Work

Coping with mundane (cyber-)violence: FLINTA* youth's strategies in the resurgent patriarchy

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Recent research has shown that the permeation of everyday life by intimate digital technologies has significantly expanded spatial reach and contributed to the (re)production and normalisation of violence across entangled online and offline spaces. Yet, how do affected populations navigate these conditions and what does that tell us about the nature of geographies of mundane (cyber-)violence? Situated at the intersection of digital, feminist, and young people's geographies, this article examines the strategies used by FLINTA* ( f emale, l esbian, i ntersex, n on-binary, t rans, a gender) youth in Austria and Germany to endure, adapt to, and rework violence and discrimination within their entangled online and offline spaces. Drawing on a qualitative multi-method study involving FLINTA* youth, we identify their spatial strategies in response to heteronormative discourses, persistent traditional gender norms, and stereotypes that shape relations of power and violence. Findings highlight micro forms of individual and collective empowerment, but also uncover how re-strengthened norms of femininity, masculinity, and heteronormativity in the resurgent patriarchy continually reproduce and normalise violence. Youth coping and reworking efforts thereby meander between progress and setback, empowerment and boundary, requiring constant weighing and adjustment. They are essentially spatial strategies, exposing the complex interrelations between space, gender, and violence stretched across entangled socio-material-digital spheres. Overall, the article contributes to the conceptualisation of digital geographies of mundane violence from an intersectional feminist perspective, foregrounding how FLINTA* youth live, feel, and negotiate the contradictions of power and possibility in their everyday spaces.

Source: Digital Geography and Society

DOI: 10.1016/j.diggeo.2025.100155

Authors: Tabea Bork-Hüffer, Lea Lübbert, Belinda Mahlknecht

Institutions: Heidelberg University, Universität Innsbruck

Language: English

Topic: Gender, Feminism, and Media

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,500