Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.06.2015, Page 16

16 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 8 — 2015
And yet, the push for a safer and more
equal society for women in Iceland is far
from over. Just recently, Facebook in Ice-
land became ablaze with orange and yel-
low profile pictures denoting instances
of sexual violence and abuse as a part
of the #Outloud campaign, and these
pictures and the accompanying stories
make it clear that there’s still a long way
to go before sexual violence is eradicated
in Iceland. Increasingly, women are tak-
ing to social media campaigns such as
#Outloud to spread awareness and edu-
cate their fellow friends, family, and fol-
lowers on feminism.
A picture’s worth a thou-
sand words
#Outloud was started by Icelandic artist
Edda Ýr Garðarsdóttir, with the inten-
tion to, as stated on the original Face-
book post, “make it visual how huge of
an impact sexual crime has.” The pic-
tures—orange and yellow cartoon faces
with speech bubbles over their mouths—
speak for themselves. The original idea
behind the picture was that people
who have experienced sexual violence
change their profile picture to the or-
ange face, and people who know others
who have experienced sexual violence
change their profile picture to the yellow
face.
Edda got the idea for #Outloud after
reading story after story of sexual assault
that women shared in the Icelandic Face-
book group “Beauty Tips,” a safe space
used by women to discuss and receive
advice on personal issues like abuse and
relationships, but also to talk about stuff
like nail polish or the miracles of coconut
oil. She wanted to encourage women to
share their stories and speak out about
their assault in order to reduce shame
and increase awareness of how wide-
spread a problem sexual violence is.
“I’m not sure if all men really under-
stand that women often talk about this
when they are in small groups or just
with close friends,” she explained, “and
so I thought maybe this is something that
really needs to be made visible.”
She named the campaign #Outloud
precisely for this reason—because it
was about giving women a voice to talk
about their experiences on the internet.
Many #Outloud profile pictures are also
accompanied with the hashtags #kon-
urtala and #þöggun, which respectively
translate to “women speak” and “si-
lenced” in order to encourage breaking
the silencing that victims of sexual as-
sault often experience. While some users
simply change their profile pictures, oth-
ers use this as an opportunity to share
their experience with sexual violence.
Though survivors of sexual assault
often experience shaming and doubt
from others (and from themselves) in
response to their stories, Edda has been
amazed by the amount of positivity and
support that people have been receiving
when they change their pictures. “Even
though it’s always sad to see a new or-
ange face pop up on Facebook,” she said,
“you also can feel the love, because ev-
eryone responds with a heart or ‘I’m so
sorry’ or ‘You are strong and brave’ to the
one who’s telling the story. You become
a bit happy about how nice everyone is,
really.”
While Edda understands that of
course not everyone is ready to publicly
change their picture, she has been proud
of how many people have participated
in and even adapted the movement to fit
their own needs. “I’ve also gotten lots of
letters, including some where they want
different categories and more colors—
for example, maybe purple for domes-
tic abuse,” she said. “People have been
making it their own and changing the
pictures and coming up with their own
definitions, and that’s just great.” The
pictures, rather than defining people by
their assault, have been used as a sign of
empowerment and solidarity.
So far the #Outloud pictures have
spread across Facebook feeds in Iceland,
as well as Denmark, Norway, Britain,
and even the US, and Edda hopes they
will only continue to spread via ripple ef-
fect around the world.
Release the nipples!
But #Outloud isn’t the first feminist
campaign to take off via social media in
Iceland. Last March, Twitter became
dotted with Icelandic women’s nipples
as part of the international #FreeThe-
Nipple movement. The Icelandic wave
began with a post by 17-year-old Adda
Þóreyjardóttir Smáradóttir, who was
sick of the double standards women face
when it comes to body image and what
is considered appropriate to reveal. The
movement received a lot of support,
mostly at first by other teenage girls who
wanted to stand up for Adda when she
was harassed for her tweet.
