Dr Angela Smith has given a paper at the Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines (CADAAD) conference in Budapest. In a paper entitled '@EverdaySexism, backlash feminism and the Twittersphere', Angela looked at the Twitter account set up by Laura Bates in 2012 to share women’s stories of sexist treatment. She focused on an unexpected consequence of the work of the EverydaySexism Project - the backlash against Bates herself, who has been targeted by ‘trolls’ and threatened with sexual violence. Angela contends that if we are to see Web 2.0 as being the means by which ‘Fourth Wave’ feminists are renewing their mothers’ and grandmothers’ calls for social equality, we can also see it as a place where the backlash against such arguments draws on a rehashing of age-old claims to male domination.
