Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-k57jl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-08-17T17:20:10.062Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When Shaming Is Shameful: Double Standards in Online Shame Backlashes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Karen Adkins
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent defenses of shaming as an effective tool for identifying bad practice and provoking social change appear compatible with feminism. I complicate this picture by examining two instances of online feminist shaming that resulted in shame backlashes. Shaming requires the assertion of social and epistemic authority on behalf of a larger community, and is dependent upon an audience that will be receptive to the shaming testimony. In cases where marginally situated knowers attempt to “shame up,” it presents challenges for feminist uses.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , Winter 2019 , pp. 76 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by Hypatia, Inc.

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, Guy. 2015. A very flawed accuser: Investigation into the academic who hounded a Nobel Prize winning scientist out of his job reveals troubling questions about her testimony. Daily Mail, June 26.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a feminist life. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Blum, Deborah. 2015. Tim Hunt “jokes” about women scientists. Or not. Gizmodo. https://storify.com/deborahblum/tim-hunt-and-his-jokes-about-women-scientists.Google Scholar
Bolden, Charles. 2016. Letter to NASA grantee institutions. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/bolden_letter_20160115.pdf.Google Scholar
Brush, Candida G., Greene, Patricia G., Balachandra, Lakshmi, and Davis, Amy E. 2014. Women entrepreneurs 2014: Bridging the gender gap in venture capital. Babson College. http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/blank-center/global-research/diana/Documents/diana-project-executive-summary-2014.pdf.Google Scholar
Chen, Liyan. 2014. Silicon Valley's women problem: Only 7% of tech boards are female. Forbes, July 19.Google Scholar
Clancy, Kathryn B. H., Nelson, Robin G., Rutherford, Julienne N., and Hinde, Katie. 2014. Survey of academic field experiences (SAFE): Trainees report harassment and assault. PLOS One 9: 7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2001. Nickel and dimed. New York: Metropolitan.Google Scholar
Etzioni, Amitai. 2001. The monochrome society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
European Women in Mathematics. 2015. Press release, Korea Foundation of Women's Science & Technology Associations. June 16. http://www.europeanwomeninmaths.org/sites/default/files/documents/news/kofwstpress.pdf.Google Scholar
Falkenheim, Jacquelina C., and Burelli, Joan S. 2012. Diversity in science and engineering employment in industry. National Science Foundation, March. https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf12311/.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Michaele. 2010. Choice feminism and the fear of politics. Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 247–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foreman, Jonathan. 2015. The Timothy Hunt witch hunt. Commentary, September 1.Google Scholar
Hacker News. 2013. Inappropriate comments at PyCon 2013 called out. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5398681.Google Scholar
Haria, Rushabh. 2015. Backlash has been “horrible,” says science journalist who reported Tim Hunt sexist conference comments. PressGazette, July 7.Google Scholar
Henry, Nicola, and Powell, Anastasia. 2015. Embodied harms: Gender, shame, and technology‐facilitated sexual violence. Violence against Women 21 (6): 758–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirschman, Albert. 1970. Exit, voice, and loyalty. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Holt, Kris. 2013. Adria Richards publicly fired amid violent #donglegate backlash. The Daily Dot, March 21. http://www.dailydot.com/news/adria-richards-fired-sendgrid-violent-backlash/.Google Scholar
Jacquet, Jennifer. 2015. Is shame necessary? New uses for an old tool. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Lehtinen, Ullalina. 1998. How does one know what shame is? Epistemology, emotions, and forms of life in juxtaposition. Hypatia 13 (1): 56–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, Jill. 2007. Shame and the future of feminism. Hypatia 22 (4): 146–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manion, Jennifer C. 2003. Girls blush, sometimes: Gender, moral agency, and the problem of shame. Hypatia 18 (3): 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKie, Robin. 2015. Tim Hunt: “I've been hung out to dry. They haven't even bothered to ask for my side of affairs.” The Guardian, June 13.Google Scholar
Munt, Sally. 2007. Queer attachments: The cultural politics of shame. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
National Science Foundation Press Statement 16‐002. 2016. The National Science Foundation (NSF) will not tolerate harassment at grantee institutions. January 25. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=137466.Google Scholar
Norlock, Kathryn. 2017. Online shaming. Social Philosophy Today 33: 187–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 2004. Hiding from humanity: Disgust, shame, and the law. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pohlhaus, Gaile Jr. 2012. Relational knowing and epistemic injustice: Toward a theory of willful hermeneutical ignorance. Hypatia 27 (4): 715–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollack, Eileen. 2016. The only woman in the room: Why science is still a boys’ club. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Raja, Tasneem and Liebelson, Dana. 2013. Donglegate: How one brogrammer's sexist joke led to death threats and firings. Mother Jones, March 22.Google Scholar
Richards, Adria. 2013. Forking and dongle jokes don't belong at tech conferences. But You're a Girl blog, March 18. http://butyoureagirl.com/2013/03/18/adria-richards-on-dongle-jokes-and-pycon-2013/.Google Scholar
Richey, Christina R., Clancy, Kathryn B. H., Lee, Katharine M., and Rogers, Erica. 2015. The CSWA survey on workplace climate and an uncomfortable conversation about harassment. Division for Planetary Sciences 47 Conference, National Harbor. http://data.boulder.swri.edu/ksinger/Richey_2015_DPS_Masursky_Talk.pdf.Google Scholar
Ronson, Jon. 2015. So you've been publicly shamed. New York: Riverhead.Google Scholar
Saul, Heather. 2015. Richard Dawkins demands apology from Sir Tim Hunt's critics amid claims leaked transcript shows “sexist” comments were “light‐hearted banter.” The Independent, June 24.Google Scholar
St. Louis, Connie. 2015. Furor over Tim Hunt must lead to systemic change. Scientific American, June 15. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/furor-over-tim-hunt-must-lead-to-systemic-change/Google Scholar
St. Louis, Connie. 2016. Written evidence to House of Commons, Parliament. http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/science-and-technology-committee/science-communication/written/43569.html.Google Scholar
Sue, Derald Wing. 2010. Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.Google Scholar
Tarnopolsky, Christina H. 2010. Prudes, perverts, and tyrants: Plato's Gorgias and the politics of shame. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Gabriele. 1985. Pride, shame and guilt: Emotions of self‐assessment. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Waddell, Dan, and Higgins, Paula. 2015. Saving Tim Hunt. Medium, November 9. https://medium.com/@danwaddell/saving-tim-hunt-97db23c6ee93#.p7hdukoc2.Google Scholar
Whipple, Tom, and Moody, Oliver. 2015. Dawkins attacks “mob rule” that cost scientist his job. The Times, June 19.Google Scholar