Shame must change sides: Affective media practices and the Mazan rape cases on TikTok

The rise of digital platforms has transformed feminist activism, reshaping how sexualized violence is discussed, witnessed, and countered. This paper examines responses to the Mazan rape cases on TikTok, centering on survivor Gisèle Pelicot’s statement: “Shame must change sides.” Using 8229 TikTok posts for descriptive analysis and 280 for qualitative analysis, we investigate how affective media practices emerge, what forms they take, and how shame is negotiated. We identify five key practices: (1) Feminist education explains the case to others, situating it within its broader socio-political context and ranging affectively from unemotional explanation to cynical outrage; (2) Affective witnessing manifests through publicly sharing emotions like disbelief and fear, reinforcing collective affectedness; (3) Iconization frames Pelicot as a feminist heroine, shifting discourse from shame to pride; (4) Shaming contests perpetrators’ social impunity, aligning with Pelicot’s call to shift shame onto them; (5) Feminist cross-referencing links the case to broader struggles, reinforcing feminist networks of solidarity. Our analysis highlights shame’s role in public discourse and how TikTok serves as both a site of affective contestation and a vehicle for networked feminism, shaping (partly ambivalent) affective media practices that engage with rape culture within a dynamic, algorithmically structured, and ephemeral platform environment.