There is an elitism and selectivity in the discourse which happen on the social network. Generally issues related to the lower strata of the society are sidelined in these discussions.
By Mohammad Zakir Riyaz,
In recent years, a new trend of online activism has taken birth where online campaigns against various issues are launched and taken forward to make changes. In this direction the first such campaign in my memory was the Pink Chaddi campaign launched in 2009 as a protest against the right wing extremist group Shri Ram Sene’s attack on women in a pub at Manglore. In this campaign, people were mobilized online and asked to send pink panties to the leaders of this extremist group.
This campaign received a lot of attention and about 30,000 people started following this campaign within a week and as a result of this campaign 3000 pink panties had been sent to the president of this group. This campaign was a successful web activism experiment. Many online campaign websites like Change.org, Cause.com have also arrived in the scene which has made launching new online campaigns easier.
(Credit: Youtube)
Social network doesn’t only provide a place to launch new campaign but it has provided a new platform to start discussion forums online. I too have engaged in many such discussions and many a times these discussion have been very much result oriented. There are few topics which are all time favorite for the discussants on these online social forums and these are global political trends, literature and feminism.
And it is very interesting to admit the fact that social network has played a vital role in current Indian politics. Role of social media in formation of NDA government at the Centre and the AAP government in Delhi cannot be denied. It has provided new space for the discussion on issues which were limited largely to the conference rooms and university campuses.
Online networks have brought many positive changes in our life and connected us to many likeminded people but this platform doesn’t have everything as positive and constructive. There is a dark side to this platform. There is an elitism and selectivity in the discourse which happen on the social network. Generally issues related to the lower strata of the society are sidelined in these discussions. This is because of the class consciousness of the discussants who take part in such discussions.
I would like to focus on the feminist discourse on social media which I find similar to the first wave of the feminism in character. First wave of the feminism was focused around the rights of the white, middle and upper class women. Similarly, the modern day online feminist discourse, which I am a part of as well, revolves around the rights of the women belonging to the upper strata of the society.
For the past few months, I have been observing discussion on women’s issue on social media. The major discussion had been about the BBC documentary on Nirbhya rape case, sanitary pad campaign, status updates related to menstruation cycle by women rights advocates, discussions on veil and dressing and the latest, Deepika Padukone’s ‘My Choice’ campaign video.
The discussions on these topics are very vibrant and attract various kinds of people who give their diverse opinion on these issues. Though I don’t have any objection to any of these activities and extend my support to these initiatives, what I feel disappointing is that among these issues, I tried hard to search for any discussion going on the plight of the tribal, dalit or women living in the armed conflict areas (North East and Kashmir) but found none. This is what makes me concerned about the feminist discourse on social media because it tends to ignore their similar beings that are not from their strata or are not from metro cities.
Another annoying situation is when you witness a huge uproar and largest protest demonstration on December 26, 2012 Nirbhaya case, which was no doubt very brutal till date but at the same time, after just one year, families of two minor rape victim dalit girls from Haryana protested at Jantar Mantar but received almost nil attention from mainstream media and nothing on the social media.
Why do we have this dual standard? What are the reasons behind this selective approach in demanding for women rights?
Why don’t these activists speak up for Soni Sori, Hidima and hundreds of other tribal girls in Naxal affected areas that are tortured by state security personnel? Actually these social media activists are the likes of the first generation feminist activists who had demanded for the women rights for their own strata because they haven’t ever seen the plight of their similar beings in the lower stratum of the society. Similarly, in this case activism of these women rights activists are driven by the advertisement campaigns such as ‘My Choice’ by Vogue which script choices for them and then asked them to make those scripted choices their choices.
These activists easily ignore the plight of the woman whose vagina was tortured at a police station by inserting stones in it. They easily ignore the woman who were so brutally gang raped at a police station that her womb came out of her body. But these women can have a day long discussion on whether they should wear a sleeveless top or not. Though there are huge difference between both the issues but why do they ignore the former and never let anyone have an upper hand in the discussion on the latter?
There can be many reasons why such things happen, why we ignore issues involving right to life with dignity, which should be our priority, and prefer to advocate those rights which are significant too but are less important in comparison to the former?
These are serious question each women’s right activist making use of social media to demand her right should ask to herself. These activist should introspect where are they lagging? I hope that if we find answers to these question, no doubt we can make the best use of this platform and secure the rights of each one of us irrespective of the class, caste, religion and regions we belong to.
(Zakir Reyaz is a social worker based in Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh. He has done MA from Jamia Milia Islamia’s Social Work Department.)