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e-FEMINISM: The Impact of Engaging Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain : How can men be included as allies in digital activism?

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Communication for Development One-year master

15 Credits

Degree Project-VT20

e-FEMINISM: The Impact of Engaging

Men in Digital Campaigning in Spain

How can men be included

as allies in digital activism?

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing up this thesis has been like walking an endless tunnel without seeing a single ray of sunshine. On numerous occasions, I have been tempted to throw in the towel, but now I take great pride in finally submitting this dissertation.

It would not be fair to take all the credit, as this DP would have not been completed without the help and support of too many people. Thank you all for taking the time to fill in a questionnaire, answer a few questions on the phone or respond to an email; your availability has been key for my research.

I would like to thank Florencia Enghel for answering quickly to all my doubts even if sometimes a bit silly. Thank you, Tobias Denskus, for allowing this paper to be my own work, but providing me with sound advice and direction when requested.

I would also like to acknowledge my classmate and old friend, Natalia Hernández, as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments on this thesis, for always answering never-ending audio messages and for being a companion during this Master’s programme.

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents, my sister and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my life adventures and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you.

Gracias a mi familia y mis amigos por animarme a seguir cuando me flaqueaban las fuerzas, por apoyarme en todas las decisiones que he tomado y por darme lo mejor de

vosotros para ayudarme a ser una mejor versión de mi misma.

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ABSTRACT

The fresh idea of including men in feminist campaigning might be a reaction to a postfeminist context with much uncertainty towards the feminist movement and arises a never-ending complex and contested issue within the feminist theory.

This research aims at understanding the rise of feminist communication on social media, particularly on Instagram, with a special focus on men’s representation and involvement. Therefore, this paper will study men’s engagement in feminist digital campaigning on Instagram; and their representation and participation in this type of activism without ostracizing women.

In recent years, social media have gained an increasing number of users, transforming these platforms into daily communication tools. Notably, Instagram has achieved considerable success with a growing use in e-commerce campaigns and social activism. In this context, this report will reduce its scope to Instagram feminist accounts in Spain and will consider the potential of social media for change by conducting surveys to feminist organisations and social media users and analysing the contents published by feminist influencers.

All in all, this study responds to existing debates on how (or if) men should be included in the feminist movement. The clear conclusion to this DP is that there is not a simple answer to this matter.

Keywords: Social media, feminism, social change processes, media, representation,

Instagram, citizens, activists, Spain, activism, gender, women’s rights, gender equality, Public sphere, social media

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ... 6

1.1. Introducing the Topic ... 6

1.2. Background and Context ... 7

Feminism in Spain: Historically Lagging Behind ... 8

The Fourth Wave in Spain: the Beginning of a New Era... 9

The Rise of Digital Activism into Focus ... 12

Men, Feminism and New Masculinities ... 14

1.3. Research Purpose ... 15

1.4. Research Questions ... 16

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 16

2.1. The Rise of Social Media, #feminism and Instagram ... 17

Instagram: a Space of (re)Presentation and Activism ... 18

2.2. Digital Technologies: Highlights and Challenges for Feminism ... 20

2.3. Men doing Feminism ... 23

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 26

1.1. Definitions ... 26

1.2. The Visual Communication Theory ... 28

1.3. The Cultivation Theory ... 29

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4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 31

4.1. Surveys ... 31

4.2. Case Studies ... 37

5. ANALYSIS ... 39

5.1. Do Spanish people use Instagram? ... 39

5.2. Instagram Users and their Perception on Feminist Accounts ... 39

5.3. Feminist Organizations and their Gender Involvement for Real Equality ... 43

5.4. Men Representation on Instagram Feminist Accounts ... 44

6. CONCLUSIONS ... 48

6.1. Answering the Research Questions ... 49

How do feminist organisations and influencers use Instagram in Spain as an activist communicative tool? ... 49

How do Instagram users engage and value feminist Instagram accounts? ... 50

How do feminist Instagram accounts/campaigns represent or address men in that context as a way of fostering feminism? ... 51

6.2. Contributions ... 52

6.3. Limitations and Future Research ... 52

7. REFERENCES ... 54

8. APPENDIX ... 65

Appendix I ... 65

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Appendix II ... 66

SURVEY FOR ORGANISATIONS ... 66

Appendix III ... 67

SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM USERS ... 67

Appendix IV ... 72 Instagram Publications 24/02-15/03 ... 72 Moderna de pueblo: ... 72 Feminista Ilustrada: ... 72 Roy Galan: ... 74 Appendix V ... 75 ORGANISATIONS SUMMARY ... 75

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1.

Introducing the Topic

“It is crucial that men get active in feminist campaigns and that gender equality initiatives specifically target men. The very future of

feminism depends on it” (Banyard, 2010, p. 234).

With the advent of Social Media, the world is experiencing a major transformation in the way we socialise and communicate. Social media have provided new tools, new interaction mechanisms, new forms of expression, and spurred and facilitated social participation. Furthermore, social networks are proving to be key for social change since they are capable of creating a sense of community and lead public mobilisation (Tufte, 2017). As a matter of fact, in the last decade, we have seen a social uprising thanks to social media support, from the Arab Spring to the anti-austerity movement in Spain or feminist-oriented strands such as #metoo, #cuentalo, #TimesUp, #NiUnaMenos or #WhyIStayed to name a few.

All these social movements used social media to raise a common voice and bring about political changes. They, somehow, fostered bottom-up approaches and leaderless movements, but although social networks prone everybody to speak up, there is always key players that light the fire. We can, then, identify some of the key actors within feminist communication in digital media:

1. Online Activists | Celebrities | Influencers 2. NGO’s | International Organisations 3. Civil society | Users-followers | “Victims”

In this era of the Internet communication, there is no denying that influencers get to a wide audience. According to Enke and Borchers (2018), social media influencers are those Internet users that have built up a high number of relationships and that create periodically specific content and liaise via social media with their followers, which can lead to influencing their actions or thoughts by raising awareness about certain topics or making people think about concrete themes. Frequently, feminist influencers start as

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activists, posting about issues that really concern them and by being argumentative and using the right hashtags to reach a wide audience. We can also include celebrities, such as Beyoncé and Emma Watson, within this category, since, as public figures, they already count on a high number of fans, and they have been key in popularising the word “feminism”.

Hundreds, even thousands and sometimes millions of people follow what influencers do, what they say, what they think, but if we focus on feminist influencers we soon realise a critical factor: where are men? It is not a surprise that women worry more about gender equality than men, since they are the ones most suffering and experiencing a patriarchal system, unfair with them. I refuse, however, to believe that men cannot be feminists or women’s allies in this fight.

