I Refused to Say #MeToo: Negotiating Between Individual Agency and ‘Imagined’ Platform Constraints

Abstract

This article describes how ‘imagined’ constraints of the social media platform by its users stand crucial while actualising platform affordances and exercising individual agency. I use the term ‘imagined constraints’ to explain how constraints of the media platform are speculated by my participants while they negotiate between the materiality of the platform and social environment to formulate their restricted agency. Here, I use a recent example of feminist hashtag movement ‘#MeToo’ as a case in point. Previous literature addressing feminist hashtag activism and other social movements influenced by social media platforms mainly discuss the participatory potential of these platforms. However, empirical investigation into the factors leading to non-participation in movements like #MeToo has hardly captured any scholarly attention. To address this existing gap in the literature, this article analyses embodied experiences shared through in-depth interviews by 11 Indian women who made a conscious decision of not participating in the #MeToo movement. I discuss my results taking into consideration theories of ‘imagined platform affordances’ and shaping of individual agency in terms of activist participation. I discuss that ‘Imagined constraints’ of the social media platform are chiefly shaped by an individual’s analysis of their sociocultural environment in which media platforms exist. These imagined constraints of a platform lead to constitute a ‘constrained agency’ of an individual. I argue that, while we theorise the potential of social media platforms in facilitating hashtag feminist movements like #MeToo, we must take into consideration the formulation of ‘imagined constraints of the platform’ by its users, as it stands crucial in guiding their participatory action.