The Tambourine Army: Sonic Disruptions and the Politics of Respectability
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2020
Publication Title
Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism
Abstract
In 2017 the radical women’s rights group known as the Tambourine Army emerged in response to gender-based violence, sexual abuse, and structures of impunity in Jamaica. The group used hashtags, organized marches, and teach-ins to encourage women to speak out against their abusers, to break the silence surrounding sexual abuse, and to advocate for survivors. Situating the Tambourine Army within traditions of women’s protest and contemporary forms of cyberactivism in the Caribbean, this essay examines the ways the group enacted a sonic disruption to the public and cyber spheres. It chronicles the rise of the movement, explores the centrality of the digital in the members’ activism, and assesses the methods deployed in the group’s contestation of postcolonial ideals of respectability.
Keywords
social media, radical feminism, sexual violence cyberactivism, protest
Volume
24
Issue
2 (62)
First Page
35
Last Page
52
DOI
10.1215/07990537-8604466
Recommended Citation
Roper, Danielle and Wint, Traci-Ann, "The Tambourine Army: Sonic Disruptions and the Politics of Respectability" (2020). Africana Studies: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/afr_facpubs/22