Speaking for the Subaltern? - How Performative Activism and epistemological violence silence, misrepresent and harm survivors of SGBV within the Eurocentric Human Rights Discourse

(photo) Two women who fled their former IDP camp because of insecurity, stand in front of their shelter in the Kigonze site. [Esdras Tsongo/Al Jazeera]

Abstract

         This article offers a critical examination of the way Eurocentric activist discourse portrays individuals affected by sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), hereby aiming to dismantle colonial narrative patterns and epistemic violence. Drawing on the concepts of Othering and Subalternity, I discuss the concept of (online) performative activism, including its commercialization as well as its damaging effects. In this context, I scrutinize the authenticity of the representative relationship between the performative activist and the affected individual at hand. The focus of this article mainly lies on the depiction of women from the Democratic Republic of Congo; however, its findings of fundamental flaws can be applied to the dominating Eurocentric human rights discourse overall. Hence, with this article, I aspire to advance towards an authentic, non-performative activism by deconstructing the colonial myths that frequently underlie activist action and consequently reflect on the responsibility activists carry. Lastly, I hope to enhance the consideration of experiences and perspectives that are situated outside of the Western Canon of Knowledge, thereby disclosing the agency of affected individuals.

Introduction

         Due to the deconstructive, epistemological, and decolonial analytical approach of this article, I find it extremely important to mention the origin of my own knowledge as well as my related position as a knowledge producer in the process of writing this article. According to feminist theorist Donna Haraway, knowledge is situated and therefore influenced by the academic’s location and sociocultural factors. In my case, it originates predominantly from my education, which I am pursuing in Germany; therefore, my academic background is shaped by cultural and societal norms that are embedded in the European scholarly tradition. Consequently, thinking beyond hegemonic and Eurocentric discourse as a Western scholar remains challenging, as the risk of unintentionally reproducing colonial paradigms persists. Thus, as part of this social localization, I want to clarify the terms I am using throughout my article to ensure scientific transparency and mitigate the risk of epistemic violence.

         As I am referring to the Eurocentric human rights discourse and situated myself as a Western scholar, I base my understanding of these terms on the work Orientalism and the arising concept of Othering by Edward Saïd (1978). In his work, Saïd critiques the constructed dichotomy and hierarchy between the Western and Eastern worlds, deriving from the prejudiced and inauthentic representation of the progressive West in opposition to the underdeveloped Rest of the world, respectively referred to as the Orient, resulting in the Eurocentric discourse around Eastern countries today. As both the Western and Eastern worlds can only exist in distinction to one another, I am aware of the fact that they are social constructs and hence not a true geographical representation. However, in that respect, I understand “Western” as a historical position of power and feeling of superiority towards “non-Western” nations, primarily held by West- and Central European countries, such as Germany. Thus, I use this term to describe my own social localization to demonstrate that I lack the perspective and fundamental understanding of individuals who have endured colonial, imperial, or epistemic violence.

Performative activism

         Due to the increase of social media usage, humanitarian crises and the violation of human rights have gained widespread visibility and attention, often causing the bandwagoning of online solidarity. This has led to a form of activism primarily characterized by sharing posts online, often hashtagged with the respective activist cause and sometimes combined with more common forms of activism such as calls for boycotts and protests or fundraising campaigns. Examples of this activist approach include the Blackout Tuesday action associated with the BLM movement in 2020 or the recent use of purple profile pictures by social media users as an expression of solidarity with the Women for Change movement. Overall, this form of activism illustrates a convenient and low-effort approach to achieving progress in social justice causes; however, many scholars and activists have called its effectiveness and sincerity into question, often referring to it as performative. Hence, one can observe a pattern in which influencers have a moral obligation to speak up, as they are expected to use their public visibility and resources for the greater good. Failure to do so, most recently evident in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, often results in public backlash, including accusations of privilege as well as ignorance, and lastly, calls for cancellation. Consequently, performative activism of this sort can be understood as paying shallow lip-service to social justice issues out of fear of losing social capital without taking corresponding substantive action; or, as Thimsen concludes, “Performative activism talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk”.