The hashtag #feminism is increasingly present in our living environment, so much that it was even the word of 2017 for the American dictionary Merriam-Webster (Criss, 2017). Hashtags have become a powerful tool to give voice to those who can seldom raise their voice. Thus, social networks are undoubtedly contributing to social justice and women empowerment. Besides, there are a growing number of Instagrammers1

devoted to educating people and raising awareness about feminism, while creating an invaluable sense of belonging to a bigger community.

The broader theme of this paper would be communication for social change in a transnational public sphere using social networks, in particular, Instagram. Social media are essential to modern feminism, gathering different identities and allowing feminists to be more inclusive, transversal and plural. Thus, if the feminist agenda wants to have an effect on the political dimension, it must reach those, women and men, who are still not convinced.

1.2.

Background and Context

Since the Enlightment period in Europe, feminism has become intrinsic to human society and a constant battle to gain the right to vote, reproductive rights, abolish

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gender-role stereotypes and so on. The feminist fight continues and it has now reached a wider scope thanks to digital media.

It was not until the XIX century, with the suffragettes2, that feminism was really born as a social movement (Martínez, 2004). Social movements are “informal networks, based on shared beliefs and solidarity, which mobilise about conflictual issues, through the frequent use of various forms of protest” (Della Porta and Diani, 1999, ref. in Crossley, 2007). With this in mind, feminist social movements can be considered a continuation of Tufte’s “third generation” based on rights-based demands (2017) .

Feminism in Spain: Historically Lagging Behind

Although the First Feminism Wave was developed between the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century -until the II World War-; in Spain, this movement did not start to emerge until the very last two decades of the nineteenth century (Universidad de Barcelona, n.d.). Particularly, the biggest achievements were acquired during the Second Republic (1931-1939), fundamental for women’s rights, acquiring the female vote, civil marriage and divorce, etc. However, there was little room for the change to become a reality and with the establishment of Francoism3, women’s situation fell back

40 years (Seara, 2019).

Afterwards, moving from an authoritarian regime to a democracy in a brief period of time allowed rapid social change, with an overall steady relevance towards gender equality as a governmental priority (Bustelo, 2019). Therefore, from then on and taking into account the functioning of the Spanish feminist movement, we can divide the history of the feminist activist praxis into particular stages:

2 First feminist organised groups to carry out collective actions.

3 Set of ideologies and movements related to the Franco dictatorship and that political regime, which

emerged in Spain after the civil war of 1936-1939 and lasted until the dictator's natural death in 1975; the bases of this regime were, among others, Spanish nationalism, Catholicism, fascism and anti-communism, which supported a totalitarian military dictatorship.

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First Stage (1975-1979)

In the 70s, during the Second Feminist Wave, Spanish women, although still under a patriarchal system, started to shape a movement echoed by what was happening in the States. Franco died in 1975 and two weeks later the "First Day of the Liberation of Women" was celebrated in Madrid (still in hiding) (Seara, 2019). Furthermore, during the 70s and 80s, several measures were introduced: equal and public education for boys and girls, divorce, legal equality…, but other issues, such as the right of abortion were pending for a really long time.

Second Stage (1980-1988)

This period “was defined by organizational de-structuring and the end of collective action” (Nuñez Puente, 2016). A new, independent feminism raised, arguing for a break between the feminist movement and the institutional sphere (Nuñez Puente, 2016)

Third Stage (1989-early 2000)

During the 90s and the first years of the 2000, with the Third Wave, Spanish feminism went through a decay in participation, but two elements characterized this period: the institutionalization of feminism with the appearance of organisations focused on the promotion of gender equality; and the consolidation of academic feminism. (Nuñez Puente, 2016). The victory of the PSOE in 2004 was representative, making possible the creation of the Integrated Law Against Gender Violence -2004-, and the Organic Law for Effective Equality of Women and Men -2007- (Nuñez Puente, 2016).

The Fourth Wave in Spain: the Beginning of a New Era

After years of slumber, new technologies and, in particular, social media propelled a feminist tsunami in an increasingly globalized world, with the economic crisis, anti and alter-globalisation movements and a growing use of smartphones. From 2008 and the case of Hillary Clinton4 (Zimmerman, 2017), a new way of protesting came up as a

4 The devastating sexism experienced by Hillary Clinton during her campaign to the US presidential

elections made women stand up and somehow built an “anti-postfeminist collective consciousness” (Fortini, 2008 in Zimmerman, 2017).

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sharp reaction to neoliberal globalization (Eriksen, 2014). This has been called the Fourth Wave, defined as ‘‘a sharing of voices, engagement with global politics, focus on intersectionality’’ (Jackson, 2018) and a migration into digital spaces (Matich, et al., 2018). It pursues similar goals to the third - reproductive justice, trans inclusion, sexual-minority rights, intersectionality5, and the deconstruction of privilege- (Vogel, 2014), but it has meant the beginning of an era of online activism and the use of digital tools to modify gender relations (Matich, et al., 2018). Therefore, this would be its political strength: raising the voice of all the “women still marginalized” (Munro, 2013).

In Maclaran’s words (2015):

”The ‘F’ word has finally made a comeback”

Nonetheless, some still insist on calling it a fad, despising the success of the movement to gather the voices of millions of women and focusing on belittling the power of social networks to create viral, feminist contents, messages and symbols that have been adopted on a massive scale. In Spain, the 21st century brought many advancements in the feminist fight. Notably, one of the most remarkable ones is the spread of a “diffuse feminism” (Varela, 2019), which represents those women who do not consider themselves as feminists, but, however, they defend their autonomy and rights daily.

A vertiginous legal development started in 2004, when the country had, for the first time, a parity-based government: measures against gender violence, equal marriage, abortion... All this reform was placed at risk in 2013 when the right-wing accessed the presidency and presented a project to eliminate women’s abortion rights. That is when feminism in Spain woke up, creating “El tren de la libertad” (The train of freedom6), a

spontaneous movement that stopped that project.

5 “Intersectionality” (Crenshaw, 1989) – as well as intergenerationality-, can be understood as the

interconnection of social categories such as race, class, gender, sexuality and age, as the framework to combat discrimination or privileges, “demonstrated time after time with hashtags like #solidarityisforwhitewomen, which resonated, angered, and divided many feminists” (Zimmerman, 2017).

