Claiming Digital Public Sphere:  The Power of Complaints as Feminist Resistance

  • 12/07/2024
  • Category: Commentaries
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Author: Ayom Mratita Purbandani
Editor: Rizka Khairunissa

The labels of “being angry” and “loud” have long been attached to feminists. This label has become increasingly established with the growth of digitalization, which has seen feminist communication channels that were initially on the periphery, become more prominent in the public sphere. Due to the existence of digital media, complaining about injustice becomes a mushroom-like activity. Nevertheless, some argue that complaining is a form of inability to convey ideas without emotion and is not a strategy for creating social transformation. As part of this accusation, the assertion is made that calm rationality is the best option when interacting in the digital public sphere.

This accusation can be traced as far back as the discussion on the separation of the public and private spheres. Sphere has been one of the main loci for feminist writings and political struggles for about two centuries.1 For feminists, the separation between public and private is an issue on multiple scales. It determines who has the right to appear in the public sphere and who does not. This separation actually perpetuates gender hierarchy by placing the public and private spheres in turns.

The assumption of a rigid separation that prioritizes rationality puts anything that has emotive value in the private sphere. Therefore, this separation of public and private needs to be challenged by elucidating the complaint itself. By targeting Habermas’ concept of the public sphere, on which the digital public sphere is based, I am challenging the separation of the public and private spheres. The explication of the complaint is aimed at penetrating the boundaries of the public and private spheres. The aim is to amplify issues that have been silenced through the category of the private so that they are fit to be discussed in the public sphere.

The main criticism of the complaint targets Habermas’ monumental work, The Structural of Transformation of the Public Sphere which is committed to rehabilitating the enlightenment project, asserting that in a democratic society, individuals must engage in rational discourse and deliberation (public reason) to produce collective decisions. It was precisely at this point that the public sphere came to an impasse. Commitment to the virtue of rationality maintains the principle of universality and negates ‘difference’. Fraser mentions that ideal critical rational discourse can be a barrier for marginalized groups, such as women, gender minorities, people of color, and others to be able to discuss their experiences.2 Experiences that are laden with emotion and speak of personal issues are then considered not rational enough to be discussed. It relates to what then fell into the categories of rational and irrational, leading to a denial of particularity.

The digitalization of the concept of the public sphere encourages attempts to rethink it as a contestable and contingent concept.  Public spheres are changing structurally in a way that provides opportunities for bi-directional communication.3 Complaints then emerge as a counter-normative social practice to dismantle the assumptions of the public sphere where rationality is embedded. Simply put, complaining refers to a response of displeasure or dissatisfaction with a condition.4 As an emotive and affective response, complaining is generally regarded as irrational or excessive. Assumptions like these suppress and ignore the emotional underpinnings of complaints.

Sara Ahmed has shown that by interweaving testimony and theory, complaining as a feminist pedagogy is possible. Although Sara Ahmed’s critique of the institutional, I argue that complaining can also apply to the digital public sphere. Complaints offer a way of looking at spaces that are produced from time to time. This understanding provides a consideration of how the public sphere can be changed and interrupted in a single breath.

Political Emotions

Complaints emphasize the recognition of emotions as a valid form of expression in the digital public sphere. This links to Martha Nussbaum’s critique of affective silencing in the public sphere. She points out that the inability to develop the emotive capacity to deliberate meaningfully is a structural problem that short-circuits rational interaction.5 This issue has always misled the concept of public sphere and rendered it a concept that is always incomplete. Despite attempts to refine rationality, things categorized as ‘irrational’ always attach to discourse which must be dealt with.

The continuation of complaints in the public sphere allows emotions to no longer be viewed as irrational or disruptive, but as a source of emancipatory motivation. Political emotion then becomes a motivation to challenge the status quo and voice injustice. As a result of the convergence of political emotions, a more complex and participative digital public sphere emerges.

Complaint as Resistance

Complaints are an attempt to ensure women’s visibility in the digital public sphere and negotiate the public sphere. By actively engaging emotions, what complaining actually seeks is to open up access to engage in the everyday politics, which includes realities from diverse contexts. Complaints bring marginalized experiences and issues to the surface. This is exemplified through the use of social media to post calls and protests, respond to criticism and opposing viewpoints, and talk about their experiences with gender inequality and sexual harassment.

What is deemed appropriate in the digital public sphere is a matter of structure. The excluding of women from the public sphere is done by categorizing emotive issues as private and irrational. Complaints are here to redress this. Contrary to the normative definition of complaining, Ahmed shows that the attempt is made by explicitizing complaining as collective work. Complaints become a driver of solidarity for those with shared grievances and experiences. We may have a sense of collective complaining as a way to help one another, as a result of our collective experiences.

