Collective Voices Online

The chapter investigates how women use the practice of speaking out in their activism to bring issues that are significant to them from the private sphere into the public sphere. Specifically, it focuses on analyzing how this was achieved in the case of the #MeToo movement, taken as the most prominent example of activism against sexual harassment in recent years. Using the conceptual tool of counter public sphere developed by Nancy Fraser, the chapter examines two relevant events from #MeToo: the sexual misconduct allegations against actor Aziz Ansari and the circulation of the so-called “Shitty Media Men” list.

A Voice of Her Own

This chapter provides a theoretical discussion on women's voice and agency by referring to the selected works from feminist theory and history. It highlights the importance of storytelling in women owning their own voice and exercising their agency through the multilayeredness of the experiences of women coming from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Also, in this chapter, digital platforms and what they offer to women, such as digital storytelling, are discussed. And finally, it includes academic and activist works on individual and collective digital storytelling examples and practices of women from around the world.

The Ungovernable Female Agency

By following McNay's conceptualization of agency and adapting Mills' feminist stylistics, this chapter examines the creation of female agency and subjectivity in the Mexican political drama Ingobernable [The Ungovernable]. The series has two complete seasons and 27 episodes so far. The plot revolves around the actions of five women, who can be identified with their unexpected and unanticipated as well as disobedient and resistant behaviors at varying levels. Each woman has different relations with power; however, all aim to engender change within the established order. Here, the author proposed a multi-layered method for analyzing female agency and subjectivity in the series by weaving the analysis through women archetypes from Mexican history and argued that female agency is created through audacious and cautious actions in Ingobernable which exists in-between these two action-based tensions.

The Creative Voice

This chapter analyses themes of hybrid diasporic Tongan identity in the individual talanoa shared by Tongan women that was captured in doctoral research, per the author. Special focus is put on issues of “individual freedom” and “the collective burden” of expressing voice in the “walk in two worlds” creatively and geographically between Tonga and New Zealand. Although the legal and cultural frameworks in Tonga are progressive and relatively liberal with regard to the promotion of gender equality, some laws and traditions discriminate against women, establishing gender inequalities. As this chapter demonstrates, these inequalities have had profound impacts on women and their agency. Tongan women have spearheaded efforts to bridge communal boundaries and challenge the increasing normalisation of male dominance by continuously expressing their voices, particularly through creativity. The following perspectives inform this exploration, which is deconstructed from the standpoint of a TIWI (Tongan Kiwi) woman.

Ruling the Country Without Losing the Self

Despite the pursuit of gender equality emphasised by first, second, and third wave feminism, society continues to socially construct women as inferior to men, that their place should be in the home and that they pose a threat to masculine ideals if women do not act or conform to hegemonically feminine traits. So, what happens when a woman is elected to a role generally occupied by men? This is a question set to be addressed in this chapter on Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. Applying thematic analysis to a series of Facebook videos uploaded to Ardern's Page, this research found that Ardern tended to emphasise what mattered to her, personal information about herself and her work, and what it meant to be a career mum. The themes indicate that in some cases she could speak with her own voice, but that political and societal structures influenced her identity work.

Dangerous Women Feminism

In the last 10 years, feminism has been foregrounded in popular music more than at any time. At the same time, female pop music artists have been the target of hostility because of the feminist messages they espouse. This chapter examines US-based female popular music artists who have embraced a postfeminist agenda. This agenda engages messages of empowerment, sex positivity, and elements of girl culture. In addition, this chapter explores the notion of resilience in relation to how these music artists have used the voice of feminism to become outspoken and show independence and strength in celebrating the female body. In particular, the author discusses the discourse of their concert tours, as this is a time when these artists are in the spotlight through both their performance and the promotional materials for those performances and as a consequence are more open (and vulnerable) to critique than at other times.

Voicing Women's Desire With a Camera

Conventional theorization of Western visual culture characterized the female form as passive objects that cater to men's viewing pleasure. This raises the questions of how women might take control over their self-representation to communicate their subjective sexuality, and to reclaim visual narratives of their own desire. This chapter discusses the activist potential of auto-photography, a practice that involves self-imaging and self-analysis, for women to actively voice their understanding and experience of desire. Drawing upon practices in art and in an empirical project of ‘photographing desire', it argues that the method enables consciousness-raising, and the materials generated can counter dominant discourse and unveil the diverse, underrepresented women's desire, thus having the potential of empowering women.

Having “The Voice” and Gaining Agency

This study delineates on the conceptual interplay between political empowerment, agency, and gendered interest by drawing the contextual limits of how empowerment, agency, and women's voice are intertwined within the experiences of women in local politics. Most of the studies on women's political empowerment employing a critical perspective focus on non-Western contexts. In these contexts, women are depicted as agents employing unconventional ways of becoming political through different strategies. The narratives of ‘neo-liberal Western subject' are not being read through this critical framework. So as to observe to what extent the binary of Western vs. non-Western is transgressed in distinct socio-political contexts, this study employs the conceptual framework created by the narratives and experiences of women in local politics in Turkey to read the experiences of women in local politics in the US.

If S/He Be Worthy

This study examined Redditors' reactions to the announcement that Natalie Portman will play female Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder. The discussions on Reddit allowed fans to voice support, trepidation, and condemnation of the announcement. The authors analysed over 4000 Reddit comments using thematic analysis, which resulted in seven themes regarding women's voice and agency. They found that many Redditors engaged in bullying, misogyny, and hate speech while others supported the pro-feminist implications. Further, they found that Marvel's attempts at “going woke” drew condemnation from fans espousing male dominance and dividing those that voiced feminist rhetoric.

Women's Agency and Sustainability

The critical multitasking role that women play in agriculture, production, and ecological sustainability and their contribution as possessors of knowledge and skills have been almost ignored by the institutionalized patriarchy, such that women constituting almost half of the world's population have lacked equitable participation in decision-making, responsibilities, and benefits of development. In this chapter, the author discusses women's agency and sustainability, focusing on the activist work of two remarkable women from different socio-economic backgrounds in Turkey with whom she conducted in-depth interviews during fieldwork in İspir, Erzurum in 2012. Both women provide examples of how they have responded to issues relating to the upsurge of hydropower projects in Turkey. Although it has been almost eight years since she was in the field, she finds their perspectives and experiences relevant and important for representation of female voices and women's agency in terms of management and sustainability of water resources, particularly given the current climate crisis.