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This new wave fights against the

trivialisation and

commodification of feminism with its technological and communicational revolution, where social media is used as a tool to convey a message and somehow rebelling against silence and offering an open conversation space (Fernández, 2019). Thus, social networks are acting as the microphone to disseminate real actions and mobilisations, while allowing any women to speak up and feel supported and listened. In recent years, many campaigns defending women’s rights have had an impact in diverse topics such as workplace harassment or sexual assault. Influencers such as Moderna de Pueblo7, Leticia Dolera8, Feminista Ilustrada9, Roy Galan10, or

Barbijaputa11, amongst others, are playing a significant role to explain feminism and

spreading the feminist concerns to a wide audience.

This current cyberfeminism12 can be considered as fast and superficial, but it is also building bridges and answers against a neoliberal globalization. Moreover, feminism has moved from being stigmatized to being backed up by most citizens, which implies a clear mainstreaming regarding politics, ideologies, race, gender etc (Fernández, 2019).

7 A Catalan illustrator who became a viral phenomenon in 2018 for publishing vignettes with the story of "a village girl" with a touch of comic irony.

8 A Spanish actress, screenwriter, film director, writer and feminist activist. 9 A Spanish cartoonist, writer and feminist activist on Instagram.

10 Writer, columnist, influencer, and one of the few male, feminist activists in Spain.

11 The pseudonym of a Spanish writer, columnist and tweeter who keeps her identity hidden and talks

about various topical aspects of feminism and politics

12 A community, philosophy and set of practices concerned with feminist acts in cyberspace.

Illustration 1. El tren de la libertad. Source: https://cadenaser.com/ser/2014/02/01/espana/1391215817_850215. html

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On balance, this wave mixes on-site activism with online communication and actions, placing sorority at the centre of this movement. There are also more links with the LGBT and queer movements and new images of what being a feminist is have appeared: black women can be feminists, fat women can fight against fashion standards and transsexuals and non-binary people can as well find their place within this wave.

Notably, the International Women’s Strike on March 8, 2018, had an unprecedented impact in Spain with over 5 million women supporting the strike, and almost 3 million people attended demonstrations in more than 100 cities and with a continued success in 2019 (G. Abrisketa & G. Abrisketa, 2020). Social media has proved to be paramount for feminist activism ever since (Larrondo, et al., 2019). Furthermore, this outburst was preceded by diverse factors, primarily, the sexual aggression by a gang of five men against a young woman in the San Fermín festival in 2016 (the wolf-pack case) and all the political struggles that hit the Spanish society afterwards. This case created a sense of solidarity amongst women as a way of confronting the “structural tolerance of sexual violence in Spain” (G. Abrisketa & G. Abrisketa, 2020)

The silence was over.

The Rise of Digital Activism into Focus

With the popularisation of the Internet, many women encountered an ally for activism in digital technologies. In Spain, cyberfeminism developed during the 90s together with a “theoretical critique which idealised the internet as a space of empowerment for women” (Nuñez Puente and García, 2011c in Nuñez Puente, et al., 2017). Notwithstanding, it was, above all, the aforementioned wolf-pack case that stirred a new wave of protests, interventions and publications, together with a rise in street-based protests (Baer, 2016).

According to Athina Karatzogianni (Kaun & Uldam, 2018), digital activism can be divided in four waves: 1. Linked to the Zapatista movement and anti-globalization movement; 2.Linked to anti-Iraq war; 3. After 2007, digital activism spreads beyond Europe and the States; 4. Characterised by Wikileaks and Snowden. This fourth wave coincides with Gerbaudo’s second wave of the 2010’s, which included the cyber-populism used during the anti-austerity movements (Kaun & Uldam, 2018).

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As stated by Treré and Mattoni (2015 in Kaun & Uldam, 2018), there is a continued need for historicizing digital activism […] following the complex activist digital media ecology over time. Chiefly, Spanish activists rely “heavily on technologies emerging from the free culture movement” as a tool to develop political economies of communication (Kaun & Uldam, 2018).

Currently, fourth-wavers are women, digitally natives, “who harness the power of the Internet and social media to challenge gender inequity” (Maclaran, 2015). They work on creating attractive content to guarantee that they are read, liked and shared, reaching a wider audience, although often still composed of white middle-class women (Munro, 2013). Along with this barrier to overcome, the fourth wave is criticized for being concerned only about visibility and connections, which, according to Jouët (2018), “cannot lead to much social change”. However, these easy connections facilitate face-to-face mobilisations in the public sphere, which is, in the end, what will drive political responses and thus, social change.

All in all, in 20 years digital activism has become key for social movements, mixing online and offline “to the extent that the online and offline are not, and perhaps never were, separate spheres” (Zimmerman, 2017). It is

both individual and collective, and allows the influence and interaction with a wider group of people and a “rapid reaction to sexism and rapid mobilization of activists” thanks to consciousness-raising and to challenging sexism and misogyny openly, which unifies all women irrespective of their class or race (Dean & Aune, 2016).

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Men, Feminism and New Masculinities

Nowadays, the issue of men’s relationship to feminism has become a topic of public debate and is gaining more a more academic attention (Nardini, 2016), but it has always been a contested matter.

The rise of the interest of social scientists on the debate about masculinity began in the 1980s. It is beyond question that there are different constructions of masculinity, and that these patterns of masculinity depend on the society where the subject has been raised. Therefore, differences between sexes are created, not by birth, but by culture and society and thus, men should be also involved in gender equality campaigning.

Each society creates a specific ideal of being a man, the way they must behave, and the common and institutional design of men’s relations and lives. Without exception, men being born in patriarchal societies are exposed to these pressures about how to be a man and consistently, these “rules” are internalised and will shape the way that men relate to women (Pease, 2015).

Therefore, transforming masculinity has become essential in order to engage men in gender equality; this can be achieved by changing the cultural and social norms that guide men’s behaviour, rather than by tackling the basis of gender inequalities (Cornwall, et al., 2011).

Social structures under patriarchal societies disadvantage both men and women (Cornwall, et al., 2011), and thus, gender equality matters should be considered everybody’s issues instead of being labelled incorrectly as “women’s issues” (Cornwall, et al., 2011). Furthermore, societies where there is a hegemonic masculinity that allows men’s dominance over women to continue (Connell & W. Messerchmidt, 2005) usually privilege concrete and particular ways of being a man, turning other masculinities into the “subaltern” variants of masculinities (Edström, et al., 2014).

