Feminist television, racist Twitter? Feminist perspectives on the mediation of sexual misconduct in the Netherlands

Abstract

This article examines the mediation of sexual misconduct in the Netherlands, focusing on the role of public television broadcasting and Twitter. Conceptually, the article draws on key feminist perspectives, which have, over the past decades, been vital for turning sexual misconduct into a central issue of public concern. Our analysis of Dutch public broadcasting (1984–2019) and Twitter (2011–2019) reveals that Dutch television consistently advocated feminist perspectives and framed sexual misconduct as a national problem rooted in ‘internal’ structural failures. By contrast, Twitter discourse, particularly since 2015, was dominated by far-right rhetoric, framing the issue as an ‘external’ cultural threat linked to Islam and immigration. #MeToo was not visible in the dominant Twitter discourse on sexual misconduct but did appear on public television. Nevertheless, Dutch public broadcasters’ feminist agenda remained limited, failing to debunk the hypervisible racist and Islamophobic perpetrator myths circulating on Dutch social media.