#Hashtag: How Selected Texts of Popular Culture Engaged With Sexual Assault In the Context of the Me Too Movement in 2019

• Authors: Anna Oleszczuk
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper seeks to explore recent shifts within the popular culture with regard to oppression involving gender, class, race, and ethnicity that can be traced back to the #MeToo movement which was revived as a social media hashtag in October 2017 and has since spread all over the world. The paper starts with a brief overview of Western popular culture that “has recently been seen as a champion for feminism . . . with many high-profile female musicians and actresses visibly promoting the movement in their work” (Woodacre 2018, 21). Next, the paper discusses the origins of the Me Too Movement and the way it approaches the meaning of gendered oppressions as well as individualized and collective experiences of survivors of sexual abuse. This is later explored in the examination of the impact of the hashtag-led movement on three works of popular culture: Amazon’s TV series Lorena (2019), Nancy Schwartzman’s documentary Roll Red Roll (2019), and We Believe: the Best Men Can Be (2019) advertisement by Gillette. The entire case study is informed primarily by feminist theory understood as inseparable from feminist activism, following bell hooks’ Feminist theory from margin to center (1984).

Keywords

EN

MeToo, feminism, gender, abuse, popular culture

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: New Horizons in English Studies
• Year: 2020
• Issue: 5

Dates

published

2020

online

2020-09-04

Contributors

author

Anna Oleszczuk

• Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin

editor

Aneta Okuń-Jaśkowiak

editor

Adam Głaz

editor

Lidia Kniaź-Hunek

editor

Anna Bendrat

editor

Ewelina Prażmo

editor

Przemysław Terejko

editor

Piotr Szczypa

editor

Grzegorz Czemiel

editor

Ewa Antoszek

editor

Justyna Galant

editor

Marta Komsta

editor

Edyta Frelik

editor

Agata Waszkiewicz

editor

Anna Oleszczuk

editor

Agata Waszkiewicz

other

Aneta Okuń-Jaśkowiak

References

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• hooks, bell. 1984. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. Boston, MA: South End Press.
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• “Lorena - Rotten Tomatoes.” n.d. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/lorena.
• O’Donnel, Lilly. 2013. “Big Red Football: Anonymous Leaks Disturbing Video in Steubenville Rape Case.” Mic. Accessed 20 December, 2019. https://www.mic.com/articles/21878/big-red-football-anonymous-leaks-disturbing-video-in-steubenville-rape-case.
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• Piwowarski, Allison. 2019. “Why ‘Lorena’ Is The Perfect Story For A #MeToo Era, According To Lorena Bobbitt.” Bustle. Accessed 20 December, 2019. https://www.bustle.com/p/why-lorena-is-the-perfect-story-for-a-metoo-era-according-to-lorena-bobbitt-15950539.
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• https://doi:10.15767/feministstudies.44.1.0197.
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• Woodacre, Elena. 2018. “Reappraising Female Rulers in the Light of Modern Feminism(s).” In Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers: Gender, Sex, and Power in Popular Culture, edited by Janice North, Karl C. Alvestad, and Elena Woodacre, 20–25. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Films
• Lorena. 2019. Directed by Joshua Rofé. Amazon. TV Series.
• Roll Red Roll. 2019. Directed by Nancy Schwartzman. Multitude Films, Sunset Park Pictures. Film.
• We Believe: The Best Men Can Be. 2019. Directed by Kim Gehrig 2019. Gillette. Short film.

Identifiers

DOI

10.17951/nh.2020.5.208-217