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Abstract: In this article, we discuss a case study of a feminist society in a girls' secondary school in England, highlighting how teenage girls use social media to combat sexism. Considering the recent growth of feminist societies in UK schools, there is still a lack of research documenting how young feminists use social media's feminist content and connections. Addressing this gap, we draw on interviews and social media analyses to examine how girls navigate feminisms online and in school. Despite their multifaceted use of social media, the girls in our research undervalued digital feminism as valid or valued, in large part because of dismissive teacher and peer responses. We conclude by suggesting that schools need to cultivate social media as a legitimate pedagogical space by developing informed adult support for youth engagement with social justice-oriented online content.
Keywords: digital activism, in-school feminism, Instagram, social media, Twitter, Tumblr, youth activism
Scholarly and media attention to feminist societies in school has recently gained traction in the UK. Jinan Younis's (2013) editorial, "What Happened when I Started a Feminist Society," shared over 30,000 times, is one the most widely circulated articles on the subject. In it, Younis, founder of the feminist society at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, describes the abusive Twitter comments instigated by boy peers in response to the club's "Who Needs Feminism" campaign. The administration at Altrincham urged the girls to halt their activities, positioning them as having created the threat. In Younis' experience, the authorities at one of the highest ranking girls' institutions in the country blamed the girls rather than tackling the online misogynist abuse. This example resonates with Alyssa Niccolini's (2016) research in the US on a teen activist who was reprimanded after her article about rape culture in her school newspaper went viral because it exposed the school culture as being indelibly sexist.
In these and other recent examples, teen feminists are troubling what Sinikka Aapola et al. (2005) think of as engrained constructions of youth, particularly girls, as lacking in political agency. Social media are opening spheres of political participation previously defined, as Anita Harris (2010) has pointed out, strictly through formal processes like voting in elections. Indeed, the fourth wave of feminism is characterized by its digital collectivity...