What Girls Want: A Podcast

Episode 22 - Technology facilitated gender-based violence: an evolving pandemic

ATHENA Network

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0:00 | 1:17:02

On this episode we spoke to Baleseng Maeneche from South Africa! 

We reflected on and unpacked:

  • What is technology based GBV and the different ways it manifests 
  • How gender-based violence and stereotypes manifest in media representations?
  • The politics of genocide, violence and erasure 
  • How technology facilitated gender-based violence contributes to gendered inequalities 
  • The disproportionate violence adolescent girls, young women and young gender-diverse people face online
  • Creating social media platforms and mechanisms that can prevent and reduce online gender-based violence
  • Safeguarding tips we can adopt to protected ourselves online


Baleseng is a PhD student in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape. Her research interests encompass feminist media studies and decolonial perspectives, with a strong commitment to advancing gender equality and social justice. She is also a graduate lecturing assistant and researcher on the multinational, EU-funded RE-Wiring Representations project within WGS. When she isn’t tackling the mammoth task of writing a PhD thesis you’ll find her dancing, getting lost in her favourite series or on her yoga mat.