Disciplinamiento sexual : cazando brujas y ciberfeministas

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el fenómeno de la violencia online contra mujeres con presencia explícitamente feminista en el ciberespacio. Para dar cuenta de las estrategias de disciplinamiento sexual a las que están sometidas las mujeres, relacionamos la caza de brujas de los siglos XVI y XVII, con el ciberacoso, un creciente tipo de ciberviolencia. Abordamos nuestro objeto de estudio desde una estrategia metodológica cualitativa, a través de un estudio etnográfico de la manosfera –un conjunto de plataformas web antifeministas– de sus integrantes, y de sus técnicas de acoso; así como de los casos de ciberacoso contra Zoë Quinn y Anita Sarkeesian, ambos enmarcados en el movimiento Gamergate. Nuestros resultados finales muestran que los mecanismos digitales de disciplinamiento –amenazas de violencia física y/o sexual, y la apropiación sin consentimiento del cuerpo femenino– tienen como consecuencia la sumersión de las feministas en un estado de hipervigilancia, autocontrol y autocensura.The aim of this paper is to analyze the phenomenon of online violence against women who display an explicitly feminist presence in the virtual space. In order to report the strategies of sexual discipline to which women are subjected, we relate the witch hunt of the 16th and 17th centuries, with the phenomenon of cyberharassment, a rising form of cyberviolence. We approach our object of study from a qualitative research method, through an nethnographic study of the manosphere –a set of antifeminist websites–, of its members, and their harassment techniques; as well as the cases of cyberharassment against Zoë Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian, both framed in the Gamergate movement. Our final results show that digital mechanisms of discipline –threats of physical and/or sexual violence, and the appropriation without consent of the female body– have as a consequence the submersion of feminists in a state of hypervigilance, self-control and self-censorship

Feminist Cyber-resistance to Digital Violence: Surviving Gamergate

Women in cyberspace do not escape patriarchal violence and are subject to strict social control exercised through technological means. Cyber-violence especially affects women with an explicitly feminist presence in virtual spaces. Their participation in and advocacy of feminist values are considered a transgression of the patriarchal mandate, which seeks to exclude women from public spaces or, failing that, to marginalise them. That is why they are the targets of grave intimidation, harassment and threats. At the same time, digital networks have spawned a plethora of spaces for women’s collective, political and social action. Thus, online activity has played a key role in the resurgence and revitalisation of feminist communities and debates. This paper analyses the projects launched by Zoë Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian, two of the main targets of the Gamergate movement. We will study: (1) Crash Override and Speak Up & Stay Safe(r), a helpline and a resource platform for cyber-violence victims, respectively; (2) feminist cyber-resistance projects, within the framework of cyber-feminism and the current paradigm shift in the culture of protest and feminist organisation