Could this be #MeToo?: Transnational reflections on hashtag feminism

Abstract

Examining how feminist activists in Turkey adopted the Un Violador en tu Camino performance – which began in Chile and spread across Latin America and the Middle East – and moulded it around the local #SendeAnlat (#TellYourStory) campaign in Turkey, this article explores how transnational feminist solidarities emerge and circulate in relation to the 2017 manifestation of #MeToo. Although described by western analysts as part of the umbrella 2017 #MeToo campaign, how feminists in Turkey created a mosaic of digital feminist activism through Un Violador en tu Camino and #SendeAnlat, highlights how other points of departure for transnational feminist organizing and solidarity emerge in ways both linked to and beyond the scope of #MeToo, building a broader web of networked visibility. #MeToo, Un Violador en tu Camino, and #SendeAnlat remain in conversation with one another, yet circulate beyond the confines of their respective hashtags, forming around localized conditions of feminist activism. Through a study of how activists in Turkey blended Un Violador en tu Camino, #SendeAnlat and #MeToo, I argue that the MeToo hashtag is a malleable tool activists across the globe can experiment with to reach multiple audiences, play with in exploring new solidarities, and repurpose to fit local prerogatives and dynamics.