Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T13:38:40.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From #MeToo to #ProtestToo: How a Feminist Movement Converged with a Pro-democracy Protest in Hong Kong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Ruby Y. S. Lai
Ruby Y. S. Lai*
Affiliation:
Lingnan University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The #MeToo movement in Hong Kong emerged in late 2017, subsequently converged with the Anti-Extradition Law protest in 2019, and evolved into the #ProtestToo campaign against police violence and sexual assult. This essay traces the development of the #MeToo movement and analyzes the collaboration among the government, civil society, and the media in fostering the movement to combat sexual violence. It argues that whether the collaborative model succeeds or fails depends upon sociocultural and political circumstances: the failure of existing measures in preventing, investigating, and prosecuting the alleged sexual assaults inflicted on protesters in 2019 reveals how a shift to authoritarian governance may cripple the established anti–sexual violence collaboration.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 500 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

ACSVAW (Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women). 2019a. “The Living Evidence of Sexual Violence Against Women in Hong Kong: A Retrospective Study of Rainlily's Crisis Services (2000–2018).” March 9. https://rainlily.org.hk/publication/2018/retrospective (accessed May 19, 2020).Google Scholar
ACSVAW (Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women). 2019b. “Sexual Victimisation Experience in ‘Anti-ELAB Movement.’” November 6. https://rainlily.org.hk/chi/news/2019/11/release (accessed May 20, 2020).Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 2019. “Hong Kong: Arbitrary Arrests, Brutal Beatings and Torture in Police Detention Revealed.” September 19. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/hong-kong-arbitrary-arrests-brutal-beatings-and-torture-in-police-detention-revealed/ (accessed May 21, 2020).Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 2020. “Hong Kong: Report into Police Conduct during Protests Denounced as ‘Biased.’” May 15. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/hong-kong-report-police-conduct-during-protests-denounced-biased (accessed May 21, 2020).Google Scholar
Cheung, Fanny. 1987. “Changing Attitudes: The War-on-Rape Campaign.” Bulletin of the Hong Kong Psychological Society 19 (20): 41–48.Google Scholar
Choi, Susanne, Lai, Ruby, and Pang, Javier. 2020. “Gender Irrelevance: How Women and Men Rationalize Their Support for the Right.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 45 (2): 473–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EOC (Equal Opportunities Commission). 2014. Sexual Harassment—Questionnaire Survey for Business Sector. Hong Kong: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
EOC (Equal Opportunities Commission). 2019a. Sexual Harassment—Questionnaire Survey for Sports Sector 2018. Hong Kong: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
EOC (Equal Opportunities Commission). 2019b. Territory-wide Study on Sexual Harassment of University Students in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Hong Kong Christian Council. 2018. No More Silence—Study of the Experiences of Sexual Harassment in the Church. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Christian Council.Google Scholar
Hung, Suet-lin. 2013. “Research on the Help Seeking Experiences of Sexual Violence Victims: Community Responses and Secondary Victimization.” Hong Kong Journal of Social Work 47 (1–2): 53–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kantor, Jodi, and Twohey, Megan. 2019. She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kapai, Puja. 2009. “The Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission: Calling for a New Avatar.” Hong Kong Law Journal 39 (2): 339–59.Google Scholar
Krook, Mona Lena. 2017. “Violence against Women in Politics.” Journal of Democracy 28 (1): 74–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuperberg, Rebecca. 2018. “Intersectional Violence against Women in Politics.” Politics & Gender 14 (4): 685–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersen, Carole. 2005. “Negotiating Respect: Sexual Harassment and the Law in Hong Kong.” International Journal of Discrimination and the Law 7 (1–4): 127–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wexler, Lesley. 2019. “#MeToo and Law Talk.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 2019: 343–70.Google Scholar