Feminist Digilante Responses to a Slut-Shaming on Facebook

Abstract

This article examines feminist digilantism in response to the “slut-shaming” of an Australian woman on Facebook in 2015. The activism is used to highlight the nature and significance of the feminist pushback against the worsening problem of cyber violence against women and girls (cyber VAWG). This article builds on my previous research into feminist digilantism and is part of a much larger, mixed-methods, multi-modal study into gendered cyberhate. It uses approaches from Internet historiography, ethnography, and netnography, alongside data drawn from qualitative interviews. Sufficient evidence is available to support the broad argument that the feminist digilantism involved in the case study under analysis was efficacious as well as ethically justified given the dearth of institutional interventions. That said, I demonstrate that while such activism has benefits, it also has risks and disadvantages, and raises ethical issues. This critique of digilantism is not intended as yet another type of victim blaming which suggests the activist responses of cyberhate targets are flawed. Instead, my case is that appraising the efficacy and ethics of such forms of extrajudicial activism should take place within a framing acknowledging that these actions are primarily diagnostic of rather than a solution to cyber VAWG. As such, the increasing prevalence and strength of feminist digilantism lends further support to the case that gendered cyberhate is a problem demanding urgent and multifaceted intervention.