Though she deleted the picture, the
following #FreeTheNipple tweets and
comments have had lasting effects on
how Adda and other women view their
own bodies. “Personally, I feel more
free to do what I want,
and I know that people
of my generation and
those around me agree
with me on that,” she
said. “They're also less
afraid of being judged. I
think it's helped a lot of
girls with their self-esteem, because we
are made to think that breasts should be
a certain shape and size.”
Even Björt Ólafsdóttir, MP of the
Bright Future Party, decided to join the
movement, and posted her own nipple
photo on Twitter, along with the mes-
sage: “This is to feed children. Shove it
up your patriarchy. #FreeTheNipple.”
Björt explained that her decision to
participate was largely due to the fact
that the Icelandic iteration of #FreeThe-
Nipple was started by teenagers, and she
didn’t want assumptions about their age
to undermine their cause in any way. “I
thought, okay, shit, this could really be
bad, because they’re young, they’re ex-
posing themselves, they’re letting them-
selves out there and they’re really vul-
nerable,” she explained. “I really wanted
to support them. And I said to myself, if
they can do it, then of course I HAVE to
do it.”
Social media, of course, can be a tool
for feminist movements like #FreeThe-
Nipple, but it can also be a breeding
ground for harassment and, when nu-
dity is involved, revenge porn. However,
Björt, who is currently pushing for legis-
lation that defines and combats revenge
porn, claimed that these young girls
were using the #FreeTheNipple cam-
paign as a way to reclaim authority over
photographs of their own bodies by re-
posting pictures of themselves that had
been previously used as revenge porn
against them.
“These pictures had been really,
really difficult for them to face and to
handle,” Björt stated, “but then they
became empowered and said, ‘Okay, I
am the one who has power over this
picture and I’m going to post it again
and I’m not ashamed. I am proud of
myself. And you can’t make me feel
otherwise, so fuck off.’ I get chills
from that.” Much like the support
that survivors have received from the
#Outloud movement, #FreeTheNipple
enabled women to stand up for them-
selves publicly via the internet, and
to receive support via likes and com-
ments from other people in solidarity.
Though Twitter has since returned
to its significantly less nipple-y state,
the #FreeTheNipple movement is still
going strong in Iceland. Just last week-
end, there were outdoor #FreeThe-
Nipple events, concerts, and general
shirtless or bra-free chillin’ to desexu-
alize the nipple, and Húrra also threw
a #FreeTheNipple party that same
night, with a substantial crowd of both
men and women baring their nipples.
And it’s not just Iceland that’s free-
ing the nipple—the campaign actu-
ally originated in the US and has since
spread all around Scandinavia, Brit-
ain, France and Spain, and recently
Björt had some surprising visitors
from Taiwain. “They were a group of
students who came to Iceland to inter-
view me about #FreeTheNipple,” she
said, chuckling to herself. “They had
no other plans in Iceland except inter-
viewing me. I was just like, ‘Whoa.’”
Fighting sexism with a
#pun
Shortly after #FreeTheNipple, a new
feminist hashtag appeared on Twit-
ter, this time with a bit of wordplay
mixed in: #6dagsleikinn, the Icelandic
equivalent of #everydaysexism. (The
number six in Icelandic is pronounced
like “sex” in English, and 6daglei-
kinn rhymes with “hversdagsleikinn,“
which means “everyday.”) The cam-
paign was started by Icelandic jour-
nalist María Lilja Þrastardóttir fol-
lowing a junior
college seminar
on gender. She en-
couraged people to
tweet about sex-
ism that they have
experienced, from
everyday double
standards in housework to more seri-
ous topics like sexual assault.
Like #Outloud and #FreeThe-
Nipple, #6dagsleikinn spread quickly.
María commented on the viral nature
of social media, and how it’s great for
educating and engaging masses of peo-
ple in activism. “We’re more and more
participating in social media, and it’s
maybe the first time that individu-
als have a real voice. Before this, they
blogged, and sent in letters and articles
to the papers, but social media offers a
tool to communicate, and it's great to
fight these battles.” María also noted
that the name #6dagsleikinn itself
was “snappy and cool,” which helped
attract lots of people to sharing their
own experiences through Twitter.