Since their participation in the first women’s rights convention (1848), men have always campaigned for gender equality, but in a tiny minority (van der Gaag, 2020). However, there has been a recent increase in the number of men marching against violence against women. Furthermore, men often start their engagement with profeminist activism by

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supporting actions against gender-based violence, which normally leads them to be more gender-ware (Nardini, 2013)

Overall, as stated by Nardini (2013) men need to rethink on what normative masculinity means. While many men could recognised themselves as feminists, there is a clear need for them “to have the kinds of discussions that women have had for so many years, about their role in society, about sexism and patriarchy, about how to prevent violence and to move forward both as men and with women” (van der Gaag, 2020), and in order to do so, they have to acknowledge patriarchy and realise their implications in it (Hearn, 2020; van der Gaag, 2020).

With this objective, some organisations of men were created in order to build spaces of reflexion, since men are both “actors of gender norms as well as subjects of social change” (Nardini, 2016) and make them aware of the benefits they could gain when reaching a more equalitarian masculinity (Nardini, 2013).

1.3. Research Purpose

The feminist subject has become political again, which has strengthened the movement and created a new wave based on a global and heterogeneous spirit. In other words, feminism tries to transform life’s meaning. It is no longer only about women wanting to be equal to men, it is also about men realising that the patriarchal system is also imposing limitations on them and about gathering different struggles (Reverter & Medina-Vicent, 2020): “It’s not only about women’s issues, it’s about the issues women care about” (This is Personal, 2019). The fourth feminism wave (see The Fourth Wave), raised with the new millennium, aspires to unify different troubles under a feminist approach and therefore, taking into account different genders, ages and races, and rising them via social media.

This study seeks to understand the problem of men’s engagement in feminist digital campaigning via Instagram in Spain from two different perspectives: how they are represented by Instagram feminist influencers, and how they are (or could be) further influenced by feminist campaigns so as to be more engaged in feminism.

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So as to make a broader approach as possible, this analysis will also take into account organisations’ and users’ vision and objectives on the role of feminist communication on Instagram and men’s involvement and, to a lesser extent, the kind of contents shared by Spanish feminist influencers on Instagram to foster social change towards gender equality. Chiefly, I will focus on knowing those Spanish Instagram users following feminist Instagram accounts, their thoughts and impressions about feminist content on this social network, and their views on the current and potential involvement of men in digital campaigning.

In sum, the purpose of this research will be understanding the use of Instagram as a feminist activist communication channel. Further, I will probably analyse the data using an interpretative approach, which means analysing everything and relating the data to build a holistic picture of the situation.

1.4. Research Questions

The objectives of this paper highlighted and explained further above are also reflected in my research questions. My main research questions will be:

- How do feminist organisations and influencers use Instagram in Spain as an

activist communicative tool?

- How do Instagram users engage and value feminist Instagram accounts? - How do feminist Instagram accounts/campaigns represent or address men

in that context as a way of fostering feminism?

Thanks to answering to these questions, the research will allow me to analyse the types of content women versus men Instagrammers offer and to consider how men could be further engaged on Instagram in order to become feminist supporters.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

In this item, I will mainly give an insight on the following topics based on existing research and books: Social Media and Instagram, feminist digital activism, and men’s involvement in feminism. Although I have tried to focus on men’s engagement in

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digital feminist campaigns, to my knowledge, there is not much research focused solely on that, let alone on Instagram particularly.

2.1. The Rise of Social Media, #feminism and Instagram

After the women’s rights revolution of the 60s and before the social media culture, feminism fell into a light sleep, far from being popular or relevant in society. With the emergence of the “network society” (Castells, 2009) and Smartphones into our pockets, we had a greater and instant access “to information and exchanges of ideas as enhancing political participation, civil society, and democracy” (Şen, 2012). Consequently, women started to use social media as a tool to promote and convey feminist ideas.

Social Media create a “media-centric dimension” (Tufte, 2017) that brings about “media-centric and citizen-driven processes of enhancing social justice” and build a sense of togetherness and empowerment, while using a “soft leadership” coming from influencers and feminist organisations (Tufte, 2017). Hence, Instagram becomes the tool to educate on equality while building sorority and support amongst feminists.

Nowadays, reaching a high number of people is cheap, fast and easy (Della Porta & Mosca, 2005) and social media have played a crucial role in creating social movements. Therefore, social media can be considered a political public sphere that can “monitor and criticize the state, and groups that take political action” (Ibidem), and thus feminism also find a space for political pressure.

“Global justice activists have made innovative use of global computer networks, informational politics, and network-based organizational forms” (Castells, 2005) to “constitute the basic infrastructure for transnational social movements, providing arenas for the production, contestation, and dissemination of specific movement-related discourses and practices” (Diani, 1995, ref. in Castells, 2005).

Internet gives voice to everyone and facilitates the birth of opinion leaders, those who speak up and influence their network (Ibidem), in social media commonly known as influencers. That is why, the feminist cause, “operating at both local and global levels”

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(Castells, 2005), has used this tool as a way of raising awareness and pushing the fight from social media to the streets.

Nonetheless, it is worth noting that face-to-face reunions, such as the 8M demonstrations, celebrated on the International Women's Day to demand full equality between men and women, or other kind of protests, where people can interact in a closer way, are essential to build a sense of “imagined community”, while “rendering the collective more concrete, cohesive and structured”, since social media is just the tool that creates feelings of solidarity, which is the predecessor to the actual action (Kavada, 2014). Besides, this activism needs to be also backed up by a large press coverage and the support of convinced MPs to obtain new legal rights (Jouët, 2018).

Today, the hashtag feminism has given birth to a new form of doing and advocating feminism, and feminist organisations and collectives use different hashtags to unite women for the same cause. Young feminist activists are good at producing creative, visual contents, while using an attractive tone (humour, satire, etc) and at networking (Jouët, 2018) as we can see in many Spanish Instagram accounts, such as Moderna de Pueblo – viral illustrator that promotes womanhood with a touch of comic irony -, La vecina rubia -a famous anonymous Instagrammer with more than 1 million followers on Instagram -,or Feminista Ilustrada - a Spanish illustrator, author and feminist activist on Instagram -. These attractive interactions rise their number of followers and hence, the participation and the interest in these issues; making the activists become influencers and increasing, in turn, the quantity of activists, online, offline or both (Ibidem.). Yet, at the same time, considerable doubts arise regarding the real engagement and value that Instagram users give to these accounts, and how they represent and address men in the same context.