Beyond being criticized as a merely symbolic endorsement of social justice causes, scholars further problematize the underlying issue of white saviorism and reinforcement of colonial dynamics. This takes shape in the form of the victimization of affected individuals living in the Global South and a heroic representation of activists from the so-called “developed world,” hereby reflecting the dichotomic and hierarchical logic of Othering. According to this narrative, only the self-sacrificing and altruistic activist is able to help the suffering individual to escape its misery, as the individual itself lacks the willpower to do so and the government in charge has failed to follow its responsibility of protecting its citizens. The humanitarian crisis and violations of human rights could have been avoided if only the citizens and politicians on site had done more, leaving them in need of a humanitarian intervention performed by Western nations. This narrative, of course, ignores certain path dependencies, historical colonial links, and years of exploitation, hence falling short of presenting the more complex reality. Moreover, it reinforces the colonial myth of “uncivilized” nations being incapable of governing themselves, which has been used to legitimize the invasion of nations of the African, Asian, and South American continents. Thus, performative activism often proves ineffective and lacks genuine commitment; in more problematic cases, it can reproduce paternalistic or even colonial dynamics.

This is further illustrated by the literary scholar Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and her work “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988). The term Subalternity marks a subordinate position cut off from any lines of social mobility, hence making the achievement of social advancement impossible. In her work, she concludes that the Subaltern cannot speak, meaning that they are incapable of speaking up for themselves as their voices are drowned out by patriarchal and imperial paternalism, consequently robbing them of their agency. In this regard, Spivak points out the parallels of modern activism and advocacy for social justice causes and the patriarchal, imperial intervention by the British: although their activist actions are well-intentioned, their benevolent paternalism is damaging to the subaltern individual’s agency. The author argues that while activists try to enhance the visibility of individual experiences, they often represent the issues in a sense of an aesthetic depiction, and rather speak about them instead of advocating and speaking for the individuals. However, regardless of the approach, Spivak is of the opinion that representation in the sense of speaking for someone else is impossible without essentializing subaltern experiences or distorting them through one's own interpretation. With that, activists must take the possibility into account that their activism might negate the actual experiences of individuals and that by repressing them into colonial narrative frames, they deprive them of their agency. Thus, Western activists might unintentionally perpetuate epistemic violence by “silencing marginalized groups through discourse”.

I seek to further elaborate on this issue by examining the activism surrounding sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from a deconstructive, decolonial, and epistemological perspective.

SGBV - Women as victims of male violence in the DRC

         In her 1988 essay “Under Western Eyes”, the feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty problematizes the canonized image of a “Third World woman” in Western humanist discourse, which essentializes women as powerless, passive, uneducated, and uncivilized. She explains that by viewing the “Third World woman” in isolation from her cultural and historical context, she becomes a monolithic object of discursive colonizing. In addition, Mohanty identifies five different categories of analysis that are used in humanist discourse and thus consolidate the homogeneous and essentialist image of the “Third World woman”. For the remainder of this article, the category “Women as victims of male violence” will be particularly important, as will the related question of the extent to which narratives such as this led to the disenfranchisement of “Third World women”. The category “women as victims of male violence” perpetuates the essentialized narrative of women being "objects-who-defend-themselves," and men being "subjects-who-perpetrate violence", a narrative trope that continues to dominate the modern activist and humanist discourse surrounding SGBV in the DRC.

