Brooms and Ballots: #WitchTheVote, the Nostalgic Internet, and Intersectional Feminist Politics on Instagram

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been significant scholarly and mainstream attention to the use of digital media technologies to engage in feminist politics and activism. This article explores an example of small-scale, feminist digital activism: the #WitchTheVote hashtag on Instagram. Using a visual and discursive analysis of 75 Instagram posts and interviews with four self-identified witches active on Instagram during the summer of 2020, we argue that #WitchTheVote is an example of reflective nostalgic activism that challenges the mediated popular feminism most visible across social media attention economies. This case study demonstrates the potential for doing intersectional feminist politics online that contradicts both popular feminism and its attendant platform conventions, imagining a different kind of feminist politics that troubles visibility, attention, celebrity, large audiences, and consumption as part of contemporary digital feminism.