#NoEsNo. The grammar of cibereschaches by female high school studens against gender-based violence (Buenos Aires city)

Abstract

This article intends to analyze the “escraches” (public protests) performed by female students in virtual environments against gender-based violence that they suffered from male young people, mostly school partners. The methodology used is based on a qualitative approach. We examined 70 denouncements published in 10 different Instagram accounts that were created by young female people attending high school in Buenos Aires City.
We found out a grammar of “escraches”, that is to say, a way of recounting violence situations in which female students make subjective reflections related to the place, the manners and the reasons of what they have experienced and felt. We identified four axes that structure this grammar. In first place, we mention the kind of relation that female students had with the boys that committed violence against them and the context. In second place, we describe how the violence situations took place. Afterwards, we examine the sensations and emotions that young women experienced and the explanations or justifications they made. In fourth place, the subjective reflections about the limits between consent and abuse, in relation to the violence situations they lived, are analysed. Finally, we outline the arguments concerning why they decided to tell what they have lived and, in almost all cases, also denounced the names of the young boys that have behaved and interacted violently towards them.
We conclude that young female high school students have found in the practice of cyber denouncement a way to give visibility and denaturalize daily violent behaviours and interactions.