FEMglocal publishes open-access article on the media representation of the SlutWalk in Portugal

The article “‘No means no’: The news coverage of the SlutWalk in Portugal” was published on June 30 in open access in the journal Observatorio (OBS*). Authored by Carla Cerqueira (Principal Investigator), Célia Taborda (Co-Principal Investigator), Ana Sofia Pereira (Postdoctoral Fellow), and Inês Rua (Doctoral Fellow), the article stems from research developed within the framework of the project FEMglocal – Glocal feminist movements: interactions and contradictions, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through national funds (PTDC/COM-CSS/4049/2021 / DOI 10.54499/PTDC/COM-CSS/4049/2021).

The study analyses how the SlutWalk – locally known as Marcha das Galdérias – was portrayed in Portuguese national media between 2011 and 2021. Anchored in the movement’s global impact and transnational reach, the article examines the extent of its visibility, the feminist agendas it mobilized (or failed to), and the local specificities that emerged through journalistic coverage.

Based on a thematic analysis of 43 news pieces published between June 2011 and September 2021, collected from six national newspapers and one magazine with the largest paid digital circulation in Portugal, three main themes were identified: “Rape culture”; “Judicial (in)justice”; and “Feminism is for everyone?”.

This contribution offers a critical perspective on the interplay between media narratives and feminist activism in Portugal, enriching the ongoing efforts to map and understand contemporary feminist movements from a glocal standpoint.

The full article is available in open access at: https://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/article/view/2566.

Image courtesy of the team.