The discourses around speech have attempted to establish its relationality with silence. It has been argued that the existence of speech if analysed closely, implicate silence as well. In other words, where there is speech, silence exists. Scholars like Rodney G.S, Carter have argued that the dynamics of speech and silence are greatly contingent on power (Carter, 2006). While contextually his arguments are built within the purview of archival silences, they can very well be implemented to understand the interplay of speech and silence in the contemporary context of the digital age.

The convergence of the physical and the virtual reality has made the situated experiences and reality of the people even more complex, therefore, Anita Gurumurthy has argued that “unless a more spelt out understanding informs the theorising about new media which runs the risk of (perpetrating) violence in its context, it could end up further alienating the invisible and silent majority from a cyberspace that has enormous potential for appropriation and subversion” (Gurumurthy, 2010).

In an interesting article, Bishakha Datta established that the ability and freedom to express comes with power. According to Datta, the emergence of digital technologies has facilitated humankind with numerous platforms to express their views and opinions freely, even the minority, the silenced and the under-represented. But, at the same time, the inequalities of the physical world gets reflected in these digital spaces which again leads to the suppression of the voice of the weaker section of the society by the powerful (which could be state, gender, caste or religion-based superiority). She applies this notion of power and expression to the conventional gender equalities, she says, “…the struggle for gender equality tries to re-allocate power between the genders, the battle for freedom of expression is about re-allocating the power to speak” (Datta, 2016).

How the gendered dynamics of the physical world are panning out in the digital space needs redressal from various viewpoints. For example, the advent of the digital platforms, as stated above, have enabled women and other gender minorities to express their sexuality, which in many cases lead to online harassment, abuse, unsolicited circulation of images, objectification and body policing by the institutionalized mechanism of the society hence, reinstating the prevailing gender norms.

As Datta argues, this employment of freedom of expression (by the powerful) at the cost of others’ freedom to express leads gender minorities to adapt the mechanism of self-censorship for fear of facing online violence (Datta, 2016). Hence, silencing [i] their narrative in the digital space once again.

From a legal standpoint, it has also been argued that “law as a social institution is entrenched in patriarchal norms” which fails to acknowledge the multiplicity of experiences of gender minorities from its conventionally sanctioned “singular and fixed prototype”. Therefore, arguments can be made in the favour of coming up with new forms of legislation to address such incidents of online violence incorporating the feminist framework (Gurumurthy, Anita; Vasudevan, Amrita; Chami, Nandini, 2017),

In conclusion, digital spaces have expanded the boundaries of human existence and interaction away from physical reality. This has given rise to new cultures of representational politics where gender minorities can ‘choose’ to exercise their identity and sexuality in digital spaces in ways they feel liberated, unlike in the physical world — hence, transforming the conventional idea and definition of emancipation. Therefore, we as a global digital community need to come up and redefine the idea of democracy — where freedom of expression is not about power but the empowerment of the institutionally silenced.

References:

Carter, R. G. (2006). Of Things Sand and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence. Archivaria61, 215-233.

Datta, B. (2016, August 30). Retrieved from Open Democracy: Free thinking for the world: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/belling-trolls-free-expression-online-abuse-and-gender/

Gurumurthy, A. (2010). Retrieved from IT for Change: https://itforchange.net/index.php/understanding-gender-a-digitally-transformed-world

Gurumurthy, Anita; Vasudevan, Amrita; Chami, Nandini. (2017). Retrieved from IT for Change: https://itforchange.net/examining-technology-mediated-violence-against-women-through-a-feminist-framework-towards

Susan Herring; Rebecca Scheckler; Sasha A. Barab; Kirk Job-Sluder. (2002). Searching for Safety Online: Managing “Trolling” in a Feminist Forum. The Information Society, 371-384.

[i] Scholars like Wendy Brown have also talked about the emancipatory power of silence; where silence is a choice. Here, we are addressing the coerced silencing of the gender minorities.

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Mansi Malhotra is a post-graduate in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University, New Delhi. She is interested in research areas riveting around gender and violence.