During an event in Marseille in 2017. (archives) – FRANCK PENNANT / AFP
Almost three years after the wave #Metoo, and its French derivative #Balancetonporc, a new wave of testimonies has invaded Twitter in recent days with the hashtag #I’mVictime. “I was 7, 17 and 19 years old. #I’mVictime “, Reveals for example a young woman. “ #I’mVictime rape. Once when I was 9 years old. Another time when I was 14. We reward the guilty. We condemn the victims, ”tweeted another.
The first message appeared the day after the Cesar ceremony, on February 28, which crowned best director filmmaker Roman Polanski, the subject of several rape accusations. In six days, more than 200,000 messages were published with this keyword, according to a count made by the social media monitoring tool Visibrain. Almost as much as #Balancetonporc, which had generated some 208,000 messages in October 2017 during the same period of time.
Make stories visible
Making visible once again facts suffered mainly by women, this hashtag joined the list of recent #I was raped, #NotDaysYes, or #Monpostpartum, which compiles testimonies on the difficulties of postpartum, an intimate period very rarely discussed. “All of these hashtags are both symbolic and full of strength,” said feminist activist Rebecca Amsellem.
For this doctor of economics, founder of the Les Glorieuses newsletter, these testimonies under the same keyword make it possible to “make stories visible in public space. Women say stop for a lot of things and they won’t stop. ” At a time when the feminist struggle is diversifying, she finds that collages – these strong phrases written in large black letters on the walls of cities – and hashtags are the two modes of action that are currently receiving the most attention.
Difficult conversion to activism on the ground
No doubt driven by the effect of #Metoo, many feminist collectives are emerging their own hashtags to “create news.” “The goal is to reach the top tweets”, that is to say the ranking of the most popular messages, those with a large number of users, explains Caroline De Haas, member of the collective #Noustoutes. When they are not spontaneous, these often punchy hashtags “are part of a communication strategy to be visible and to gather the greatest number”, she recognizes. “But it wouldn’t work if they didn’t resonate with a social reality.”
“For activists, it makes sense to be on Twitter because it is where there are journalists, opinion leaders and politicians,” analyzes Véronique Reille-Soult, president of Dentsu consulting, specialist in ‘opinion. Social networks “give the impression that everyone can participate in this (feminist) fight because they offer a sounding board” and are “easy to use,” she said.
These keywords then allow us to find ourselves on the same issue while capturing new potential activists. This raises the question of the transition from virtual to reality. “We have to offer outlets, concrete actions to take together,” insists Caroline De Haas, who this week highlighted the communication on the march organized on Sunday on the occasion of Women’s Rights Day, hoping to attract more people.
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