Glocalized voices in Assault Police : A model of communing affiliation and affective positioning

Abstract

The study aims to explore the affiliation strategies and semiotic resources employed in digital feminist activism by Assault Police ( AP ) within Egypt’s #MeToo movement to construct the identity of sexual-violence victims/survivors (SVVSs). Using Martin and White’s appraisal and Zappavigna’s communing affiliation frameworks, the study investigates how affective positioning is discursively constructed, multimodally materialized and ambiently performed in digital discourses to combat sexual-violence. A qualitative analysis of 104 digital narratives on sexual-violence, encompassing cases of rape, sexual-assault and gender-based violence, reveals how AP fosters a sense of shared values and emotional and moral stances within digital feminist spaces. The results demonstrate how AP constructs the social semiotic identity of Egyptian SVVSs through the utilization of affective-discursive strategies that combine evaluative language, visual cues, digital elements and cultural references as affective instruments to (re)shape and negotiate value- and-feeling-centered affiliations. AP employs a range of evaluative couplings to position SVVS as a credible, subject worthy of empathy and support/justice. This affective stance challenges the gendered semiotic identities and inequalities that pervade the Egyptian context. Additionally, AP facilitates the formation of affiliative bonds of belonging or exclusion around SVVSs through the use of emotional appeals, moral evaluations, affective repetitions, coherent designs, colour schemes, community-centered hashtags and cultural symbols. This study contributes to the field of non-Western digital discourse analysis by offering a model of affect and affiliation from a multimodal perspective that focuses on the distinctive dynamics of Egypt’s feminist landscape and advocates for the inclusion of Arab women’s voices in the global discourse on sexual violence.

Keywords

• digital discourse
• affective positioning
• communing affiliation
• semiotic identity
• sexual-violence
• social media technologies