"How are We Supposed to Respond to This?" by Julia Dolfo De Castro
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Abstract

This paper attempts to demonstrate how the Me Too movement is crucial in social transformation precisely because it demands a rethinking of current normativities, such as those surrounding gender and sexual norms, power relations, and culture. Through Nikolas Kompridis’s “reflective disclosure,” this paper argues that the Me Too movement as a critique employs a stance of receptivity to reinvigorate its critical perspectives and fuel its political commitments to freedom and transformation. This paper aims to accomplish two things: (1) to tackle the “burden” of hearers/listeners of “me too” to respond; (2) to introduce the possibilities of receptivity in social transformation in the Global South. To achieve these two aims, this paper shall have four discussions: In section 2, this paper situates the Me Too movement in the Global South, presenting it as a persistent challenge in the region that demands response. Section 3 discusses Kompridis’s notion of receptivity and introduces it as a new approach to social transformation, one that is better suited to help navigate the textures and tensions embedded in social relations. Section 4 discusses the value of receptivity in social transformations, unpacking recognition and freedom in receptivity—both of which are often the objectives of any social movement. Section 5 discusses the Me Too movement and presents it as an example of a critique that employs receptivity to fuel its commitments to social transformation.

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