It's a joke, not a dick. So don't take it too hard”: Online Sexual Harassment in Indian Universities

Dey, A. 2023. It's a joke, not a dick. So don't take it too hard”: Online Sexual Harassment in Indian Universities . Feminist Media Studies. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2023.2266150

TitleIt's a joke, not a dick. So don't take it too hard”: Online Sexual Harassment in Indian Universities
TypeJournal article
AuthorsDey, A.
Abstract

Recently, while there has been some attention to the issues online harassment in higher education, the impacts of online sexual harassment have been lost within the broader focus. There is negligible research looking at these specific experiences within Indian universities. To address this gap, this paper explores three different but interconnected forms of online sexual harassment - image-based sexual abuse, online chat rooms, and trolling in the context of Indian universities. Following the works of Liz Kelly (1987) and Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley, and Ruth Houghton (2017), this paper establishes the importance of understanding online sexual harassment as a continuum of other forms of offline sexual violence having physical, mental, and financial impacts on survivors, deeply affecting their sense of safety. In doing so, this paper attempts to develop a materialist understanding of online sexual harassment in Indian universities in turn demonstrating the confluence of India’s patriarchal and casteist society and an authoritarian state who use technology as a powerful disciplining tool to push women and queer people out of digital public spaces. This research attempts to establish that this disciplining and silencing of women and queer people are essential for the spread of both techno-capitalism and Brahmanical Hindutva nationalism.

KeywordsTrolling
online misogyny
online sexual harassment
online harassment
Indian universities
JournalFeminist Media Studies
ISSN1468-0777
1471-5902
Year2023
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Publisher's version
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2023.2266150
Publication dates
Published online11 Oct 2023
FunderBA (British Academy)

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