A Feminist Postdigital Analysis of Misogyny, Patriarchy and Violence Against Women and Girls Online

In this chapter, I offer a postdigital feminist analysis of misogyny and its harmful manifestations online. The Internet is a powerful tool in the systemic and structural dissemination of gender-based violence against women and girls (VAWG). This violence includes technology-facilitated harmful behaviour, along with technological tools to violate victims’ rights, using devices like smartphones and surveillance cameras. I will offer a postdigital critique of VAWG, arguing that at the root of these behaviours is misogyny, a conceptual, descriptive, and analytical account of which I will give here. I will also analyse this phenomenon from the perspective of epistemic injustice to show how asymmetries in testimonial exchanges and hermeneutical resources sustain misogynistic, patriarchal practices. Despite the scale and prevalence of digital and cyber gender-based misogyny and violence, Big Tech are under little to no legal obligation to address the abuse, though legal measures such as the Online Harms Bill (UK) are in progress, and should, I argue, incorporate a VAGW Code of Practice. I conclude with a tentative formulation of what feminist postdigital analysis could consist in and its relevance to the postdigital condition.