Hashtag Feminisms: Australian Media Feminists, Activism, and Digital Campaigns

Broad-scale feminist consciousness continues to gain ground globally, as witnessed by the Women’s March, #MeToo, and #EnoughIsEnough in Australia. Aided by hashtag activism and media feminists, feminist campaigns have highlighted the need for change in cultural attitudes to issues such as gender-based violence. This book focuses on feminist campaigning in the Australian context over the last decade, contending the increased velocity of feminist discourse in the Australian mediascape represents a critical opportunity for larger scale, feminist-led mass awareness campaigns. The authors ask: what is it about hashtag activism and celebrity feminisms that may be most useful to (some) Australian feminists, and what are the challenges and potential risks of these forms of activism? Does such activism have substantive political or material effects? Or is this type of activism just echo chamber activism, which does little to address structural inequalities and, if so, might anything be salvaged?