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Feminist Media Studies

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#AskThicke: Blurred Lines, Rape

Culture, and the Feminist Hashtag
Takeover
Tanya Horeck

Anglia Ruskin University

Published online: 04 Nov 2014.

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To cite this article: Tanya Horeck (2014) #AskThicke: Blurred Lines, Rape Culture,
and the Feminist Hashtag Takeover, Feminist Media Studies, 14:6, 1105-1107, DOI:
10.1080/14680777.2014.975450
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.975450

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COMMENTARY AND CRITICISM

1105

Finally, hashtagging is only one action available to Twitter users. As forms of activism,
re-tweeting and favouriting may be equally important and worth consideration. We feel
that greater attention to the class and literacy dimensions of hashtagging (and social
network sites in general) is called for, as well as deeper awareness of other forms of activism
that can take place alongside or in place of hashtagging, both on and off digital platforms.
REFERENCES

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IPSOS.

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LOZA, SUSANA. 2014. Hashtag Feminism, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and the Other
#FemFuture. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology no. 5. Accessed
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LYONS, KATIE, WILLS ROBINSON, and MATT CHORLEY. 2014. #BringBackOurGirls: Michelle Obama and
Malala join campaign to free 276 Nigerian teenagers kidnapped by Islamic extremists. The
Daily Mail, May 8. Accessed August 26, 2014. http://dailym.ai/1iZJHic
MILLER, DANIEL. 2013. Class and Communication. Global Social Media Impact Study Project Blog.
UCL. Accessed August 12, 2014. http://bit.ly/1kmmxoj
MUNRO, EALASAID. 2013. Feminism: A Fourth Wave? Political Insight 4 (2): 22 25.
SCHUSTER, JULIA. 2013. Invisible Feminists? Social Media and Young Womens Political
Participation. Political Science 65 (1): 8 24.
WARSCHAUER, MARK. 2004. Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. Boston:
MIT Press.
WELLER, KATRIN. 2013. The Pleasures and Perils or Studying Twitter. Presentation at Researching
Social Media Conference (Invited keynote). Sheffield, UK, November 4, 2013. Slides
available at: http://bit.ly/VpmcoI (accessed August 10, 2014).

#ASKTHICKE: BLURRED LINES, RAPE

CULTURE, AND THE FEMINIST HASHTAG
TAKEOVER
Tanya Horeck, Anglia Ruskin University
@LaurenHarsh1: #askThicke If one of your songs played in a forest and no one was around
to hear it would it still be sexist and gross?1
@JoLiptrott: #AskThicke When youre not busy objectifying women, making light of rape
and justifying sexual violence, how do you like to relax?2

There could scarcely be a celebrity less associated with feminism than Robin Thicke, the
American singer who, with Pharrell Williams, co-wrote Blurred Lines, the hit 2013 song that

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has been castigated as a rape anthem and banned from several university campuses in the
UK. Nonetheless, it is one of the quirks of the internet age that Thickes name became the
hashtag for a very publicand feministcalling out of misogyny and sexism. In the summer
of 2014, the American cable music and popular culture network vh1, set up a Twitter Q&A with
Thicke, #askthicke, which invited the general public to chat with the singer. Critics
commandeered the hashtag (see above) and used the opportunity to ridicule the singer for the
misogynist lyrics and video of Blurred Lines (Jenn Selby, 2014). The incident appears to prove
Ariel Levys point that the Internet is uniquely qualified as a venue for public shaming (2013).
This example of a hashtag feminist takeover is part of a vociferous discussion and debate
about rape culture that is currently spreading online. Since writing my book, Public Rape:
Representing Violation in Fiction and Film in 2004, I am struck by the extent to which the
concept of public rape has taken on a new form and urgency in the digital age. Indeed, my
original use of the term public rape to refer to how controversies over rape are central to the
body politic and to the very conception of the public is considerably heightenedand
complicatedin an online world where the boundaries between the private and the public
are less certain than ever before. As with the above example of #askthicke, the proliferation of
social media sites such as Twitter has opened up important opportunities for feminists to talk
back to cultural depictions of rape and to interrogate rape culture. There is an immediacy of
response that has shifted the political terrain considerably, raising new questions about our
personal and affective relationship to representations of sexualized violence. The current
culture of heightened awareness and accountability means that, as journalist and feminist
activist Laurie Pennyherself no stranger to Twitter controversyhas put it, comedians now
think twice before making rape jokes (Marina Galperina 2013).
But before getting carried away with the radical potential of digital media, it is vital
not to forget that social networks also promulgate sexually violent discourse and expand
the opportunities to shame and humiliate women. This was recently evidenced when a
sixteen-year-old American girl in Texas, named Jada, was drugged and raped and photos
of her assaulted body went viral. This ultimately resulted in further humiliation when
(unbelievably) individuals began posting pictures of themselves on social media mocking
the pose of Jadas naked, unconscious body at the hashtag #jadapose. What is striking,
though, is how an online countermovement instantly sprung up, with supporters rallying
around the teenagers cause at hashtags including #standupforjada, #justiceforjada and
#jadacounterpose (Kate Dailey 2014).
It is undeniable that digital culture has reconfigured the ways in which we experience,
and respond to, images of sexual violence. While some proclaim the liberatory force of
hashtag activism and others argue that it is ultimately an empty and self-congratulatory
display of righteousness, I am more interested in how the digital technology that enables the
hashtag is itself recasting the socio-dynamics of discourse on rape. There is now an
unprecedented speed and immediacy to affective responses to rape and its hyper visible
circulation online; it is the radical potentialities and limitations of this new temporal regime
epitomized by the hashtagthat we as feminists must consider when strategizing how to
actively re-shape the cultural consensus on questions of gender, violence and power.
NOTES
1. https://twitter.com/LaurenHarsh1/statuses/483792268692688896
2. https://twitter.com/JoLiptrott/statuses/483768538025701376

