Journal of Discourse Review
Open Access Humanitarian scholarship
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Open Access Humanitarian scholarship
Time to first decision
Volume: 1 Issue: 2
Year: 2025, Page: 169-178,
Received: June 15, 2025 Accepted: June 23, 2025 Published: July 22, 2025
In the era of pervasive digital technologies, surveillance has evolved into a distributed, algorithmically driven force. This paper argues that datafication, the conversion of human lives into quantifiable digital data, manifests in deeply gendered forms of surveillance and control within the digital public sphere. Drawing on Zuboff’s (2019) “surveillance capitalism” and Benjamin’s (2019) “New Jim Code,” this study critically examines how algorithmic systems not only perpetuate but intensify existing patriarchal and intersectional oppressions. Through a feminist lens, it investigates how women's digital bodies are surveilled, commodified, and policed, restricting autonomy and reinforcing normative control, particularly amidst caste, religious, and class inequalities in India. Empirical evidence like UN Women (2020) and Freedom House (2024) reports highlight these vulnerabilities. Utilizing discourse analysis, the paper interrogates the power embedded in digital architectures, contending that the digital public sphere, far from democratizing, is stratified and exclusionary, echoing Fraser’s (1990) critique. This study contributes to critical feminist digital studies, advocating for digital justice rooted in care and consent, and calls for gender-responsive digital governance.
Keywords: Gendered Surveillance, Datafication, Digital Public Sphere, Algorithmic Bias, Feminist Digital Justice, Technology-Facilitated Violence.
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© 2025 JDR Academic Trust. This is an open-access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Imam, M., Manimekalai, N., & Suba, S. (2025). Surveilled Selves: Gendered Datafication and the Discourse of Control in the Digital Public Sphere. Journal of Discourse Review, 1(2), 169-178.