In addition to #6dagsleikinn,
other hashtags have popped up, such
as #hinseginleikinn, specifically for
the LGBTQ community to share their
experiences; #stelpurátwitter, to in-
crease visibility of female Twitter us-
ers; and #túrvæðingin, to destigma-
tize menstruation.
All these clicks, but so
what?
Clearly social media campaigns like
#Outloud and #FreeTheNipple can help
individuals get support from friends and
strangers alike on the internet. But what
implications does social media activism
have for feminism as a movement as a
whole?
Snærós Sindradóttir, a journalist at
Fréttablaðið, who recently appeared
on Ísland í dag to talk about feminism
alongside Hildur Sverrisdóttir, a lawyer
and city councilwoman for the Indepen-
dence Party who also participated in
#FreeTheNipple, spoke to the strength
of social media to quickly mobilize large
amounts of people for a single cause.
“Social media benefits from the pow-
er of the many,” Snærós said. “It gives
more people a voice and makes the fight
easier and more mainstream. Instead
of just the few that have the privilege of
skipping work or school and showing up
somewhere for a protest, everyone can
participate in social media activism.”
She noted how we can’t underes-
timate the ability of things like #Out-
loud and #FreeTheNipple to cause real,
off-screen change. “Social media plays
a huge role in all social changes in the
world today. Most individuals don’t want
to show up somewhere and scream some
slogans in front of a building or some-
thing. Most people feel that that doesn’t
work. And maybe they’re right. I myself
have participated in protests before I be-
came a journalist, but my voice is stron-
ger and better heard through social me-
dia.”
Indeed, the goal of activism is aware-
ness and change, and sometimes sharing
a post on Facebook can educate people
more effectively than a protest. Not only
do social media posts have the advantage
of reaching lots of eyes with a simple
click, but the key is that oftentimes view-
ers are friends, or people that the poster
knows personally in some way. And that
is key in recruiting a group that’s often
absent from discussions of feminism:
men.
“The way to get more men to engage
in the fight for feminism is by having
feminist men out there already. With
men will come more men,” Snærós said.
“I think if strong men or cool guys call
themselves feminists, others will join.”
And while Snærós acknowledged
that views within feminism can of course
differ, there is still the common goal of
gender equality and empowerment of
women, and social media can help unite
feminists of different backgrounds and
beliefs in supporting a single cause.
Björt, too, commented on the inevi-
tability of feminism as having differing
subgroups, but welcomed the discussion
that social media can create. “We don’t
have to agree on everything, and we can
want different approaches, and that’s
okay. Of course feminists don’t have to
agree on everything. That would be ri-
diculous,” she said. “It’s good that there
are different sides and discussion of
#FreeTheNipple. The main thing is that
women have control over their bodies
and that we’re not shaming them.”
She added: “I think campaigns like
#FreeTheNipple on social media have
changed our views toward feminism a
lot. Why would you be afraid to call your-
self a feminist if it can be a lot of things?”
As views toward feminism continue
to shift, we’ll just have to see how so-
cial media mirrors these changes, and
vice versa. Whether you prefer to like,
share, comment, or create something of
your own, every little bit counts in rais-
ing awareness and getting your voice out
there.
Words by Katie Steen
Photo by Edda Ýr Garðarsdóttir
From the outside looking in, Iceland may appear to be
a rocky little utopia of feminist ideals (and elves). It has
been ranked again and again as one of the best places
to live as a woman, as it has the smallest gender gap
in terms of salary, education, healthcare, and political
representation. And feminism has been embraced in
droves here, not just by women but by men as well. Just
recently, Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gunnar
Bragi Sveinsson, was presented with the UN’s HeForShe
Award, celebrating Iceland’s status as having the most
men ages 15-64 joining the HeForShe movement online
to strive for gender equality.
Liking, Tweeting,
And Sharing For
Women’s Rights
The role of social media
in feminism
“Of course feminists
don’t have to agree
on everything. That
would be ridiculous.”
Politics | Bright?Society | Feminism