Cyber Sexual Harassment in Four East Asia Societies- a Techno-Gender Framework

Scholars researching gender and technology has shed light on both the emancipatory potential of communications technologies, as well as the problematic reproduction of gendered power relations in online spaces. In terms of the emancipatory potential of technology, ‘cyber’ or ‘techno’ feminists have expressed optimism about the capacity for communications technologies to transform gendered power relations fundamentally by decentering the body and thus blurring the boundaries of male and female identities. Other feminist scholars have highlighted the increased participation of women in the virtual community and the proliferation of their counter-patriarchy discourses made possible by the ‘new media’. However, other feminist scholars have noted the problematic reproduction of gendered power relations online. Communications technologies, and social media in particular, have been used to extend the harm of sexual violence through further harassing, humiliating, shaming and blaming victim-survivors. Furthermore, communications technologies have been taken up as tools with which to facilitate sexual violence and harassment against women and girls as well as to express gender-based hate speech online. Developing a feminist-techno framework that pays close attention to gender inequalities, cultural and local sociolegal contexts, this research examines the complex relationship between technology and gender, as simultaneously creating new gendered harm and facilitating novel forms of resistance against such harm. The data come from questionnaire surveys with university students and in-depth interviews with victims of cyber sexual harrassment in Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing, and Osaka. These four cities have comparable rates of technology use, and share a similar cultural heritage related to gender while also having different levels of online feminist activism, online misogynistic subculture, and legislation to combat sexual violence. We believe that such a comparison brings to the fore how gender inequalities embedded in social structures, online subculture, and government legislation may interact with technology to shape cyber sexual harassment.