Romani feminist struggle, intersectional struggle: Fighting against Antigypsyism on social media in Spain

Abstract

This article aims to gain insight in how Antigypsyism in Spain is currently confronted by romani women, specifically through their discourses on social media. Through the identification and qualitative analysis of online spaces and tools appropriated by romani feminism in Spain, mainly Facebook and Twitter, we analyze the main issues and strategies that articulate both feminist struggle and the struggle against Antigypsyism. The selected sample consisted of 459 publications from six Facebook pages and six Twitter accounts over a period of seven months (September 2019 - April 2020). The results reveal, on the one hand, the main issues around which romani feminism articulates its struggles and, on the other, the different strategies it uses to confront white (payo) feminism with its racial biases: awareness raising about Antigypsyism, calls for action and the construction of networks and alliances. We found that Facebook is mainly used to communicate with the romani community, while on Twitter activists rather address payo feminism. In addition, we highlight the existence of two complementary profiles in the performance of these women on social media: the 'romani feminist' and the 'feminist romani', who emphasize the gender dimension and the ethnic dimension respectively, without ignoring the other axes of inequality. In the period analyzed, a large number of publications related to the global feminist struggle (International Women’s Day etc…), but also other issues were raised such as maternity, obstetric violence and reproductive rights of women, the role of the media and, as of March 2020, outbreaks of Antigypsyism as a result of the Coronavirus-related health crisis. This article seeks to contribute to the debates on Antigypsyism in Spain by making visible romani women’s struggle with a intersectional feminist perspective.