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DAILEY, KATE.

2014. #BBC trending: is #jadapose a new low for social media? BBC, July 14.
Accessed July 15, 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-28239914
GALPERINA, MARINA. 2013. Laurie Penny vs Cybersexism: Not Letting the Fuckers Win. Animal
Art, New York City, Culture, Politics, and Opinion. Accessed July 14, 2014. http://
animalnewyork.com/2013/laurie-penny-vs-cybersexism-not-letting-the-fuckers-win/
HORECK, TANYA. 2004. Public Rape: Representing Violation in Fiction and Film. London/New York:
Routledge.
LEVY, ARIEL. 2013. Trial by Twitter. The New Yorker, August 5. Accessed July 14, 2014. http://www.
newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/05/130805fa_fact_levy?currentPage=all
SELBY, JENN. 2014. Robin Thicke trolled after #AskThicke Twitter publicity stunt goes horribly wrong.
The Independent, July 1. Accessed July 14, 2014. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/
people/robin-thicke-mercilessly-trolled-after-askthicke-publicity-stunt-goes-horribly-wrong9575740.html

#THEVAGENDAS WAR ON HEADLINES:

FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION
AGE
Michaela D. E. Meyer, Christopher Newport University
In journalism, the headline reigns supreme. From the age-old adage if it bleeds, it leads to
contemporary twenty-four-hour news cycles, headlines function as both attention seeking
and attention directing. As a result of various mantras in the industry, journalists often rely on
proscriptive tropes to construct headlinesthey should be short, clear, unambiguous and
easy to read, interesting and new (Daniel Dor 2003, 716). Sex and gender are intricately
linked to these tropes. Deborah L. Rhode (1995) observes that headlines directly reference
culturally preferred ideologies about sex and gender. She offers the example, Widow, 70,
Dies after Beating by Intruder, which reflects the significance of the womans marital status
even after death (690). The use of cultural short cuts to craft headlines is precisely why
readers previous knowledge and sophisticated reading strategies are claimed to be critical
in understanding how headlines culturally function (Elly Infantidou 2009, 700).
Frustrated by sexism in contemporary media, the editors at Vagenda, an online UKbased magazine addressing media sexism, issued a challenge to its Twitter followers: take a
tabloid headline you think is sexist and reword it without sexism. Trending under the
hashtag #thevagenda, results poured in during the spring of 2014. A few of the more
prominent examples included altering George Clooney Reportedly Engaged to Hot,
Successful Lawyer to Accomplished Human Rights Lawyer Might Be Engaged to Greying
Actor, 52; Make-up Free Amy Adams is Anything but Glamorous as She Goes Wild in the
Aisles in Los Angeles Supermarket to Woman Buys Groceries, Remains 5-Time Academy
Award Nominee; and Katie Holmes Steps Out in See-Through Shirt During NYC Stroll with