[Air-L] CFP Online Misogyny

[Eugenia Siapera]

Dear AoIRs,

Please consider submitting an abstract to the special issue of Feminist
Media Studies on Online Misogyny.

Deadline: October 1st!

Details below and in this link:
http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/ah/special-issue-online-misogyny-call

In recent years, online misogyny has become a major concern for women. As a
new wave of feminist / female bloggers, journalists, activists and gamers
have attempted to assert their presence on the internet, there has been a
concerted backlash against both feminism and women generally. This special
issue of* Feminist Media Studies* seeks to identify and theorise the
complex relationships between online culture, technology and misogyny. How
have the internet’s anti-woman spaces and discourses been transformed by
the technological affordances of the internet and social media? How are
they being articulated and reproduced in diverse cultural contexts and / or
transnationally? Are they borne of the same types of discontents
articulated in older forms of anti-feminism or to what extent do they
articulate a different constellation of social, cultural and
gender-political factors?

Despite growing social concern about online misogyny, discussion and debate
of this issue has been primarily journalistic to date. Moreover, the focus
has been strongly western-/anglo-centric, and has tended to revolve around
certain ‘flashpoint’ events. There is a need, therefore, for greater
representation of how this phenomenon operates globally across contexts
from non-anglophone, technologically advanced cultures to countries in the
Global South. It is important to ask, for example, how internet access and
local gender landscapes complicate our understanding of this subject. In
addition to the more high-profile, anonymous attacks covered by the western
media, there are also reports of intimate partner and acquaintance abuse
online, which often takes the form of ‘revenge porn’ or unauthorized
distribution of sexts by men known to their victims. Moreover, misogyny can
and does operate in the more formal contexts of the technology sector. All
of these examples should alert us to the importance of progressing academic
inquiry on this issue not from a point at which we assume online misogyny
to be a stable, recognisable phenomenon but rather by inviting
contributions that will expand current knowledge and understanding beyond
western experiences, gender-political contexts and epistemological
frameworks.

What is significant about all of these phenomena is their very real impact
on the lives and safety of real women, as well as their success in
deterring women from expressing their opinions or putting their work
online. Despite this, online misogyny remains under-researched in academia
(Jane, 2014). There have, however, been important activist interventions
such as #everydaysexism and #freethenipple as well as a raft of feminist
groups organizing online to highlight and challenge misogyny. Given that
activists, journalists, gamers and filmmakers have effectively led this
charge, we consider it important to ask whether these new, more popular
expressions of digital feminism are reaching new audiences and shaping new
publics, and what impact this might have on theoretical understandings of
feminism. Moreover, while it is important to consider the new misogyny in
relation to older theorisations of anti-feminism (Faludi, 1991; Kimmel,
1995; Messner, 1997), it is also crucial to build reflexive criticism into
narratives that have hitherto excluded non-western cultures as well as
other, related forms of online hate speech such as racism, homophobia and
transphobia.

*Online Misogyny* aims to give this increasingly important area of enquiry
the impetus, attention and theoretical cohesion it requires. The
increasingly amorphous and anonymous nature of online misogyny and the
fluid and dynamic nature of online communication pose considerable
challenges for data capture and analysis, and we expect methodological
innovation to be a key element of this special issue. We also hope to
publish at least one contribution from an activist, artist or non-academic.

*Possible topics in relation to this theme may include (but are not limited
to):*

   - Online misogyny and feminist media theorisations
   - Forms of online misogyny  (including threats, abuse, ‘revenge porn’,
   creepshots, sexting, slut-shaming, technology-enabled intimate partner and
   acquaintance violence, and others)
   - Sites and contexts of online misogyny
   - Discourses and visuality of online misogyny
   - Global contexts and online misogyny
   - Transnational travel / global pathways of misogyny
   - Online misogyny’s articulations with racism, homophobia and transphobia
   - Technological affordances: the role of algorithims, anonymity,
   governance, technical design, platform politics, etc.
   - Social, political and personal impact of online misogyny
   - Women’s / feminist responses to online misogyny
   - Performative responses to online misogyny
   - The role of social media corporations and community managers
   - Workplace and institutional misogyny: misogyny in the technology /
   gaming / journalism sectors
   - Legislation and corporate policy
   - Digitally networked publics: the impact of online misogyny on
   democracy and the public sphere
   - Online misogyny and the post-feminist context

*Aims & Scope*
*Feminist Media Studies* provides a transdisciplinary, transnational forum
for researchers pursuing feminist approaches to the field of media and
communication studies, with attention to the historical, philosophical,
cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions and analysis of sites
including print and electronic media, film and the arts, and new media
technologies. The journal invites contributions from feminist researchers
working across a range of disciplines and conceptual perspectives.

*Peer Review Policy*
All research articles in this journal undergo rigorous peer review, based
on initial editor screening and anonymous refereeing by at least two
scholars.
Submission Instructions

Please submit a 350-word abstract as well as a short (1-page) CV to Debbie
Ging (debbie.ging at dcu.ie) and Eugenia Siapera (eugenia.siapera at dcu.ie) by *1st
October 2016*. Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by 15th
January 2017 and asked to submit complete manuscripts by 15th June 2017.
Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication of the paper,
which will be subject to peer review.
Editorial information

   - Guest Editor: Debbie Ging (debbie.ging at dcu.ie)
   - Guest Editor: Eugenia Siapera (eugenia.siapera at dcu.ie)