenting, girlfriend explaining something to her partner etc, and thus, leading to real conversations –participatory approach-. They publish regularly and highlight patriarchal behaviours common in our society as a way to create and/or further develop a feminist sentiment, as a relevant percentage of their followers are already feminists and mainly interested in keeping informed on related matters.

How do Instagram users engage and value feminist Instagram accounts?

According to my survey, there is a clear consensus on the high value of feminist Instagram accounts and their contents. Nonetheless, there is a firm believe that campaigns and publications should be reinforced with real stories that talk to men and women equally and therefore, fostering a feeling on unity, since feminist activists want to count on men – although there is a prolonged dispute on how-. This unity is imperative because individuals tend not to take responsibility for matters that require collective action (Pease, 2015). Furthermore, these accounts could benefit from enhancing further actions such as promoting actions from other countries, defining feminist concepts or focusing on specific subtopics like gender violence or women’s achievements.

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Instagram accounts create a trust feeling, linking them as creators of sorority and union towards gender equality. However, men are still far from being loyal companions in the feminist struggle. There is a wide range of visions on the involvement men should have so that they do not ostracise women. But, it could be beneficial to count on more men raising awareness, talking to other men, and trying to change patriarchal, deep behaviours that go in women’s detriment.

Regarding participation, it is significant that men tend to be more critical, while women are usually more grateful and supportive, especially if the content has been created by a man, which represent women’s sentiment to be indebted to feminist men. Overall, most users would appreciate a further engagement from men, whether supporting women’s campaigns or emphasising their own issues with patriarchy.

How do feminist Instagram accounts/campaigns represent or address men in that context as a way of fostering feminism?

Men’s participation in feminism will always be complex due to their tight ties with the persisting inequalities that are the basis of many men’s practices and identities (Flood, 2015), but social media have put at their disposal the perfect tool to be informed and in due time, take action, first supporting and then, presenting real injustices that they would start seeing once they really open their eyes and let their privileges fall down. Anyhow, there are few Instagram accounts run by men and those existing still have less followers than those run by women.

In general, feminist accounts do not represent men negatively and they stand out the fact that not all men are to blame, but the patriarchal system. They usually represent women more often as empowered and confident and when portraying men, they tend to use exaggerated stereotypes, but there is a need for further clarity on the fact that men can also support the movement and that they are not the enemy. Moreover, some question more directly men’s attitudes, generalising, as a way to create awareness but this can also represent a point of dispute between men and women as some men can feel offended if it is not well stated that not all men behave that way. These more pressing posts come frequently from men, while women opt for using the humour or portraying

51 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain strong women. Therefore, there is a dichotomy between promoting a reaction and being politically correct and activists tend to worry more about the former.

All in all, as men are considered part of the problem and of the solution, a way for making them part of the gender equality movement must be found in order to reach real change, as ultimately, men must change many behaviours and attitudes so that gender injustices can be corrected. Mainly, men should be allies in order to promote change amongst their peers, simply, by becoming conscious of their privileges and shouting out at every moment they see something unfair, such as a woman at their workplace being treated differently or stopping the dissemination of misogynist contents on Social Media. That would mean recognising their position of power and, what is more important, their complicity in maintaining this inequality so far. All in all, they should start by challenging their own power and working somehow in parallel with women.

6.2. Contributions

On balance, this study adds to other empirical researches on men’s engagement in feminism (see, for example, Goldrick-Jones, 2002, Lichterman, 1989, Egeberg Holmgren and Hearn, 2009, Christian, 1994, Pease, 2000). Moreover, I tried to theorise more specifically in modern existing feminist tactics as a way to better understand the effects of feminist digital activism in feminist discourses. What is more, throughout the DP, I have tried to outline some practical implications of engaging men in feminism and namely, in digital, feminist campaigns.

Overall, I think that this DP meets the expectations and provides a transparent presentation of the research process and its difficulties.

6.3. Limitations and Future Research

This DP is limited somehow by the data collected, since, as previously explained, I adapted the process along the way with a view to collect as much relevant information as possible, but I did not get answers from any influencers. Concerning the case study research, there is a limitation of extending the findings to other settings or broadening the sample.