Instagram: a Space of (re)Presentation and Activism

Instagram is a photo sharing app which allows users to edit, add captions, engage with others and explore by using hashtags. The posts can also use location-based geotags and hashtags to be searchable by other users. Moreover, Instagram users can comment and bookmark others’ posts and send private messages via the Instagram Direct feature. On balance, this social network is increasingly displacing other networks such as Twitter

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and Facebook, mainly amongst the younger generation (Gen Z13 and millennials14), but there is a clear general tendency to use Instagram instead of other social sites (Leaver, et al., 2020).

Therefore, this platform has shown a

substantial rise in recent years and with increasing use in social media activist campaigns. Although it has been long considered just as a photosharing app, its use in marketing and e-commerce, providing information, and in social relations, makes evident the huge potential of this platform, that increased its users from 15 million to 100 million thanks to its partnership with Facebook in 2012 (Serafinelli, 2018) .

Social media are now part of people’s daily grind, allowing them to create and keep an online image. This is further emphasised with Instagram celebrities that must respect the precise image they have built and that their followers value in order to keep growing their audience (Serafinelli, 2018).

Furthermore, Instagram highlights user’s active role characterised by three fundamental features (Serafinelli, 2018):

1. Consumer behaviours: comments, likes, connections…,

2. User-generated content (UGC), posts, stories, texts, images…, and

3. Viral advertising, including participation in contests, social campaigns via hashtags…

13 Generation Z is the demographic group following Millennials and going before Generation Alpha. It

refers to those born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s.

14 Also known as Generation Y, these are commonly known as the children of the baby boomers and they

are following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Media and experts tend to use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years.

Illustration 3. Source:

https://nilefm.com/tech/article/807/instagram-to-notify-users-if-their-stories-get-screenshot-or-recorded-soon

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Ultimately, as defended by Tufte (2017), feminist digital campaigning on Instagram reaches three goals:

1. Engagement and mobilisation: Directing people to physical protests; 2. Collective Identity: Giving advice on how to act;

3. Collective Action: Building an “emotional narrative to sustain their coming together in the public space”.

This “multi-vocal narrative” (2017) has “femfluencers” as the agents of social change that along with a clear increase on citizen engagement in social change could potentially reach an evolution in thoughts and behaviours. On the one hand, Instagram (and social media) is also participatory communication and it can spark heated discussions and food for thought towards key topics. On the other hand, Instagram can “serve as [a tool] for enhancing development and social change agendas” (2017).

2.2. Digital Technologies: Highlights and Challenges for

Feminism

The intensive use of social media is central in feminist activism. It facilitates organisation and communication of protests, by fostering fast, mass user activity while creating leadership and collective identities (Poell & van Dijck, 2018) together with the emergence of new creative modes of protest (Baer, 2016). As Illustrated in “Feminist hashtag activism in Spain” (Larrondo, et al., 2019), social media can be valid tools for the feminist cause as a fast way to

reach awareness and give further visibility to the cause.

Sebring (2019) explores the political trends within hashtag feminism and the opportunities and limitations that digital campaigning offers. Moreover, she also focuses on

Instagram and highlights that posts are “often concerned with addressing male privilege, claiming an unapologetic feminist identity, representing women across races, engaging humour to address everyday sexism and racism, attention to sexual assault

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awareness and activism, and solidarity among women” (Sebring, 2019). Considering this is essential in order to be able to understand the objectives behind feminist publications and how feminist use Instagram as a communicative tool. These mainstream feminist campaigning also may communicate too simple messages, just promoting “girl power” and not real political action, without providing a good basis on feminism’s history and theories (Sebring, 2019). This is one of the biggest critiques towards the Internet and it will be worth bearing it in mind when analysing publications on Instagram.

Digital campaigns are often driven by influencers capable to create collective identities and to exercise their power by “triggering, shapping, and incorporating user contributions”, since “personalisation, realtimeness, and virality are part of social media’s DNA” (Poell & van Dijck, 2018). Therefore, comments and reactions towards Instagram publications would also help deduce the scope of concrete publications.

Social media have been essential to empower young feminists to become digital activists. Jouët (2018) analysed how French feminists use digital media to promote their cause; she defends that the net has offered a space to “all trends and new collectives” and thus, pacifying the feminist community. Activists are willing to be seen and are experts on digital media use, and are able to use “new creative cultural formats” (Jouët, 2018). In short, “feminist collectives master the buzz and the viral potential of social media” as a way to create political strategies in the public sphere (Jouët, 2018).

According to her survey (Jouët, 2018), digital media are “communicative devices and tools for action in order to stay connected and to recruit new members”. However, the rise in visibility of feminism also led to a rampant cyber-sexism (Jouët, 2018), aggressive online harassment and “virulent new forms of online sexism and misogyny” (Bates, 2014; Penny, 2014 in Dean & Aune, 2016). Feminism has always found some kind of rejection, but “[digital] feminist views are often met with greater rejection and aggression” (Carstensen, 2013) due to the easy access to digital spaces. Instagrammers can also suffer some kind of harassment and men and women can react differently towards feminist contents.

Furthermore, feminist digital activism encounters many more challenges, such us the invalidation of their activism as less useful in comparison to groundwork, burnout rates

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of digital feminists, or the gendered construction of social media – i.e. activists succeeded in making Facebook break the binary male-female gender option for profiles -. That is, social media are male domains fraught with stereotypes and inequalities, but feminists find also room for politics and activism (Carstensen, 2013).

Essentially, online feminist communities foster consciousness raising and produce different kinds of engagement (Jouët, 2018); for instance, influencers on Instagram receive hundreds of comments and generate debates in the pictures feeds, and specific campaigns can lead to bigger changes in perspective (Matich, et al., 2018). Considering Instagrammers as continuous campaigners, one can deduce that they could somehow foster feminism and a modification in patriarchal behaviours.

In “Young feminists, feminism and digital media”, Jackson (2018) presents social media as user-friendly tools for anyone to take part in feminist politics, and notably, “a key hub for sharing information, educating others and critiquing culture”. Feminist Instagrammers share a great deal of information on feminism, which helps people understand specific situations and raise awareness about their cause. As well as influencers, anyone can spread awareness, share information, challenge women representation and teach/learn via digital tools, with the only difference that Instagrammers reach a broader audience and carry out this task as a job.

