VITTORIA BERNARDINI

Dottoressa di ricerca

ciclo: XXXIII



Titolo della tesi: Shifting discourses on sexual violence: an analysis of #MeToo on Twitter

This study aims to explore the #MeToo movement as a lens to shed a light on some of the wider transformations concerning feminist and communicative practices. #MeToo is a social media campaign that began in October 2017 to combat sexual violence; it has been described as “a watershed moment in sexual violence activism”. The use of hashtag campaigns for activism has been understood as a new form of the feminist challenge of the traditional division between public and private, since it entails the public discussion of issues that are often cast aside as private. This effort is facilitated by digital media's intrinsic potential to blur the public-private divide, offering easier access to individuals who wish to participate in discussion in the “public space” of digital platforms. In order to explore the complexities of #MeToo as a form of digital feminist activism, the research focuses on the social media conversation that occurred in the first six months of the movement (October 2017 – April 2018). The study adopts an integrated approach combining quantitative and qualitative analysis to examine a dataset of over two million tweets. The first stage of the research takes a quantitative approach to give an overview of the main trends and themes in the dataset, identifies some key concepts to guide the analysis in the second stage of the research. The second stage uses the tool of thematic analysis to investigate the discussion of two controversial #MeToo cases: the allegations of sexual misconduct against actor Aziz Ansari and the publication of an “anti-#Metoo” open letter in Le Monde. The integration of the two approaches produces results that point to a conceptualisation of #MeToo as a “culture war”, a site of struggle over the meanings and boundaries of contemporary feminism, especially with regard to sexual violence. In particular, it is arguable that #MeToo has managed to produce a discursive shift in the cultural landscape, by making unique use of a combination of social media engagement, amplification on news media, and a widening of the themes to be discussed in the public sphere. While findings contribute to an understanding of #MeToo as a feminist intervention in the main public sphere, it is also a movement that takes place within an “economy of visibility” and that is subject to “social media logic”. This translates to an attempt by media platforms to capitalise on survivors’ stories for commercial purposes and to an unequal distribution of visibility that favours the voices of white, privileged women. A theme of backlash also emerges consistently, as the social changes brought forward by #MeToo are met with resistance by those who hold more conservative views of gender and sexuality. In this sense, #MeToo can be interpreted as the expression of a wider struggle between “popular feminism” and “popular misogyny” that is key to understanding the gender politics of our time.

Produzione scientifica

11573/1687343 - 2023 - Hashtag feminism straddling the Americas
Belotti, Francesca; Bernardini, Vittoria; Comunello, Francesca - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: The Routledge Companion to gender, media and violence - (9781003200871)

11573/1679634 - 2023 - Exploring the vaccine conversation on TikTok in Italy: beyond classic vaccine stances
Parisi, Lorenza; Mulargia, Simone; Comunello, Francesca; Bernardini, Vittoria; Bussoletti, Arianna; Nisi, Carla Rita; Russo, Luisa; Campagna, Ilaria; Lanfranchi, Barbara; Croci, Ileana; Grassucci, Eleonora; Gesualdo, Francesco - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: BMC PUBLIC HEALTH (London: BioMed Central, 2001-) pp. 1-13 - issn: 1471-2458 - wos: WOS:000986365200004 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85159739356 (0)

11573/1600595 - 2023 - Gender issues for Italian young people: exploring gender identity and cultures in social autobiographies
Peruzzi, Gaia; Bernardini, Vittoria; Lombardi, Raffaele - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES (Abingdon : Carfax, 1998-) pp. 507-521 - issn: 1367-6261 - wos: WOS:000738513700001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85122234596 (1)

11573/1604263 - 2022 - Collective Voices Online: Discursive Activism in #MeToo
Bernardini, Vittoria - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: Research Anthology on Feminist Studies and Gender Perceptions - (9781668445112)

11573/1670998 - 2022 - Women’s statues in Italian cities. A study of public art and cultural policies
Peruzzi, G.; Bernardini, V.; Riyahi, Y. - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURAL POLICY ([London] : Gordon and Breach) pp. 1-18 - issn: 1477-2833 - wos: WOS:000900719600001 (1) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85144559853 (1)

11573/1578986 - 2021 - #MeToo and U.S. politics: analysing the Twitter conversation
Bernardini, Vittoria - 01a Articolo in rivista
rivista: JOURNAL OF LIBERTY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (Bitola : The Institute for Research and European Studies ,) pp. 33-49 - issn: 1857-9760 - wos: (0) - scopus: 2-s2.0-85116585939 (0)

11573/1579776 - 2021 - Fra sottomissione e fuga. Strategie di negoziazione delle norme di genere
Bernardini, Vittoria - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: Culture di genere. Narrazioni, identità e percorsi dei giovani - ()

11573/1435292 - 2020 - Developing a theoretical framework for contemporary feminist activism: #MeToo as a counter-public sphere
Bernardini, Vittoria - 04b Atto di convegno in volume
congresso: IV Conferenza Nazionale delle Dottorande e dei Dottorandi in Scienze Sociali (Rome; Italy)
libro: CNDSS 2019. Atti della IV Conferenza Nazionale delle Dottorande e dei Dottorandi in Scienze Sociali - (978-88-9377-155-9)

11573/1435469 - 2020 - Collective voices online. Discursive activism in #MeToo
Bernardini, Vittoria - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: Multidisciplinary perspectives on women, voice, and agency - (9781799848295; 9781799848301)

11573/1388663 - 2020 - Narrating gender cultures, creating social change. The sociological experience of the experimental workshop Genere, cultura, società of Sapienza University of Rome
Peruzzi, Gaia; Lombardi, Raffaele; Bernardini, Vittoria - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
congresso: ReGendering Science. For an inclusive research environment. Final Conference of the project H2020 Plotina (Bologna)
libro: Regendering science. For an inclusive research environments. Book of Abstract - (9788854970168)

11573/1254877 - 2019 - Pronatalism and the “heterosexual matrix”: analysing the gender implications of the Italian National Fertility Plan
Bernardini, Vittoria - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
congresso: ESA/RN23 Mid-Term Conference 2019 - Sociological explorations of sexuality in Europe: bodies, practices, and resistance in troubled times (Cracow; Poland)
libro: Book of Abstracts - ()

11573/1338915 - 2019 - Understanding contemporary feminist participation: does #metoo constitute a counter public sphere?
Bernardini, Vittoria - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
congresso: 14th ESA Conference | Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging (Manchester; United Kingdom)
libro: Abstract Book | 14th ESA Conference | Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging | 20-23 August 2019 | Manchester - (978-2-9569087-0-8)

11573/1321155 - 2019 - Le questioni di genere dei giovani. Un'indagine sulle percezioni e le esperienze di studenti e studentesse universitari
Peruzzi, Gaia; Bernardini, Vittoria; Lombardi, Raffaele - 02a Capitolo o Articolo
libro: Il bias del gender. Identità, biopolitica e sessualizzazione dell'esistenza - (978-88-99476-29-8)

11573/1191055 - 2018 - "Defending Italians' fertility": a thematic analysis of the 2015 National Fertility Plan as a case of pronatalist politics
Bernardini, Vittoria - 04d Abstract in atti di convegno
congresso: ESA/RN27 Mid-Term Conference 2018 Social Structures, Culture and Institutions in Southern European Societies (Catania; Italy)
libro: “Book of Abstract” of the ESA/RN27 Mid-Term Conference 2018 - ()

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