52 e-Feminism: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

Furthermore, I focused on Spain and on Instagram feminist accounts without considering other dimensions, such as race and class. Thus, this study could be further developed by examining men’s involvement in digital campaigning related to feminism, depending on their race, class, or sexual orientation, to name a few. Another option would be taking into account the number of followers that women versus men feminist influencers get.

It might be also interesting to reckon about why men feminists, such as Roy Galan, receive more support and thank-you messages from women; and fewer negative comments from men. All in all, men’s relationship to feminism is complex, so no one can deny the fact that far more research is needed in order to clarify and better comprehend this situation.

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8. APPENDIX

Appendix I

SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS

PERSONAL DATA

1. Sexo | Sex  Hombre | Male  Mujer | Female  Otros | Other – Cuál | Which: 2. Orientación Sexual | Sexual orientation  Heterosexual | Heterosexual  Homosexual | Homosexual  Otros | Other – Cuál | Which: 3. Lugar de residencia | Place of residence:

FEMINIST COMMUNICATION

1. ¿Qué es para ti el feminismo? | How would you describe feminism? 2. ¿Por qué creaste una cuenta de Instagram con un enfoque feminista? Año de comienzo: | Why did you create a feminist Intagram account? Start year: 3. ¿Cómo describirías tu experiencia general en tu Instagram? ¿Puedes recordar alguna experiencia positiva? ¿Puedes pensar en alguna experiencia negativa? | How would you describe your general experience on your Instagram account? Can you recall any positive experiences? Can you think of any negative experiences? 4. ¿Qué te parecería que los hombres pudieran participar en el movimiento feminista? Incluir a los hombres, ¿dividiría el movimiento feminista?| How do you feel about men being allowed to participate in the feminist movement? Would including men polarize the women’s movement? 5. ¿Tienes colaboradores hombres? ¿Cuál es el grado de participación de los hombres en tus campañas –comentarios etc-? | Do you have men as

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collaborators? Up to which extent do they participate in your communication campaigns –comments on posts etc.-? 6. ¿Crees se debería involucrar a los hombres en la comunicación feminista digital? ¿Cómo se podría hacer sin marginar a las mujeres? | Do you think that men should be involved in digital feminist communication? How could this be done without ostracizing women?

Appendix II

SURVEY FOR ORGANISATIONS

ORGANISATION DATA

1. Año de creación: | Start year: 2. Miembros | Members:  Hombres | Males  Mujeres | Females  Otros | Others – Cuál | Which: 3. Ciudad | City:

FEMINIST COMMUNICATION

7. ¿Por qué nació tu organización? | Why was your organisation created? 8. ¿Cómo describirías tu experiencia general en la organización? ¿Puedes recordar alguna experiencia positiva? ¿Puedes pensar en alguna experiencia negativa? | How would you describe your general experience on your Instagram account? Can you recall any positive experiences? Can you think of any negative experiences? 9. ¿Cómo definís el feminism desde vuestra organización? | How does your organisation define feminism? 10. ¿Qué te parecería que los hombres pudieran participar en el movimiento feminista? Incluir a los hombres, ¿dividiría el movimiento feminista?| How do you feel about men being allowed to participate in the feminist movement? Would including men polarize the women’s movement?

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11. ¿Tenéis colaboradores hombres? ¿Cuál es el grado de participación de los hombres en vuestras campañas de comunicación? | Do you have men as collaborators? Up to which extent do they participate in your communication campaigns? 12. ¿Crees se debería involucrar a los hombres en la comunicación feminista digital? ¿Cómo se podría hacer sin marginar a las mujeres? | Do you think that men should be involved in digital feminist communication? How could this be done without ostracizing women?

