The Unprecedented Social Response to the Emergence of Femtwits in Thailand’s Waves of Pro-democratic Movement

Abstract

. The paper aims to explore the digital prospects of feminist voices in the contemporary pro-democratic movement in Thailand. Since 2020, the unprecedented movement, led mainly by the youth, demanded for the reformation of the junta government and monarchy. The young crowd in this wave of protests used online space for several progressive agendas along with their expressions of political discontent. Thai feminists took the opportunity to demand equal gender rights including, the amendment of the abortion law, same-sex marriage, and the end of sexual harassment across Thai institutions. Although gender equality seemingly aligned with the movement's progressive nature, many pro-democratic protestors challenged the feminists and their objectives. By examining the online textual data through Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA), this paper analyses the online feminist movement in Thailand and its relationship to pro-democracy initiative. As the social network sites (SNS) provides the opportunity for Thai feminists to effectively share their own experience through authenticity and perceived relatability, the term 'femtwit' was immediately constructed to delegitimise the current online feminist movement. This paper collects data from Twitter and Facebook to reveal the prospects and challenges of the feminist movement in this crucial period of Thailand's political and social transition.