Women politicians, social movements, and misogyny in democratic struggles

In a series of anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong since 2019, protesters have generated a large volume of audio-visual materials to raise social consciousness, conduct civic education, and create networks for solidarity. Many of these protest materials have contained clear and blatant misogynistic messages toward women politicians leaning against the protests, calling them “slut,” “bitch,” and “communist pussy.” Such expressions reached to a climax after the chief executive officer Carrie Leung appeared in a TV interview to address the protests for the first time, using a metaphor of children-mother relationship and projecting a “mother nation/city” figure to humanize the contentious politics and justify political violence, which nonetheless triggered tremendous backlash. Protesters hailed “Carrie Leung, you are not my mother” and “Citizens are not your children” during demonstrations, and consequently created and spread more post-it notes, posters, pamphlets, social media ads, and all sorts of protest arts attacking and humiliating her as a woman leader of the city. This peculiar moment is symptomatic of the gendering of social movements and postcolonial struggles against authoritarianism, patriarchy, and paternalism.This study critically investigates the entwining relationship between social movements and misogynistic discourses through closely examining protests arts featuring women leaders, particularly Carrie Leung in the Hong Kong 2019 movements. I collected and sorted dozens of protests arts in forms of posters, post-it notes, and pamphlets by participating in multiple protest gatherings and through social media platforms. Situating these materials within Hong Kong’s colonial history, contemporary political cultures, and gender politics, the study provides insights into how democratic struggles intersect postcolonial melancholy, patriarchal authoritarianism, and the gendered legacy of social movements, where the pursuit of freedom, self-determination, and liberty sits in tandem with practices of sexism, misogyny, and violence against women.

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Work Title Women politicians, social movements, and misogyny in democratic struggles
Subtitle Special Issue: Gendering the Digital
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Sara Liao
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images
Publication Date November 7, 2024
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.3998/gs.5623
Deposited January 29, 2025

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