Any trend that deals with serious issues is bound to be part of some sort of discourse
By Celine Lagundi/EMZ
Recently, there has been a new trend on Instagram: an “Add Yours” sticker, where users can create a prompt of their own and other people can see their contributions. In some ways, it’s a fun, fresh, interactive take to the chain mails of yesterday.
However, there has been a strange new take on this feature lately: the text on the sticker will say:
We’ve also seen variations of these stickers: “Repost if you believe Black Lives Matter”, “Repost if you advocate for Trans Lives,” and so much more.
And they almost always end with the footnote: “I can see who skips.”
Of course, any trend that deals with serious issues is bound to be part of some sort of discourse.
Rape is obviously a very serious issue.
Last year, the Philippine National Police reports that 3,016 persons nationwide have filed rape cases from March 17 to August 31, which is an average of 18 people daily. Of course, these numbers are only reflective of the ones that have been reported.
(Read: https://www.philstar.com/nation/2020/09/02/2039437/18-raped-daily-during-quarantine)
All over the world, there is a statistic that one out of three women will get raped, harassed or assaulted in their lifetime, which amounts to up to one billion women and girls, which is commemorated by the annual event “One Billion Rising.”
Online, movements such as the #MeToo were essential in bringing together many women to speak out about sexual harrassment and misogyny in their homes and workplaces.
Because of social media, many people have become empowered to share their stories and bring attention to the global conversation on how sexism and misogyny affect them. However, as massive as these movements can be, the reality is that sexual violence and gender discrimination is still very much present in society.
So, maybe, your next question is: is my activism online not enough?
“Is my Feminism/Activism Performative?”
Virtue Signaling is a term used to describe the “public expression of opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or social conscience or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.”
Going online, people have been expressing their thoughts about the traction the Instagram trend has gotten. Users have been calling the posting of these stickers “insensitive” and “counterproductive”.
While the reposting of these stories may count as virtue signaling, doesn’t that mean that the reactions ridiculing people reposting are just the same?
Activism on the internet is a terribly muddy ordeal: anyone has their own definition of what is “correct” and “incorrect” activism, as if advocacy is measured on how many tweets or posts somebody writes, or how many socially aware infographics they post and repost.
In Jia Tolentino’s essay “The I in Internet,” she writes: “In the absence of time to physically and politically engage with our community the way many of us want to, the internet provides a cheap substitute: it gives brief moments of pleasure and connection, tied up in the opportunity to constantly listen and speak. Under these circumstances, opinion stops being a first step toward something and starts seeming like an end in itself.”
So, who are we to be the judge of performative activism when the entirety of our existence on the internet is just as performative?
Don’t all revolutionaries start somewhere?
Taking Activism Offline
Aside from expressing our thoughts on the internet, what are we doing on the ground? How are we contributing to the actual cause of removing rape and rape culture in our society?
As an assault survivor myself, it hurt to see my and so many other survivors’ traumatic experiences get watered down to a sticker on an Instagram story.
However, I recognize that these Instagram stories, no matter how superficial they may seem, are publicly contributing to the massive conversation surrounding sexual assault, harassment, and abuse. These conversations and efforts should not be ridiculed and rejected, as they are important steps forward.
Ridiculing people who post these stories will only further alienate them. In the final analysis, these people aren’t even the enemy.
There is a saying that goes something like: “Everything a person does is out of love or fear.” With that, there are only two reasons I see as to why people would repost these stickers: Out of fear of being ridiculed (the sticker DOES say “I see who skips”), and out of sincere love and compassion for victims of rape or sexual abuse.
Reposting these stickers do not absolve people of their participation in rape culture, nor do they actually provide the proper resources that quash it. These things are not mutually exclusive!
The best thing to do moving forward is to recognize why the execution of the message is wrong and why it is even more important to realign our collective efforts towards supporting victims.
We’ve gathered some resources you can check out to further aid in quashing the culture of rape in our society:
Read these articles:
What is Rape Culture?
https://www.unh.edu/sharpp/rape-culture
16 Ways You Can Stand Against Rape Culture
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/11/compilation-ways-you-can-stand-against-rape-culture
What To Do When You Get Sexually Assaulted
https://www.healthline.com/health/sexual-assault-resource-guide
Contact, donate, or join and volunteer at these organizations:
Gabriela Youth — USC | Facebook
Start the difficult conversation in your families, barkada, and classes. Support and believe victims, and always advocate for safe spaces EVERYWHERE.
During such an emotionally charged time, we don’t need more emotional blackmail — we need to think about and contribute to actual systemic change. We need to put our effort and energy into ending rape culture once and for all, and by addressing these systematic problems by the root.
Celine German Lagundi is a beautiful, skilled, talented 20 something who lives in a perpetual state of delusion. If she’s not writing, you can usually find her cross-legged in front of the wall lamenting her three divorces and her life as a 90s supermodel. She is also a pathological liar.
