Time to Rise Up
A new film wrenchingly explores the effects of online abuse on women's power
One of the most pervasive myths about online abuse is that it’s “just mean words” that shouldn’t have an effect on us as we move about the world.
My answer to anyone who believes that is to walk a mile in my stilettos and see how you fare.
When your children are threatened, is it “just mean words?” When your likeness is inserted into deepfake sexual abuse material for your neighbors, coworkers, and peers to see, would you be able to act like nothing’s happened? When a stranger approaches you to ask for directions and your entire body tenses in anticipation of what might be coming, did those words stay online?
They’re not. You can’t. They don’t. And anyone who believes otherwise is ignorant to the realities of the pervasive, normalized online harms that women and girls deal with every day.
A new film argues that the harms women face through social media and artificial intelligence are colliding with a backsliding women’s rights environment in an attempt to control and silence half the population. MISS REPRESENTATION: RISE UP, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, is the follow up to the acclaimed MISS REPRESENTATION, which examined how mainstream media systematically distorts and diminishes women’s power over a decade ago. MISS REPRESENTATION: RISE UP turns the same critical lens on social media and AI, wrenchingly encapsulating the reality of being a woman or girl online today.
The film premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this weekend, and I was thrilled to attend and participate in a talkback panel after the screening. I sat for an interview for the film back in 2024, and was touched that the production team felt my insights and the story of what I went through at the hands of the far right and Fox News were worth including. But the film’s core isn’t archival footage or a parade of experts; it’s the stories of young women making change in their schools, running for office, and crafting policy to protect themselves and others from the harms they’ve experienced.
My mom came to the premiere, and though she’s read my books and watched me go through serious, widespread abuse, the film shocked her. She thinks the film should be shown in high schools across the country. I’m hoping it gets wide distribution on a streaming service. Following the journeys of young women who don’t know a life without the toxicity they face every day on social media will help actualize the offline harm of online violence for the many, many people who still think the problem is thin-skinned women who can’t take a few mean words.
After the talkback panel, which was moderated by MS Now’s Stephanie Ruhle and included Siebel Newsom, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dr. Safiya Noble, Jim Steyer, and me, I left feeling empowered. My work is often lonely, but once in a while I get the privilege of standing shoulder to shoulder with people who don’t just SEE what I study, they KNOW it in their bones. They have taken adversity and transmuted it into change. They are dedicated to supporting and platforming each other.
They are the movement builders. The connectors. The mothers.
Amid so much bad news and continued adversity, they are what gives me hope.
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Siebel Newsom and her team at The Representation Project are building on the lessons in the film to provide resources to those experiencing harassment, exploitation, or abuse online, and to give voice to their stories. You can organize a screening, share your experience, get informed, and get help at missrepresentationriseup.org.
With apologies for being absent from your inbox for a bit, it’s been a really busy few weeks. My son had a birthday—parents know how all consuming birthdays can be for small kids, with the classroom celebration and the party for friends and marking the occasion at home…what a vortex!—I started teaching my regular summer course on “Disinformation and Influence in the Digital Age” at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, and I’m working toward meeting a very big deadline that’s occupying most of my brain power. I promise I’ll be back to a more regular schedule soon!
In the meantime: do you have questions about AI and how (if at all?) to use it responsibly? I’m preparing a big post on AI, so leave your questions in the comments!
So proud of you, friend. Congrats on reclaiming your story and sharing it so bravely.
Haven't seen it, but want to.
Showing it to High Schools sounds like a wonderful idea.
Who would I contact about buying a copy?