States of Exception: Gender-based Violence in the Global South

Abstract

Gender-based violence in the Global South normally emerges in news coverage as exceptional eruptions of brutality. Comparing media coverage of sexual assaults in South Africa and India, this chapter maps the consequences of presenting gender-based violence as a state of exception. In addition, the chapter turns its attention to social media where feminist voices were able to give voice to alternative understandings of sexual violence. Through an analysis of the feedback and feed-forward loops of digital media circuits the chapter teases out the differential impact of feminists in South Africa and India. In the final analysis, race, caste, and class remain sticky vectors that continue to shape media and feminist responses to gender-based violence.