Appendix III

SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM USERS

PERSONAL DATA

4. Sexo | Sex  Hombre | Male  Mujer | Female  Otros | Other – Cuál | Which: 5. C| Sexual orientation  Heterosexual | Heterosexual  Homosexual | Homosexual  Otros | Other – Cuál | Which: 6. Lugar de residencia | Place of residence:

SOCIAL MEDIA USE

7. ¿Usas Instragram? | Do you use Instagram?  Sí | Yes  No | No 7.1.Si sí, ¿cómo? | If ‘YES’, how?  Publico contenido, posts o stories | I publish content, either posts or stories  Sigo a famosos y conocidos – pero no publico-| I follow celebrities and Friends –but I do not publish anything-

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 Ambas | Both 7.2.¿Sigues en Instagram alguna cuenta feminista? –como Moderna de Pueblo, La vecina rubia, feminista ilustrada, Roy Galan… | Do you follow any feminist Instagram account –such as Moderna de Pueblo, La vecina rubia, feminista ilustrada, Roy Galan…?  Sí | Yes  No | No 7.2.1. Si sí, ¿cuál(es)? | If ‘YES’, which one(s)? (you can select more than one)  Moderna de pueblo  Feminista Ilustrada  National or International organisations, such as UN Women  Otros | Other – Cuál | Which: 7.2.2. Si sí, ¿alguna es de un hombre? | If ‘YES’, any from a man?  Yes - Which one | Cuál:  No 7.2.3. ¿Cuál es tu grado de satisfacción en cuanto a los contenidos que ofrecen las cuentas de Instagram feministas? (siendo el 1 el menor grado de satisfacción y 10 el máximo) | How much satisfied are you with the content offered by Instagram feminist accounts? (1 being the least degree of satisfaction and 10 the maximum)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.2.4. ¿Qué cambiarías/mejorarías de estas cuentas para que llegaran a una audiencia mayor? | What would you change from these Instagram feminist accounts to reach a broader audience? (you can select more than one)  Que todos los contenidos se basen en ejemplos/casos de actualidad | That all contents are based on current examples/cases  Que sean casos reales y sus protagonistas los que hablen | That they represent real cases and their protagonists are the ones speaking up

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 Que promuevan o difundan acciones de otros países | That they promote or disseminate actions from other countries  Que definan conceptos básicos del feminismo | That they define basic feminism concepts  Otro(s) | Other(s): 7.3.¿Cómo crees que las cuentas feministas de Instagram representan a los hombres? | How do you think feminist Instagram accounts represent men? (you can select more than one)  Como si todos fueran malos | As all being bad and evil  Destacan hechos concretos que algunos hombres hacen | Highlighting concrete issues that some men do  Se ríen de los hombres y les faltan al respeto | They laugh at men and disrespect them  Les tartan como iguales | They treat them like equals  Todas las anteriores | All  Otra(s) | Other(s) 7.3.1. Elige tres palabras que representen tu experiencia con las cuentas feministas de Instagram | Choose three words that identify your experience with feminist Instagram accounts:  Unión | Togetherness  Fuerza | Strength  Diversión | Fun  Pluralidad | Plurality  Visión sesgada | Biased vision  Identificación | Identification  Pertenencia | Belonging  Exclusión | Exclusion  Otra | Other: 7.3.2. Personalmente, ¿crees que seguir a estas cuentas te ha creado un mayor sentimiento feminist? | In your case, do you think that following these accounts has instilled a deeper feminist sentiment?  Yes  No

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 Why: 7.4.¿Cómo se podría involucrar a los hombres en las campañas feministas digitales sin marginar a las mujeres? | How could men be engaged in digital feminist campaigns without ostracizing women? (you can select more than one)  Uniendo fuerzas con las campañas feministas realizadas por mujeres | Joining forces with women in feminist campaigns  Concienciando sobre los problemas masculinos que promueve el patriarcado | Raising awareness about their male issues due to the patriarchy  Sólo compartiendo el conteniedo creado por mujeres feministas | Just sharing given content created by women feminists  Dando su opinion sobre los retos actuals del feminism | Giving their opining about current feminist challenges  Otras – Cuáles |Other(s)-Which one(s)

8. ¿Usas otras redes sociales? | Do you use other social media channels?  Sí | Yes  No | No 8.1.Si sí, ¿cuáles? | If ‘YES’, which ones? (you can select more than one)  Twitter  Facebook  Linkedin  Otros | Other – Cuál | Which:

TO BE OR NOT TO BE…FEMINIST

9. ¿Te consideras feminista? | Do you consider yourself a feminist?  Yes  No 9.1.Si sí, ¿crees que las redes sociales han contribuido a ello? | If ‘YES’, do you believe that social media have something to do with it?  Yes

