A Speech Act Approach to #MeToo Activism in the Americas
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Sociolinguistics
Location
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Start Date
18-10-2024 4:00 PM
End Date
18-10-2024 4:30 PM
Abstract
A fundamental tenet of linguistic anthropology holds that speech is action (Austin et al 1970, Searle 1976). In this paper, we explore the calls to action generated by international responses to and intertextual negotiations with #MeToo activism in the US, with a particular focus on Latin America. The rise of the hashtag #MeToo in 2017 (originated by activist Tarana Burke and brought into greater prominence by actor Alyssa Milano) created not just a single action, but a call to action that brought attention to women’s shared experiences of harassment and assault. This paper examines the role of #MeToo activism in a broader hemispheric context, with particular attention to the Argentine hashtag #NiUnaMenos, Mexican #NiUnaMas, Brazilian #EleNão, and international public performances of a Chilean choreographed dance “Un violador en tu camino.” Social media has become a key vehicle for marginalized groups to be seen in a globalized space, creating the sense of a broad public sphere across social and political borders (see Bonilla & Rosa 2015). However, some of the hopes raised by this visibilization were later dashed by the return of reactionary politics around gender and reproductive justice across the Americas. We argue that the footing (Goffman 1981) of calls for justice was fundamentally different in the US, where #MeToo focused primarily on individual misbehavior, versus in Latin America, where there was a call for collective accountability. Throughout this paper, we use linguistic analysis to discuss the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary forces - the different calls to action that emerged from different subject positions - that were constituted through interdiscursive embodied responses to gendered violence in a pan-American perspective.
A Speech Act Approach to #MeToo Activism in the Americas
MBSC Omaha Room 304
A fundamental tenet of linguistic anthropology holds that speech is action (Austin et al 1970, Searle 1976). In this paper, we explore the calls to action generated by international responses to and intertextual negotiations with #MeToo activism in the US, with a particular focus on Latin America. The rise of the hashtag #MeToo in 2017 (originated by activist Tarana Burke and brought into greater prominence by actor Alyssa Milano) created not just a single action, but a call to action that brought attention to women’s shared experiences of harassment and assault. This paper examines the role of #MeToo activism in a broader hemispheric context, with particular attention to the Argentine hashtag #NiUnaMenos, Mexican #NiUnaMas, Brazilian #EleNão, and international public performances of a Chilean choreographed dance “Un violador en tu camino.” Social media has become a key vehicle for marginalized groups to be seen in a globalized space, creating the sense of a broad public sphere across social and political borders (see Bonilla & Rosa 2015). However, some of the hopes raised by this visibilization were later dashed by the return of reactionary politics around gender and reproductive justice across the Americas. We argue that the footing (Goffman 1981) of calls for justice was fundamentally different in the US, where #MeToo focused primarily on individual misbehavior, versus in Latin America, where there was a call for collective accountability. Throughout this paper, we use linguistic analysis to discuss the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary forces - the different calls to action that emerged from different subject positions - that were constituted through interdiscursive embodied responses to gendered violence in a pan-American perspective.