Abstract

This chapter addresses the symbolic violence against women in South America digital public sphere. Indeed, femicides, rapes, and sexual harassment are pervasive problems in South America, while abortion is still totally or partially banned in most of the countries in the sub-continent. Thus, local feminist organizations heavily deployed multimedia strategies alongside with traditional grassroots practices to claiming women’s rights. Eventually, this agenda has made its way into traditional media coverage, too. Nonetheless, conservative forces are contesting them with misogyny, hate speech, and trolling in a rather fragmented digital public sphere. The authors examine the visual representations in comments’ sections of articles uncovering high-profile cases of abortion and femicides occurred in contemporary South America, as well as content shared through social networks about those cases.