Nuñez and García (2011)study the connection between gender and technology in online Spanish feminist praxis and defend that different community-building actions lead to various responses to cyberactivism, which is basic to maintain social change. Although at the beginning, online feminist portals emerged as a continuation of political action, Nuñez and García (2011) show that Spanish feminists encounter on the Internet the “same inequalities and hopeful possibilities” as in any other space (Nuñez Puente, 2011), following a mixed perspective of technofeminism, that defends that society’s heteropatriarchal structures are reproduced online (Reverter, 1992 in Fernández Rovira, 2019)and cyberfeminism that believes that new technologies can help reduce gender inequality (Valera, 2013 in Fernández Rovira, 2019). That is, Instagrammers can represent a new way to foster equality, but at the same time they may as well be still victims of patriarchal attitudes online. Moreover, in 2017, Nuñez, et al. also propose that women should not be recognised as victims, but to encourage them to feel their

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agency and autonomy (Nuñez Puente, et al., 2017), which is what feminist Instagram accounts usually succeed in communicating.

It is worth stressing that digital publications follow a road difficult to foresee and that depend on the way they are read and receive (Matich, et al., 2018).

2.3. Men doing Feminism

After a few pages writing about feminism, I have realised that men have mostly been left out of the movement. Most articles about feminism issues are made by women and rarely do we see men’s interactions with feminism mentioned in any of them. However, taking into account that society is made of women and men, and if intersectionality is crucial to current feminism, should not men be also included in feminism and its communication actions?

Building an inclusive, plural and transversal movement is key and will be essential for feminism in the years to come. As stated by Alabao (2018) amongst others, today’s feminism cannot be based on the construction of a single political subject, a "woman", understood as a closed identity that is opposed to that of "man". Thus, the work of feminist activists is to foster critical discussion and debate to promote social justice and equality, all together.

Kimmel (1998) identified two approaches related to men’s involvement:

1. A men’s auxiliary model, in which men support women;

2. An equal partners’ model, in which men and women decide and participate in feminist tasks equally.

Baily (2012) also raised another possible role, which we could name the “men working

with men” approach, in which their role is working on their own to challenge their

own privileges and masculinities. Overall, feminists accept the idea of including men, but generally defend that women should lead and that some issues, such as rapes, should be women-only matters (Baily, 2015). According to Flood (2015), these spaces are necessary “to support those who are most disadvantaged by pervasive gender

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inequalities; to maintain women’s solidarity and leadership; and to foster women’s consciousness-raising and collective empowerment”.

On the whole, one could argue that there is not a “a universal men’s relationship with feminism”, but different manners of acting (Tienari & Taylor, 2018), from supporting gender equality or speaking up against gender violence to adopting caring father roles or exploring emotions and corporeality, to name a few (Nardini, 2013).

According to a study by van der Gaag (2020), younger feminists have started to see the involvement of men in feminism as fundamental in recent years and that many defend that women and men can work together, although others acknowledge that some feminists are also strongly against including men.

All the things you suggest men should do; mobilizing other men, challenging one another, voting for women, working in trade unions, I

agree they MUST do. Not as a favour to women. But because they want to, and they must do it if they are so called democrats, human rights activists/believers that they claim to be. The biggest thing men

must do however is to change their personal behaviours, attitudes, and relationships with women.

Everjoice Win (van der Gaag, 2020)

Furthermore, in Fisher’s “Involving Men in Building Gender Equality” (2015), he defends that engaging men in promoting gender equality could also translate into an approach to capture male audiences’ interest and support, instead of alienating men with accusatory messages; they could also raise awareness, be observers and learners on new skills for gender equality, and be fervent supporters of the cause (Fisher, 2015).

In Baily’s study (2012), she presented different reactions towards men’s engagement: some stated that men were just being allowed to be involved just to show some kind of fairness and “real” equality; others highlighted that few men were actually taking part in feminism, even when admitted, and suggested that men might not be truly interested

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in getting involved but only felt entitled to it, as defended also by Kimmel (1998). Therefore, allowing or even encouraging men to play a part in feminism does not mean that they will. Nonetheless, it is a common belief that men’s involvement was required for feminism to go a step forward, as men are considered to be “the primary agents maintaining and supporting sexism and sexist oppression” and thus, they should take responsibility and consciousness. Besides, some people argue that they are also harmed by feminism and this implies that they will also benefit from gender equality (Baily, 2012).

Today, there are two distinguished strands regarding the participation of men in feminist activism: those that think that the way ahead must involve them and those believing that only women can understand the feminist struggle. For instance, Banyard (2010) is certain that men must both be active in feminist campaigning and be the target of gender equality initiatives. Others, however, fear that involving men could entail a de-radicalisation of feminism and that their participation is unlikely as it would mean risking their power (Baily, 2015).

Men do not experience the feeling of being treated like a woman and therefore, they cannot have the feminist consciousness that is essential to feminism (Stanley & Wise, 1993). However, although some might regard men as unlikely feminist allies, others consider that they could use their male power to promote the feminist cause (Baily, 2015). Indeed, in recent mobilisations, there has been a growing number of mixed-gender feminist groups, which contradicts these claims. Some men, such as the influencer Roy Galan15, are challenging their own power and privilege (Baily, 2015) and hence, some women have welcomed them as fellow feminists (Hooks, 2000).

According to Flood (2015), at least four approaches to engaging men in strengthening gender equality can be determined: (1) activism and advocacy; (2) local programmes and interventions among men; (3) national and international policy commitments; and (4) research and scholarship. Yet, hardly any men are public advocates for gender equality, as we will analyse further on. For a matter of fact, there is the “profeminist activism” strand which considers men as the direct agents of change, being them the

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promoters of a change for equality; and on the other side, there are those that see men as the objects of change, being the target to numerous interventions (Flood, 2015). Profeminist men listen to women’s voices and learn, and then, they reconsider and rebuild masculinity (Hearn, 2020).

There is a need to uproot men from the processes and creations of the patriarchy so that they can really support building gender equality (Pease, 2015). Although there are more and more kinds of men, many have not given the real step to challenge the power structure of a society that favours men, and their support towards gender equality is only partial and weak, and in relation to the women in their lives (Flood, 2015).

All in all, this debate is out there and some men are trying to find their space to help out promoting feminism, transforming it into a common-sense norm that everybody should comprehend and respect.

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

After describing and presenting a careful selection of different bibliographic materials and academic literature of relevance, in this section, I will include a set of theoretical ideas and concepts that will provide different perspectives, information and data to be used when seeking to answer my research questions. Thus, I will clarify the meaning of some key concepts and present the theories that will work as the “lens” through which I will analyse my data and draw some conclusions.

3.1. Definitions

Feminism has been a contested topic since its inception and it has generated significant academic interest from a wide range of angles: culture, sociology, history etc. However, browsing through all the information at hand, it has not been easy separating the wheat from the chaff.

