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Sexuality and Gender Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Sexuality and Gender Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Dec 2, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Sexuality and Gender Division (SGD)

Digital spaces have become the new frontier of misogyny — a “wild west” where women, girls and gender-diverse people face cyberstalking, image-based abuse, deepfakes, hate speech, coercive control and algorithmically amplified harassment.

The PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division reflects on how digital violence is part of a broader continuum of patriarchy, discrimination and gender-power dynamics. Drawing on global insights and African realities, this contribution examines how technology – far from neutral – can reinforce and accelerate inequality, while exposing already-marginalised groups to intensified harm.

The piece also outlines key actions we must take as psychologists, educators, policymakers and communities to address this evolving landscape of violence.

Read the full contribution to explore how digital violence is reshaping gendered harm — and what we must do to resist it.

PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division

Digital violence against women and girls, a new frontier in the “wild west” of misogyny.

When Laura Bates launched the “Everyday Sexism” Project in 2012, she started a quiet revolution.

She brought to our attention the link between casual, everyday forms of gender-based harassment (often experienced by women and girls in the streets of daily life) and the more serious manifestations of sexual and gender-based violence and femicide. Ideologically, they have the same origins, deeply rooted in longstanding gender-power structures: patriarchal control, objectification of women, and misogynistic violence.

Since then we have seen the rise of digital violence against women and girls (and sexual and gender minorities), still part of the same continuum of power-inflected animosity towards anyone and anything that disrupted heterosexual male entitlement.

This has manifested in phenomena which disproportionately affect women and girls; cyberstalking; the non-consensual sharing of intimate images; hate speech and harassment online to spread misogynistic, or abusive messages; misinformation and disinformation to damage a woman’s reputation or discredit her; coercive control (using technology, such as tracking devices or smart home devices, to monitor and control a person’s behaviour); and deepfakes (using technology to manipulate images or videos to create false and harmful content).

We also know that minorities across Africa experience digital harms. Speaking at a recent Cybersecurity and Digital Rights round table, Mansah Amoah noted that LGBTQI+ youth, migrants and individuals from rural or low-income contexts face heightened exposure to targeted harassment, disinformation, surveillance and exclusion. This is enabled by anonymity and algorithmic amplification which intensify hate speech and harassment.

In her new book, The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny, Bates argues that not only does technology not automatically liberate or equalise, it has the potential to reinforce, accelerate and embed patriarchal structures and a range of inequalities in ways that are often less visible.

It does this through Artificial Intelligence (AI) which amplifies sexism and misogyny by reproducing and magnifying biased data and social norms in self-learning systems whose inner workings and long-term effects we cannot fully trace or predict.
Because these technologies are often designed, funded and controlled by a narrow demographic (generally men, white, global‐north), says Bates, they reflect their priorities and blind-spots. There is a potential “wild-west” effect: the pace of technology innovation outstrips regulation, ethical oversight, social norms and protections.

The end result is a poorly regulated online world where women and girls (and minorities) aren’t just passive beneficiaries of technology, they are active targets and subjects of new forms of abuse, harassment and exploitation, with devastating social and psychological consequences.

Fixing this is not going to be easy, in a sense the battle has almost been lost. But we can do some of the following:

  • Interrogate who designs, who profits, whose bodies are used and whose safety is assumed in relation to online technologies, platforms and tools.
  • Pay attention to structural and systemic change in technology: algorithmic oversight and virtual space regulation is more powerful than only holding individuals to account.
  • Lobby for better (or better implementation of) laws on digital harms.
  • Adopt an intersectional view. Gender’s intersection with race, class, disability and global geography matters: those already marginalised may bear the brunt of technological inequalities in the form of facial-recognition bias, deepfake targeting and surveillance.
  • Expand our frameworks of sexual violence and gender harm to include these technologically mediated forms.
  • Conduct further research and scholarship in the area of digital violence against women, children and gender diverse people, so as to inform policy.
  • And, engage early and explicitly in our work as therapists, thinkers, educators and policy makers.

 

Mr Pierre Brouard – Sexuality and Gender Division (Additional Member)

World AIDS Day – 1 December 2025

World AIDS Day – 1 December 2025

by | Dec 1, 2025 | Health Psychology (HP), Mental Health Advocacy, Mental Health Calendar, Psychology in Public Service (PiPS)

World AIDS Day – 1 December 2025 

“Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response”

Today we honour the resilience of communities, practitioners, and health systems responding to HIV in the face of global funding cuts, service disruptions, and persistent inequities. As highlighted in contributions from our HPD and PiPS divisions, protecting the gains made in South Africa’s HIV response requires renewed commitment to both biomedical advances and psychosocial care.

