Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
DOI
10.1093/ccc/tcz032
Publication Title
Communication, Culture & Critique
Pages
1-16
Abstract
Participants in the #MeToo movement on Twitter expressed emotions like rage, pain, and solidarity in their personal accounts of sexual violence. This article explores the digital circulation of these affects and considers how the outpouring of tweets about sexual harassment and abuse contribute to a feminist politics centered on collective healing. The particular emotions expressed in the #MeToo Twitter archive subvert the logics of quantification and visibility that undergird popular feminism and the attention economy, and produce an affective excess that works toward movement founder Tarana Burke’s original project of “mass healing.” At a moment wherein popular feminism emphasizes individual empowerment and consumption, and carceral feminism relies on criminalization and incarceration, the #MeToo movement’s focus on shared emotions represents the potential for a feminist politics rooted in collective support and restorative justice.
Original Publication Citation
Page, A., & Arcy, J. (2019). # MeToo and the politics of collective healing: Emotional connection as contestation. Communication, Culture and Critique. 1-16. doi: 10.1093/ccc/tcz032
Repository Citation
Page, Allison and Arcy, Jacquelyn, "#MeToo and the Politics of Collective Healing: Emotional Connection as Contestation" (2019). Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications. 43.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/communication_fac_pubs/43
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Social Media Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Comments
This is a post print of of the authors manuscript. The final published version can be found at https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcz032
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Communication Association. All rights reserved.