ABSTRACT
This paper provides a theoretical critical analysis of the online discursive representations of women claiming public spaces across India through the #whyloiter hashtag campaign in December 2014, protesting "rape culture" following the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder. Using feminist media theory and the theory of digital social movements—cyberfeminist protest in particular—the chapter examines the strides and limitations of online and offline repertoires of the #whyloiter campaign. Comparing the #whyloiter campaign with earlier hashtag activism in India such as the #SlutWalk and #BlankNoise campaigns, the chapter examines the political choice of this campaign to foreground pleasure in public space as a carnival of protest. Feminist scholars have envisioned cyberspace as a natural location for technofeminism or cyberfeminism, a space for feminist community and a network in which women may seek both pleasure and political organization. Wilding uses the metaphor of cyberfeminism as "a browser through which to see life".