According to the UNHCR, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is hereby understood as “[…] Any harmful act that is perpetrated against one person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences between males and females. It includes acts that inflict physical, mental, or sexual harm or suffering; threats of such acts; coercion; and other deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life, committed against a person because of his or her sex or gender. It is forcing another person to do something against his or her will through violence, coercion, threats, deception, cultural expectations, or economic means.”. In the DRC, women and young girls are disproportionately affected by acts of SGBV, as the prevalence of sexual violence combined with systemic failures of protection renders female individuals particularly vulnerable (UN Women, 2025). As a reaction to the high rates of sexual violence and killings by militia groups, social media users started to share images which illustrated the violence in the DRC, adding the hashtag “All Eyes on Kongo” in order to gain attention and spread awareness about the decade-long conflict and exploitation of the DRC. Although such practices have been shown to be somewhat effective in raising awareness, sharing pictures or videos of individuals experiencing violence without providing sufficient context or the individual's consent could cause more harm than good and often result in desensitization, exploitation of suffering, and the spread of disinformation. Thus, spreading awareness in this format can result in a vicious cycle that begins with the repeated circulation of graphic images depicting individuals experiencing violence, which are sometimes accompanied by contextualizing captions but often alongside unreliable information or even disinformation. Continuous exposure to the same types of visual material can lead to desensitization, whereby individual incidents lose their emotional and moral urgency. Consequently, NGOs and affected individuals are pressured to produce new and increasingly disturbing material in order to maintain visibility, attract public attention, and secure donations. This dynamic frequently reinforces and reproduces the Western expectation of suffering, vulnerability, and victimhood, thereby forcing affected individuals, such as women, to adapt to the hegemonic narrative framework. Due to this commercialization of sexual violence, NGOs and individuals employ a gendered and racialized “rapescript,” which assigns clear roles to the actors involved and makes the humanitarian abuses in the DRC consumable for a Western audience. This is strongly reminiscent of the analytical category “Women as victims of male violence”: Congolese women are portrayed as passive victims of sexualized violence exercised by Congolese men, creating the impression that sexual violence is deeply engrained in the Congolese culture. The actual culpabilities of colonialism find no mention, simultaneously suggesting that the respective individuals are incapable of “emancipating” themselves, as the scholars Haliston Lake and Dr. Kristin Ann Shockley assess in their 2022 article “Colonialism in Africa: The Impact on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence”. Moreover, the role of the heroic actor is, in turn, filled by a Western activist who takes on the burden of saving the victimized women by drawing attention to the matter, thereby often speaking about the issue, rather than speaking for the individual, as explained above. In the process of speaking about the issue, activists illustrate the experiences as universal, hereby following the above-mentioned frame and paternalistic logic, reflecting the continuity of epistemic violence by repressing the varying experiences related to colonial legacies.

This raises the question of how activist projects can be conducted in ways that enable sincere and effective representations of subaltern individuals’ experiences without depriving them of their agency.

Conclusion – An Enabling Violation

Thus far, Western activists appear to be caught in a dilemma: either they remain silent and refrain from speaking up on social media in order to avoid the reproduction of colonial dynamics, or they speak up to spread awareness while accepting the potential harm caused by their online representations of the issues at hand. However, deciding to remain silent would contradict the institutional responsibility that Spivak attributes to Western activists. Instead of making idealistic claims concerning activism, one should instead accept the fact that Eurocentric humanist and activist work can have both an enabling and a violating function (enabling violation) for “Third World women”. Accordingly, although Eurocentric activism may essentialize individual experiences and often neglect the colonial contexts that give rise to certain grievances, using social media or other forums to express subalterns’ experiences can gradually enable them to be heard. To mitigate potential harm, activists should hold one another accountable regarding problematic behavior and engage in genuine mutual educational exchange. Moreover, sensitive and complex topics such as SGBV require the necessary background knowledge, which is why people should only raise awareness and spread information if they are comfortable talking about said issue, not merely out of societal pressure or expectations. Only by remaining aware of our limits, shaped by social localization and institutional responsibility, can a sincere, effective, and ethically responsible relationship of representation be fostered.