It is necessary to begin with defining the multiple concepts related to feminism and therefore, used in this thesis. A core concept of my research is clearly feminism, by which I mean a theory and a social movement that advocates for a change in social relations that leads to the liberation of women - and also of men - by eliminating

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hierarchies and inequalities between the sexes. This embraces many theories defended by numerous authors and, like many of them, I agree on the fact that feminism is not a homogeneous theory and has diverse strands.

Simone de Beauvoir, in 1949, declared that one becomes a woman instead of being born woman, from then on, the Feminist Theory was developed (Darling-Wolf, 2009). This approach aims at comprehending gender inequality while contesting patriarchy and examining gender roles, experiences, and interests. Therefore, this theory can be considered when analysing men/women representation and engagement of men versus women on Instagram. All in all, the objective of feminism is raising consciousness and supressing sexism, which is the discrimination of a person due to their sex or gender.

Lately, a new concept has become quite popular: postfeminism. This term supports the idea that equality has already been achieved and in consequence, feminism has no sense to be (McRobbie, 2009). This might be also linked with the recent feminism upsurge, as many feminists reassert the need to give importance to feminism.

The idea of a presumptive equality is intriguing, since even in the 21st century, we keep

seeing inequalities, abuse over women, and men exerting their male power over women. For Foster (in Pease, 2015), this can represent three aspects:

1. the supposition that equality for women has already been achieved; 2. the assumption that women and men are equals in state and problems; 3. the premise that men are as disadvantaged as women in society.

Overall, all feminisms defeat patriarchy, which, according to Dolors Reguant (2007), is a form of political, economic, religious and social organization based on the idea of authority and leadership of males and on the predominance of men over women.

“Patriarchy is not simply another way of saying ’men’ [...]A society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male identified, and male centred [...] a general system through which women have been and are subordinated to men.

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social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women”.” (Bennet, 2006)

3.2. The Visual Communication Theory

Throughout the 21st century and with the rise of new communication modes, such as

Instagram or Flickr16, more visual per se, new visual communication studies emerged with specific targets of analysis (Hill, 2009). In this study, the Visual Communication

Theory must be suitable to have alternative perspectives from which to interpret

different features of visual representations (Hill, 2009), notably, focusing on gender representation and women’s versus men engagement on feminist accounts.

This Theory defends that images are signs and as such, they can be analysed. Some authors, like Ronald Barthes, distinguish between the denotation – what appears in the image- and the connotation – the reaction and emotion that the image triggers- (Hill, 2009). We can therefore say that the connotations will depend on the image composition (colours, frame etc), the content itself and the experiences of the receptor; all this leading to different perceptions and interpretations, as social and cultural factors also instil an effect on the perception of images. Furthermore, “unlike paintings or drawings, the photograph proves the reality of what it represents” (Hill, 2009). Instagram posts, therefore, are not just images, but meaning behind those images accompanied by a written text that supports what the author wants users to imply.

Perception and interpretation respond to an interaction between the recipient, the message and the context, and all together establish the meaning-making. Namely, there is a top-down approach, what the Instagrammer wants to convey, and a bottom-up approach, users’ engagement and interpretation of the publications, depending on each own background, knowledge and expectations. (Machin, 2014). Thus, a connection must be made between the producer of the content and the views so as to differentiate the intended meaning and the interpreted meaning. Hence, some rebel against the content, in the comments, or might feel offended or wounded by the idea they

16 An American image and video hosting hosting service, as well as an online community centered on

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understand. Instagrammers usually aim at using their own experiences and knowledge to present positively the outcome that the change they promote could make on the viewer and will study the engagement and value that users, in turn, give to these ideas.

3.3. The Cultivation Theory

Social media images often represent and strengthen pre-existing values and behaviours within our society. Indeed, the Cultivation Theory defends that mass communication can influence culture (Gerbner, 1966) and that social media are already changing and modifying our lives drastically (Gretry, et al., 2017). This theory was formulated by George Gerbner in the 60-70s as a way to uncover the outcomes that could come up on a society due to visual products.

It is true that in its inception this theory focused on television content, but, at the moment, it can be perfectly adapted to analyse social media contents to which users are exposed. Taking this into account, this theory could allow me to evaluate stereotypes, women’s image etc. on Instagram accounts whose aim is defeating popular conceptions about feminism and patriarchal ideas as a way of challenging power structures. Indeed, these profiles may promote certain behaviours and attitudes related to feminism. The idea that the more people is exposed to specific messages, the greater the chances of them assimilating these values could work here as a starting point.

In much the same way as the TV is a learning model (Morgan, 2002, in Rodríguez, 2008), nowadays social media perform a similar role, providing information, teaching and by extension, fostering attitudes and thoughts. Newer generations have, in fact, moved from television towards an online environment where to consume information, entertainment and communicate (Yuste, 2015)17. As stated by Stuart Hall (2013), mass media images help create our “social reality”, and thus, change perceptions and behaviours. He also divides the reactions to media images into three categories: those that acknowledge the meaning intended by the creator, those that accept the meaning but, somehow adopt it to fit their own experience, and those who do not accept the

17 A study -“Marco General de los Medios en España. 2019” (AIMC, 2019)- made to people over 14

years old in Spain clearly demonstrated that TV consumption is decreasing while Internet media are experiencing a progressive increase.

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message of the image. It would be interesting to also check the different reactions that the audience has towards these feminist publications; and how they participate.

On the whole, “cultivation is about the implications of stable, repetitive, pervasive and virtually inescapable patterns of images and ideologies” (Shanahan & Morgan, 1999) that can create a relationship between the communication tool and the user and that can lead to a modification of thoughts or conducts.

3.4. Media for Development

As we have previously discussed, social media have been able to give voice to everyone, and shaping civil society’s opinion as a way to pursuit social change. It is evident that they facilitate digital activism for social change as we have seen with the Arab Spring or #Metoo movements, since these media can connect millions of different actors and engage them towards the same objective.

Participation is an intrinsic part of social media. These social networks offer a two-way engagement unlike other mass media more focused on top-down, one-way communication, such as radio or TV. This participatory approach allows the “subaltern”, the marginalised, to have a voice and, at the same time, receive useful information to develop coherent thoughts, and therefore, fostering bottom-up dialogues in an inclusive and open space (Waisbord, 2014). This paper will take also as reference Manyozo’s (2012) Media for Development approach, which focuses on content that creates public awareness on important matters as a way to achieve social change. In Manyozo’s own words, it is the “strategic employment of media and communication as facilities for informing, educating and sensitising people about development and pertinent social issues”.