We reflect on the continued psychological burden carried by people living with HIV, the impact of stigma and trauma, and the essential role of mental-health professionals in strengthening continuity of care, integrating mental-health screening, and championing trauma-informed, person-centred, and rights-based approaches.

This World AIDS Day, we stand with communities, researchers, and health workers who persist with dedication, empathy, and hope.

Read the PiPS and HPD contributions below:

 

Psychology in Public Service (PiPS) Division – Overcoming Disruption and Transforming the AIDS Response

On the first of December, we commemorate World AIDS Day, and this year in 2025, we actively reflect. Reflect on how we as communities, practitioners and even healthcare systems have adapted and continue to adapt and innovate, in the face of adversity and disruption. Our response to the HIV epidemic, has been one of the most ambitious in the world. However, this is not to say that it hasn’t been without challenges. This year the focus is on a renewed effort and sustainable commitments to revitalising not only our biomedical responses but also psychosocial interventions.

As psychologists working within the public service, we are reminded and attempt to remind all, that HIV is both a medical and mental health condition. Disruptions to care, amplify the psychological vulnerabilities of an already vulnerable group. Sadly, stigma remains a challenge faced all too often, while heightened anxiety, depression and trauma exposure are common.

Yet when faced with these challenges we as South Africans have found opportunities for transformation. We as mental-health professionals have the ability to shape a response, that is more dynamic, person-centred, equitable and resilient. However, this does mean that we are going to have to strengthen continuity of care, by integrating mental-health screening and brief interventions into HIV services. While actively addressing stigma and discrimination, including internalised stigma. Which impacts on adherence and wellbeing. We have to champion trauma-informed care, which can only take place effectively in the context of interdisciplinary collaboration. Leading to advancements in treatment literacy, community empowerment, and hopefully advances in prevention. While of course, looking after ourselves and colleagues, who face the reality of burnout, moral distress and secondary trauma.

In marking World AIDS Day, PiPS would like to acknowledge the continued psychological burden carried by people living with HIV, as well as their families, and the teams who treat and support them. We wish to pay tribute to the resilience of communities that continue to advocate for, organise and provide care for, in the face of adversity.

Overcoming disruption isn’t just possible, rather it’s been continuously underway in every interaction when practitioners engage with empathy, expertise and the facilitation of hope.

Health Psychology Division (HPD) – World AIDS Day

Today we commemorate World AIDS Day under the theme: “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response.”

We highlight a global funding crisis that is threatening decades of progress on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. This disruption is disproportionately affecting marginalized communities and leaving them behind. Despite these global setbacks, community-led organisations, researchers, and health workers continue to defend vital gains and push for a stronger, more equitable HIV/AIDS response.

Here in South Africa, researchers continue to produce vital evidence that guides policy and strengthens services for communities affected by HIV:

  • Securing our HIV response: The PEPFAR crisis in South Africa.
  • Structural determinants of HIV inequities in South Africa: Policy analysis of the national strategic plan for HIV 2023–2028.

Ending AIDS is possible. But only if we protect communities, fund the response, and uphold human rights.

AJOPA (African Journal of Psychological Assessment) accepted for inclusion in Scopus

AJOPA (African Journal of Psychological Assessment) accepted for inclusion in Scopus

by | Nov 28, 2025 | AJOPA, Events and Announcements

African Journal of Psychological Assessment accepted for inclusion in Scopus

The open-access ‘African Journal of Psychological Assessment’ (AJOPA), established in 2019, has achieved an exciting milestone with its inclusion in Scopus, one of the world’s leading abstract and citation databases. View the journal’s Scopus entry here: https://ow.ly/7Wsu50XqWGq

This development underscores the journal’s commitment to advancing high-quality research in psychometrics and testing relevant to Africa.

Journal affiliation: PsySSA
Journal website: https://ow.ly/cvjC50XqWGs

Click Here To View The Journal
Click Here To Read More About AJOPA's Scopus Inclusion
PsyCast: From the President’s Desk – Prof Jace Pillay – 2025: Episode 1

PsyCast: From the President’s Desk – Prof Jace Pillay – 2025: Episode 1

by | Nov 27, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Featured Content, PsyCAST

From the

President’s Desk

Prof Jace Pillay

2025: Episode 1

Episode 1

by Prof. Jace Pillay | From the President's Desk

In his first episode as PsySSA President, Prof Jace Pillay opens the 2025 From the President’s Desk series with a powerful reflection on the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. Prof Pillay speaks to the widespread psychological impact of gender-based violence, the urgent need for systemic change, and the essential role of psychology in advancing safety, healing and justice in South Africa.

