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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
The 2020 WNBA season was on track to go down as a historic season due to being played in the middle of a global pandemic, but the athletes of the WNBA made it even more memorable. Amid the racial turmoil that was sweeping the nation due to many Black Americans being killed by law enforcement agents, the athletes pulled off one of the biggest acts of athlete activism to date. The entire 2020 WNBA season was dedicated to the Say Her Name campaign, which brings awareness to the often forgotten names of the Black women who are victims of racist police violence, and Breonna Taylor (West). Social media sites, like Twitter, provide an opportunity for activism, especially through the use of the hashtag. There are many examples of hashtag activism and hashtag feminism campaigns on Twitter that allow participants to take personal experiences and make them public with a collective group to illuminate and raise awareness for social justice issues (Clark; Clark-Parsons). By examining the #SayHerName hashtag on Twitter within the context of the WNBA, I explore how the #SayHerName hashtag, which already has a long history on Twitter (Jackson et al.), was repurposed for the 2020 WNBA season. I also explore how the athletes used the 2020 WNBA basketball season as a platform, both on the court and off the court through Twitter, to amplify their voices in the fight for Black women, like Breonna Taylor, who are victims of police brutality.
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Works Cited
Clark, Rosemary. “‘Hope in a Hashtag’: The Discursive Activism of #WhyIStayed.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 16, no. 5, Sept. 2016, pp. 788–804. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1138235.
Clark-Parsons, Rosemary. “‘I See You, I Believe You, I Stand With You’: #MeToo and the Performance of Networked Feminist Visibility.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, June 2019, pp. 362–80. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1628797.
Jackson, Sarah J., et al. #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. The MIT Press, 2020.
West, Jenna. “WNBA Dedicates Season to Breonna Taylor, Holds Moment of Silence.” Sports Illustrated, 25 July 2020, https://www.si.com/wnba/2020/07/25/wnba-dedicates-season-breonna-taylor-moment-of-silence.
Athlete Activism in the WNBA through #SayHerName
The 2020 WNBA season was on track to go down as a historic season due to being played in the middle of a global pandemic, but the athletes of the WNBA made it even more memorable. Amid the racial turmoil that was sweeping the nation due to many Black Americans being killed by law enforcement agents, the athletes pulled off one of the biggest acts of athlete activism to date. The entire 2020 WNBA season was dedicated to the Say Her Name campaign, which brings awareness to the often forgotten names of the Black women who are victims of racist police violence, and Breonna Taylor (West). Social media sites, like Twitter, provide an opportunity for activism, especially through the use of the hashtag. There are many examples of hashtag activism and hashtag feminism campaigns on Twitter that allow participants to take personal experiences and make them public with a collective group to illuminate and raise awareness for social justice issues (Clark; Clark-Parsons). By examining the #SayHerName hashtag on Twitter within the context of the WNBA, I explore how the #SayHerName hashtag, which already has a long history on Twitter (Jackson et al.), was repurposed for the 2020 WNBA season. I also explore how the athletes used the 2020 WNBA basketball season as a platform, both on the court and off the court through Twitter, to amplify their voices in the fight for Black women, like Breonna Taylor, who are victims of police brutality.
243/250
Works Cited
Clark, Rosemary. “‘Hope in a Hashtag’: The Discursive Activism of #WhyIStayed.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 16, no. 5, Sept. 2016, pp. 788–804. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1138235.
Clark-Parsons, Rosemary. “‘I See You, I Believe You, I Stand With You’: #MeToo and the Performance of Networked Feminist Visibility.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 21, no. 3, June 2019, pp. 362–80. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1628797.
Jackson, Sarah J., et al. #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. The MIT Press, 2020.
West, Jenna. “WNBA Dedicates Season to Breonna Taylor, Holds Moment of Silence.” Sports Illustrated, 25 July 2020, https://www.si.com/wnba/2020/07/25/wnba-dedicates-season-breonna-taylor-moment-of-silence.
Bio
Kendra Gilbertson is a student in the Texts and Technology Ph.D. program at the University of Central Florida. She earned her M.A. in Educational Leadership and graduate certificate in Professional Writing from UCF and her B.S. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sport Marketing & Management from Indiana University. She is currently the Associate Director in the College of Arts & Humanities Student Advising (CAHSA) office at UCF. Kendra’s research includes social media and hashtag activism, athlete activism, gender equality in sports, and women in sport.