Mansplaining. Trolling. Death threats. Rape threats: Backlash. This is the reception received by many women who raise their voices in the digital era.
Overt and unconscious biases come to the front when women, and especially women from diverse backgrounds, join public debates in the Australian media. They are more likely to be interrupted while speaking, asked less follow up questions, and face vitriolic backlash.
This is a huge problem, not just for the women it silences but for the quality and diversity of our public debates.
The Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion has been focussing on elevating women’s voices in the media through a series of events held in partnership with the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). On Friday 6 March, we held ‘Backlash’, the third event in this series.
Online abuse causes individuals great harm emotionally, psychologically, and sometimes spills over into physical experiences of violence. It also harms women collectively. It stifles our agency and our voices in public spaces, debates, and practices.
More women’s voices are needed in public debate. UTS academic and Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jenna Price wrote in a 2019 Women for Media Report, “Women are missing. Still missing. We are missing from news stories and from feature stories. We are missing from photos both as photographers and as subjects. And we are missing in that very influential place in the Australian media landscape: our voices are missing from opinion pieces and columns.”
Yet digital harassment of women politicians, journalists, academics, feminist commentators and activists around the world is rife. It holds a mirror to the abhorrent patterns of violence and discrimination against women and girls in real life. And it’s heightened for women with intersecting identities, who are often attacked explicitly based on their race, religion, and/or sexual orientation.
During the event, our panel of six women working on the coalface of media, academia, and advocacy confirmed that it’s not an issue of being less confident, less smart, or less articulate. It’s that we are speaking out in a deeply sexist world. We’re dealing with a mixture of outright discrimination, unconscious biases, and social systems that emerged out of history and are still set up to penalise women.
Here are a few of their tips:
- BLOCK anyone who is inappropriate
- RALLY around women online
- RECLAIM taunts and use it to highlight misogyny (Destroy the Joint and Mad F**king Witches are great examples).
There are many reasons to keep raising our voices. The world IS getting better. Like all positive movements, it starts with the actions of a few, and with support women’s voices become louder and louder, and the status quo shifts.
Thank you to our panellists:
- Shannan Dodson, Strategic communications and engagement specialist. Shannan is a National NAIDOC Committee member and the Indigenous Affairs Advisor for Media Diversity Australia. @ShannanJDodson
- Terese Edwards, CEO of the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children. Terese represents the interests of single mother families contending with poverty, hardship and or domestic violence. @Terese_NCSMC
- Jennine Khalik, Jennine is a reformed journalist who has spent eight years at local, state and national newsrooms, working for News Corp, ABC and Crikey. She is currently a content/UX writer. @jennineak
- Samantha Maiden, Political editor for the New Daily. Samantha has previously been a TV presenter at Sky News, and political editor at News Corp. Her first book, PARTY ANIMALS, was released in March. @samanthamaiden
- Associate Professor Heather Ford, Heather specializes in digital politics, ethics and governance, with a background as an activist for internet rights and intellectual property reform. @hfordsa
- Cassandra Goldie, CEO, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), who facilitated the conversation. @cassandragoldie