Tune in to hear his vision, insights and call to action as we begin this year’s campaign and continue the work toward a society free from violence.

Sexuality and Gender Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Decolonising Psychology Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Nov 26, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Decolonising Psychology (DP)

PsySSA Decolonising Division (DPD)

She sat on the clinic chair with her shoulders folded inward, as if trying to shrink from the world that had suddenly become too loud, too cruel, too invasive. “I didn’t think it would follow me home,” she whispered. “But it’s on Facebook… on TikTok… even my little cousin saw it.”

She is nineteen. Her story is one I have heard too many times in different variations the trusting conversation, the shared photo, the quiet belief that intimacy will remain intimate. But in a matter of hours, her private world became public property. Her images were stolen, edited, mocked, and circulated by strangers who would never know her name yet felt entitled to her body, her dignity, and her pain.

There were no bruises to show the nurses. There was no fracture in the X-ray machine. But her world had collapsed. Her mother said she barely left her room. She said she barely slept. She said she no longer recognised her daughter’s voice.

This is the new face of violence in South Africa: silent, borderless, and devastating.

Our country has long been haunted by the shadow of gender-based violence. Statistics South Africa (2024) confirms that one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence, a number that reflects only those who managed to speak. But the terrain has shifted. Violence now slips into digital spaces, where the assault is repeated every time someone views, shares, downloads, or laughs. In this new frontier, harm does not end when the perpetrator walks away; it lingers, replayed endlessly in the survivor’s mind.

Amnesty International (2023) notes that nearly 40% of South African women have experienced online harassment. Behind that number are real lives: the Grade 12 learner bullied by classmates after her private messages were leaked; the young professional whose career stalled when intimate images were weaponised against her; the village girl whose family shamed her instead of supporting her. Digital violence strips away safety, identity, and belonging and the psychological wounds are often deeper than what we see in therapy rooms.

As psychologists, we need to recognise that digital violence is not about technology alone. It is born from old patterns of power, gendered, cultural, and historical that have simply moved into modern spaces. A decolonial perspective reminds us that Black women, especially, carry layered vulnerabilities. Their bodies have long been sites of exploitation and scrutiny, and the digital world merely amplifies those inherited injustices.

Responding to this requires more than therapy. It requires compassion, community, and the courage to confront the systems that enable this harm. It demands that we listen without judgment, validate without hesitation, and support without condition.
To every woman and girl who has endured this unseen assault: your pain is real. Your fear is understood. Your story matters.

And to all of us, families, educators, colleagues, partners may these days urge us not into slogans, but into empathy. We urge you to stand firm for dignity, for justice, and for a digital world where freedom does not come at the cost of one’s humanity.
Let us create homes, schools, workplaces, and digital spaces where a woman’s dignity is not negotiable, where her voice is safe, and where her existence does not come with a cost.

Because violence may evolve, but so must our humanity.

Sexuality and Gender Division – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

PsySSA Stands in Solidarity with 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

by | Nov 25, 2025 | 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence

PsySSA Stands in Solidarity with 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Today marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (25 November – 10 December).

This year, we open the campaign with the global call to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls — a reminder that violence does not only occur in physical spaces. Online harassment, cyberstalking, non-consensual sharing of images, digital threats, misinformation and targeted abuse cause real psychological harm, deepen systemic inequalities, and silence the voices of women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people.

In South Africa, where gender-based violence and femicide remain widespread, the digital world has become an extension of these patterns of harm. Online violence reinforces stigma, retraumatises survivors, and limits participation in social, academic and economic life — especially for young women and marginalised communities. Ending digital violence is therefore an essential part of building a safer, more just society both offline and online.

Just days ago, the Women’s Shutdown on 21 November highlighted the national urgency of confronting all forms of GBV. That collective action reminded us that the fight against violence — whether physical, structural or digital — requires solidarity, accountability and sustained commitment.

As the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), we recognise the deep psychological impacts of digital violence and the ways it intersects with trauma, identity, power and social exclusion. Our discipline plays a crucial role in supporting survivors, promoting safe digital environments, advocating for rights-based policies, and helping communities build resilience and digital literacy. We remain committed to advancing ethical, trauma-informed practice that places human dignity at the centre.

Over the next 16 days, PsySSA will share daily contributions from our Divisions — offering insights, tools and reflections that support the national and global call to end gender-based violence in all its forms.

Online and offline, every person deserves safety, respect and the freedom to speak without fear.
The work continues — today, and every day.