#METOO : A critical discourse analysis about the discussion of the #metoo-movement

This essay aims to examine how the #metoo-­‐movement is described in ten selected debate articles in the Swedish media written between October 17th and December 27th in 2017 using a critical discourse analysis. The purpose of the essay is to look at how the debate articles articulates that women choose to break the silence of sexual harassments and abuse through the #metoo-­‐movement, and to what extent the debate reflect and challenges the current social practice in relation to gender. The critical discourse analysis aims to clarify the participation of the text in maintaining society’s current social practice, because the discourse both reproduces and changes knowledge, power relations and identities. The current social practice is explained in this essay based on gender theory. The result showed that the debate articles overall reflects the prevailing social practice and the gender hierarchy by in the text questioning women's stories and blaming her for being responsible for the sexual harassments in the #metoo-­‐movement. The results also show that there is a linguistic discourse that, to a certain extent, challenges the prevailing power structures in the society. This discourse appears in several articles that describe the movement positively and see its potential to contribute to change. Furthermore, this essay reflects over the #metoo-­‐movement in relation to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which leads to the conclusion that the movement points to the need for more actions from the Swedish government to enable Sweden to fulfill its commitments to the convention