Using Twitter as an example, a user shared a fearful report of harassing behavior she experienced in the workplace.

Source i: @workfess on Twitter6

The tweet is quoted with similar complaining phrases as the  as shown by another tweet below. Complaints through institutional mechanisms are designed to segregate and reduce them to a solitary process.7

Source ii: @workfess on Twitter8

Therefore, complaining in digital public spheres as shown above is an attempt to combine resources and energy as is the case in the replies to the tweets. Complaints thus become women-led initiatives to articulate ideas and build networks.


Source iIi: @workfess on Twitter9

In the lecture ‘Complaint as Feminist Pedagogy’, a collaborative program of Bulegoa z/b and Sociología Ordinaria, Ahmed states that “to be a complainer is also to be an attraction for [other] complainers; to invite and receive complaints”.10 This reciprocal relationship is a matter of listening to and amplifying complaints. Every complaint is listened to, pondered, felt, and shared. Digital complaints remind us that in the various tactics of women, there is courage and political stance that needs to be acknowledged.

Normative constructions underlie complaints, and they move beyond established public/private boundaries. Complaints’ attempt to account for particularities that are often silenced as ‘private’ is an attempt to value experiences. Complaints highlight the uniqueness and intricacies of experience that help to understand that women embody multiple and layered identities. As Patricia Hill Collins points out, the public/private category holds an Erocentric bias because it assumes universality and normalcy.11 In negotiating a more participatory concept of digital public space, the rigid boundaries of public/private need to be diluted through complaining as a tactic.

Explicitly complaining is one of the tactics pursued by women in the digital public sphere. It is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for negotiating public spheres. To move beyond stereotyping means recognizing diversity and flexibility in strategies to negotiate public space, instead of siding with a universal discourse.

  1. Pateman, C. (1989) “Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy”, in: The Disorder of Women. Democracy, Feminism and Political Theory, Cambridge (Polity Press) ↩︎
  2. Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text, 25/26, 56. https://doi.org/10.2307/466240 ↩︎
  3. Ibid 11; For a discussion of bi-directional communication. See Seeliger, M., & Sevignani, S. (2022). A new structural transformation of the public sphere? an introduction. Theory, Culture & Society, 39(4), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764221109439 ↩︎
  4. Ahmed, S. (2021). Complaint! Duke University Press. ↩︎
  5. Nussbaum, M. (2014). Political emotions: why love matters for justice. Choice Reviews Online, 51(10), 51–5842. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.51-5842 ↩︎
  6. The translation for this tweet is as follows: “I promise this is the last time I’ll send this, but let me tell you just this once to ease my mind. ‘I stayed at this job because I was afraid of being unemployed again. The process of finding a job was so difficult that I finally got a job here. I’m afraid if I complain to the HRD they won’t believe me, especially since the HRD is a man. So I’ve always harbored my senior’s treatment to me, which has gotten worse over time. Even though I have protested him, but he hasn’t changed. One time I wanted to go home early, then he said “what’s the rush”, I just smiled and didn’t answer. He actually tickled my waist because I didn’t answer his question. These kinds of things scare me, he often makes physical contact on the sensitive parts of my body.’” ↩︎
  7. Ibid 87. ↩︎
  8. The translation for this tweet is as follows: “The boss invited me to go out alone with him today. He wouldn’t do anything to me, but I’m afraid of something like this happening.” ↩︎
  9. The translation for this tweet is as follows: “Try reporting to HR first. If your boss treats you like that again, just scold him, reject it strong.” “Punch once to cause a scene. If you have everyone’s attention, then tell them everything, so your office mates can see what you’re up to.” “In the end, the decision is yours. From a man’s point of view, if he’s being scolded, he must be frightened. Because men must ask you to consent. From the beginning, just show that you don’t like it.” “I have experienced the same problem when passing through his (my boss’) room, always being stopped and interrogated and invited to shake hands for a few minutes. Whenever I took attendance, I was approached and poked, but I thought it was still a joke.” ↩︎
  10. For the argument of being a complainer. See Ahmed S. (2021). ‘Complaint as Feminist Pedagogy’. https://bulegoa.org/en/pos-6-sara-ahmed-complaint-as-feminist-pedagogy/ ↩︎
  11. Collins, P. H. (1991): “Work, family, and black women’s oppression”, in: Black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, New York/London (Routledge) ↩︎