Breaking the silence. Discursive analysis of experiences on violence against woman under the #MeLoDijeronEnLaFmed

Abstract

In August 2020, in Uruguay, a wave of reports of violence against women in social media went viral. #MeLoDijeronEnLaFmed was the first to circulate on Twitter, making visible the violence to which students, professionals and teachers are exposed in the field of Medicine and, in particular, in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Republic. This article, which is part of a broader investigation, focuses on the analysis of the complaints, to answer whether they contribute to transforming the structural social problem. Using a quantitative-qualitative methodological approach, 969 tweets were collected and categorized and subsequently analyzed statistically. At the same time, the research is transversalized by a critical analysis of emerging discourses. It was identified that the denunciation speeches aim to make violence against women visible, motivate other women to be encouraged to report and expose a system that legitimizes violence through mechanisms of omission and concealment that contribute to the impunity of the perpetrators. It is concluded that, although complaints on social networks contribute to making visible the different forms of oppression and domination, their transformative effect at a social and cultural level may be limited by the biases of the platforms and the initiative of the institutions to generate initiatives, laws and policies that promote and accompany change.