Regarding our subject of study, I will analyse how specific Instagram accounts disseminate relevant information and promote participation and critical thinking amongst Spaniards. It will be interesting to see how and if the diffusionist and participatory approaches are complementary or not, as explained by Manyozo (2012, p. 169), and how Instagram accounts can foster feminism and social change so as to produce an impact on society.

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There is no denying that one of the main objectives of these Instagrammers is educating through entertainment, what Scott (2014) calls “edutainment”, which is usually an effective tool to reach social change by giving importance to developing adequate behaviours, as presented before in the Cultivation Theory (Scoot, 2014). Culture and education are then key to talk about development in this paper, as Spanish Instagram accounts try to educate while taking into account a given culture. In essence, their content is created to target audiences, influence them and drive real change (Manyozo, 2012).

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

After a thorough presentation of the research and the key themes related to it, in this section, I will explain how this research was conducted, its limitations and the analysis approach.

This study combines, mainly, two paths of analysis: 1) surveys to different stakeholders, and 2) case studies, as a way to have a mixed qualitative and quantitative research. Besides, I mostly followed an interpretative, analytical approach, paying attention more to the meaning than to the linguistic sides of the retrieved data (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009) and being constructivist and reading beyond the literal answers, since the message behind the numbers and words was essential to really deduce some ideas. It is clear that I was guided by my research questions and preconceived ideas, but I was also open to new ideas coming up from the data.

4.1. Surveys

This research was, at the beginning, based mainly on three surveys to be undertaken with three different groups of people: 1. Feminist Influencers; 2. Feminist organisations; 3. Instagram users. With the aim of having a broad, holistic picture, the research selected three influencers and three organisations, so as to be able to have a representative overview and to analyse the data thoroughly. The selection of these three samples was based on specific reasons that will be stated below.

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Illustration 5.Survey for Instagram Users' Results on Sunet.

1. Instagram Users (see SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM USERS)

Spanish citizens of legal age that have an account on Instagram, and follow feminist Instagram profiles.

2. Feminist Influencers (see SURVEY FOR INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS).

As there is a growing number of feminist influencers flooding Instagram, I decided to select the three accounts with more followers and most mentioned in the survey for users, and at least, one man so as to be able to make a comparative analysis.  Moderna de pueblo: Raquel Córcoles is the illustrator that works on

representing, in a comic style, women’s common circumstances and Carlos Carrero supports her to write the scripts. They have 1,5 million followers -24/09/2020 - and use Disney characters to create satires and ironize about women stereotypes with the aim of granting female empowerment by helping women to reject an ideal of perfection and embrace their flaws without complexes.

 Feminista Ilustrada: Marina Murnau, a cartoonist and writer from Madrid, is the face behind @feministailustrada. Her motto is "fighting against

machismo 24 hours a day, 365 days a year". Therefore, she creates inspirational phrases, always accompanied by original illustrations with a

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fun touch to fight against women stereotypes and in favour of women’s body, equal opportunities, sexual freedom, amongst other topics. With over 649,000 followers - 01/03/2020 -, her success has led her to publish several books: Feminismo Ilustrado, Diario de una rebelde, No puedo vivir sin mí, Manual para incendiar el paraíso.

 Roy Galan: Roy Fernández Galán is a writer, columnist, influencer, feminist activist and LGTBI+ Spanish activist. He considers himself a feminist and writes about feminism and women in most of his texts: books, articles and publications on social networks (313,000 followers on Instagram and 20,000 on Twitter - 01/03/2020 -).

3. Feminist Organisations (see SURVEY FOR ORGANISATIONS)

The election of the organisations was key in order to depict the real Spanish feminist system. Therefore, and taking into account the research purpose and questions, having the view of the main profeminist association in Spain was the main objective, AHIGE, together with the perception of the main feminist, national association, Coordinadora Feminista, as will be briefly explain hereafter. Together with these and due to the importance of the media and the common lack of a gender perspective in public communication, a well-known magazine in this field was complementary and thus, Pikara become the third objective.

 AHIGE (Asociación de Hombres por la Igualdad de Género): A Spanish profeminist men’s association for the promotion of gender equality and anti-violence amongst men. It started in Málaga from men’s desire to stop gender violence and became a national NGO in 2001. It has a pyramidal structure with members, executive board, research coordination, presidency and treasury. Their motto: every man is a personal revolution to come.

 Coordinadora Feminista: Spanish State Federation of Feminist Organizations created in 1978. It is a network of women's groups that works in assembly with the idea of uniting and coordinating efforts, and sharing experiences, debates and activities so that their claims are placed at the political and social forefront.

 Pikara Magazine: Spanish digital magazine, born in 2010, for the dissemination of feminist theory and practice, which incorporates the gender perspective in the conception of journalistic work by the media.

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Three different sets of questions for these three aforementioned groups were created following a similar structure so as to be able to make comparisons, while having different approaches in order to really gather the diverse perspectives of these groups. They had plenty of conditional questions, where depending on the answer, the user could see another question or not, or see one question or another one, as a way to lead the path to the most optimal data. In essence, I wanted a quali-quantitative approach and throughout the survey, I added many “why” questions in order to also receive perceptions and personal emotions. Besides, this technique does not require a representative sample, which seemed difficult in my study (Given, 2008).

They were all developed in Sunet and then shared with two colleagues to use their feedback in order to improve them before disseminating them. One of the main risks I assessed was the fear of not reaching a broader enough an audience so as to be able of provide a comprehensive analysis on users or not being able to get answers from the selected organisations and influencers. Thus, I created surveys with direct, simple questions and quick to answer.

Once the users’ survey was designed and tested, I spread it through digital media such as WhatsApp, Email, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook to men and women irrespectively. This was very useful thanks to their flexibility and common use among the respondents of the study, but as I decided to use more than one channel to reach a bigger sample, the first “eliminatory” question was required: “Do you use Instagram?”. Therefore, as some people answered that they did not use Instagram, they could not provide much information on the matter and they did not have access to further questions.

Regarding reaching Instagrammers and organisations, the contact was more direct, sending them a brief explanation of the study and an invitation to participate via Instagram direct messages and via website emails. As a way to facilitate their involvement and get higher chances of obtaining a positive response, I also offered other kind of contact such as phone, or email if easier for them.

Figure

Illustration 2. Women's March.
Illustration 3. Source:
Illustration 4. #Feminism on Instagram.
Illustration 5.Survey for Instagram Users' Results on Sunet.
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References

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