As colonial, imperial, and patriarchal structures are deeply embedded across multiple spheres of life, it is nearly impossible to entirely evade compliance with these structures or to avoid reproducing them in one’s own thinking and activist practices. Nevertheless, this insight should not result in political or activist paralysis but rather call for a sustained, reflexive engagement with activism as well as knowledge production that remains cautious of potential harm and limits. Challenging capitalist exploitation as well as epistemic violence therefore requires not only transformative action but also a thoughtful approach to representation, advocacy, and the selection of knowledge. Only through continuous critical reflection, accountability, and attentiveness to power dynamics can activism aspire to contribute to meaningful change without reinforcing the structures it seeks to dismantle.

References

Abdalla, A., D’Souza, N., Gill, R., Jadavji, R., & Meneguzzi, C. (2022). Social media as a stage: A behind-the-scenes analysis of performative activism, “cancel culture,” and effective allyship. [Journal/Publisher if known]. [Add DOI or URL if available]

Benslama-Dabdoub, M. (2024). Epistemic violence and colonial legacies in the representation of refugee women: Contesting narratives of vulnerability and victimhood. International Journal of Law in Context, 20(1), 54–73. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744552323000356

Boesten, J., & Henry, M. (2018). Between fatigue and silence: The challenges of conducting research on sexual violence in conflict. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 25(4), 568–588. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxy027

Giotis, C. (2019). More than a victim: Thinking through foreign correspondents’ representations of women in conflict. In R. Shackel & L. Fiske (Eds.), Rethinking transitional gender justice (pp. 97–117). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77890-7_6

Haraway, D. (1995). Situiertes Wissen. In Die Neuerfindung der Natur: Primaten, Cyborgs und Frauen (pp. 73–97). Frankfurt/Main; New York: Campus Verlag.

Lake, H., & Shockley, K. (2022). Colonialism in Africa: The impact on sexual and gender-based violence. FAU Undergraduate Research Journal, 11, Article. https://journals.flvc.org/faurj/article/view/132245/135909

Leicht, I. (2016). Wer findet Gehör? Kritische Reformulierungen des menschenrechtlichen Universalismus. Leverkusen-Opladen: Budrich. (Politik und Geschlecht, 29)

Matore, B., & Mbanje, T. (2025, March 7). The role of social media in awareness and desensitisation to violence. Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. https://www.chr.up.ac.za/opinion-pieces/3955-op-ed-the-role-of-social-media-in-awareness-and-desensitisation-to-violence

Mohanty, C. (1988). Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Feminist Review, 30(1), 61–88. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1988.42

Muñiz-Pivaral, M. (2022). Chance oder Hindernis? Die Behandlung von sexualisierter Gewalt im Krieg unter dem Paradigma sexualisierte Gewalt als Kriegswaffe. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/268164/1/forum-82.pdf

Murray, C. (2024, May 29). All eyes on Congo surges on social media: Here’s what to know. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/05/29/all-eyes-on-congo-surges-on-social-media-heres-what-to-know/

Saïd, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. Vintage Books. (Original work published 1978) https://monoskop.org/images/4/4e/Said_Edward_Orientalism_1979.pdf

Spivak, G. C. (2020). Can the subaltern speak? Postkolonialität und subalterne Artikulation (H. Steyerl & S. Joskowicz, Trans.). Turia + Kant. (Original work published 1988)

Thimsen, A. F. (2022). What is performative activism? Philosophy & Rhetoric, 55(1), 83–89. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.55.1.0083

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). (2011, June). Action against sexual and gender-based violence: An updated strategy. https://www.refworld.org/policy/strategy/unhcr/2011/en/78569

UN Women. (2025, February 4). Press briefing by UN Women on the situation of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-briefing/2025/02/press-briefing-by-un-women-on-the-situation-of-women-and-girls-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo

Willuweit, F. (2020, July 13). De-constructing the “white saviour syndrome”: A manifestation of neo-imperialism. [Add journal or publisher if available]

Zappetti Sullivan, O. (n.d.). What can Edward Said’s Orientalism teach us about community-based research? Noise Project. https://noiseproject.org/what-can-edward-saids-orientalism-teach-us-about-community-based-research/