New Publication: „Shame must change sides: Affective media practices and the Mazan rape cases on TikTok“
The rise of digital platforms has transformed feminist activism, reshaping how sexualized violence is discussed, witnessed, and challenged. In a new article published in Media, Culture & Society, our colleagues Annabella Backes, Margreth Lünenborg, and Kerstin Schankweiler examine responses to the Mazan rape cases on TikTok, focusing on survivor Gisèle Pelicot’s powerful statement: “Shame must change sides.”
News from Oct 29, 2025
Drawing on 8,229 TikTok posts for descriptive analysis and 280 for qualitative analysis, the authors explore how affective media practices emerge, what forms they take, and how shame is negotiated online. They identify five key practices:
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Feminist education explains the case and places it in a broader socio-political context, ranging affectively from sober explanation to cynical outrage.
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Affective witnessing involves sharing emotions such as disbelief and fear, reinforcing collective affectedness.
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Iconization positions Pelicot as a feminist heroine, shifting discourse from shame to pride.
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Shaming contests perpetrators’ social impunity, aligning with Pelicot’s call to redirect shame toward them.
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Feminist cross-referencing connects the case to wider struggles, strengthening feminist networks of solidarity.
The study highlights shame’s complex role in public discourse and demonstrates how TikTok functions both as a site of affective contestation and as a vehicle for networked feminism. It shows how affective media practices around sexualized violence are negotiated within a dynamic, algorithmically structured, and ephemeral platform environment.
This publication contributes to the CRC “Affective Societies” research on the entanglements of affect, media, and digital publics, offering new insights into how emotions shape—and are shaped by—contemporary feminist activism online.
Link to article (open-access)
