A Shameless Ideology of Shameless Women: Positioning the Other in Social Media Discourse Surrounding a Women's Rights Movement in Pakistan

This study analyzes social media (YouTube) discourse related to Aurat March 2019, a women's rights movement in Pakistan. Using a discourse analytical approach that draws on the premises of Positioning theory, the analysis reveals the following two major storylines from the data: The women who stray from the path, and the men who will return them to it, and Islam under threat from the outside. Social media platforms allow their users to express opinions in online spaces, often resulting in polarization and clustering of like-minded people in so-called echo-chambers. This study demonstrates how social media users actively participate in the discursive construction of the other, and how the women's rights movement in Pakistan continues to struggle against hegemonic scripts of gender and sexuality.

Automated summary

This study analyzes social media discourse related to the Aurat March 2019, a women's rights movement in Pakistan, using the premises of Positioning theory. The analysis reveals two major storylines: women who defy societal norms and the men who try to bring them back, and Islam facing external threats. Social media platforms allow users to express their opinions, often leading to polarization and the formation of echo-chambers. The study shows how social media users actively contribute to the construction of others' identities, and how the women's rights movement in Pakistan continues to fight against gender and sexuality norms.