Dynesen, Siri Bøge

AbstractThis thesis examines the critique of the #Metoo-movement prevalent in the public debate in Denmark. The study is based on public texts such as blog posts and feature articles, written by prominent debaters and released by major Danish newspapers and websites.Through the framework of discourse psychology, the texts are analysed with the purpose of discovering patterns of discourse, as well as identifying the tools of rhetoric used in accounts to describe the #Metoo-movement and its subjects, and to what extend the critique of #Metoo can be said to have an impact on the effect of the movement and on the struggle against sexual harassment and gender equality.The study shows that critique of #Metoo delegitimizes the movement by reducing sexual harassment to something that is unproblematic, normal and natural. The responsibility for the sexual harassment incidents is placed on the victims, by describing incidents as avoidable, self- inflicted, or as something the victims themselves have gained from. The focus of the #Metoo debate is shifted from the victims of sexual harassment to the possibility of innocent men being unfairly accused publicly. The supporters of #Metoo are categorized as feminists, who are described with recognizable and negative adjectives, which serves to undermine their arguments. The results of the study are discussed in relation to previous studies in the field of gender studies and feminist studies, and research on the medias framing of #Metoo and feminists, and concludes, that the texts use, and thus support, existing discourse on the subjects of feminists and sexual harassment, as well as constituting a backlash on feminism which may lead to anti-feminism and lack of political action on the gender equality question. In this light, the critique of #Metoo can be seen as contributing to making the issue of sexual harassment become invisible as well as its arguments resist social changes towards gender equality and thus upholds existing structures in society which permit sexual harassment to prevail. The thesis suggests that the discoursive examination of how the #Metoo movement and sexual harassment is described negatively in the public debate, is important for understanding the complexities by which the problem of sexual harassment is continuously undermined

#Metoo critics descriptions of #Metoo and its subjects - a discourse psychological analysis

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Roskilde Universitet