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 No 9.1.1. Si sí, ¿cómo? | If ‘YES’, how? (you can select more than one)  Difundiendo información | Diffusing information  Informando sobre los problemas a los que hacen frente las mujeres | Raising awareness about feminist issues  Promoviendo acciones (vía hashtags, manifestaciones etc) | Calling to action (posting, marching etc)  Cuál | Which: | Otros | Other 10. ¿Participas o has participado en algún grupo u organización feminista? | Have you participated or do you participate in any feminist group or organisation?  Sí | Yes  No | No 11. ¿Qué te parecería que los hombres pudieran participar en el movimiento feminist? | How do you feel about men being allowed to participate in the feminist movement?  A favor | In favour  En contra | Againts it 12. Incluir a los hombres, ¿dividiría el movimiento feminista? | Would including men polarize the women’s movement?  Sí | Yes  No | No 12.1. Si sí, ¿por qué? | If ‘YES’, why?:

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Appendix IV

Instagram Publications 24/02-15/03

Moderna de pueblo: https://www.instagram.com/modernadepueblo/ Why is there so few women in technology?

 Date: 28/02/2020  Likes: 118,675

”SORORIDARIA” Poster: sorority + solidarity

 Date: 05/03/2020  Likes: 70,980

Feminista Ilustrada: https://www.instagram.com/feministailustrada/ 8th March with our killed sisters

 Date: 04/03/2020  Likes: 23,517

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If you are tired of us talking about sexism, imagine suffering it every day

 Date: 04/03/2020  Likes: 47,019

The 8th of March is not a day to offer discounts to women, do theme parties or promote your business

 Date: 05/03/2020  Likes:33,783

Kinds of machos you should not look like

 Date: 08/03/2020  Likes: 49,507

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8th March: Internationa Women’s Day: What we see vs. what we do not see

 Date: 08/03/2020  Likes: 26,541

Roy Galan: https://www.instagram.com/roygalan/ Plácido Domingo

 Date: 27/02/2020  Likes: 19,300

Men do not cry

 Date: 01/03/2020  Likes: 25,449

Alone, drunk, I want to get home

 Date: 04/03/2020  Likes: 38,126

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Let’s talk about condoms

 Date: 05/03/2020  Likes: 17,938

Appendix V

ORGANISATIONS SUMMARY

Organisations Summary Subject Zororak Elkartea AHIGE Pikara Start Year 2018 2001 2010 Members Women Only men, but they Women accept women; audience: both

Geographical Basque Country Spain Spain and Latin reach America (mostly Argentina and Mexico) Why was your We were born from To talk what does it A need to create organisation the experience of "I mean to be a man, journalism with a created? flirt, I decide" new masculinities; gender perspective. meetings organized share experiences, This together with by the Deusto-San such as men's the possibilities of Inazio Module. We circles where we the Internet (low

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got to generate a express ourselves investment, high small group and we freely reach) gave birth to decided to organize a channel to give

ourselves. voice to women. General Good, trying to Good, learning how Good, experience on reach more people to interact with our cyberbullying has your Instagram audience turned into account resistance and politics Feminism As an individual It is the movement We do not define definition and collective that seeks real and it, it is a theory of practice. While we effective equality thought, a complex understand that between men and social and political organization and women. movement that collective gives us many tools gatherings are to interpret the essential, we give world. great weight to generating spaces for self-care from a feminist perspective. Opinion on men’s Yes, but with a Men not only can, Men are already involvement in supporting role. but must participate participating in feminism in the feminist feminism and they struggle, from our are not dividing the position and in our movement; circles and however, I think it environments. is high time for Including men does them to take a step not have to back and create movement, their own spaces provided that it is where to question

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done in spaces and their masculinity, in a way that does their violence... not interfere in the spaces of women.

Collaborators No They collaborate in Freelance from the opposite the magazine, talks, journalists - small, sex workshops, supporting role dissemination activities. We also collaborate with many women-led or mixed feminist associations, women's centers, institutions ...

Methods to Talking about Creating campaigns In parallel, involve men in issues that directly with the questioning their digital feminist affect them: collaboration of priviledges communication questioning their different privileges, what to associations. do to make a change between men, etc.

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