Sybil

[beingcee]

Final Project

Works Cited

Zoe R. (2016). "How Social Media Has Shaped My Feminist Identity." the F bomb.

Cam Girls - Sean Dunne

[beingcee]

Cyberfeminism IS the Future.

Cyberfeminism has started a digital discussion – it has made it easier for women to fight for our rights globally. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult the feminist movement must’ve been when it first started. The internet has created space for Feminists to educate more people on what we are fighting for and why. Although there are also fake “E-feminists” that sometimes pass around false information just so it’ll come off like they are woke while they aren’t very educated on the matter. However, not only does this movement fight for our rights as women, it also finds a way to be intersectional by accepting and acknowledging our differences and finding ways to fight for these inequalities based on our differences.

“The truth is that in order to build a mass movement that will uproot oppression, we are going to need everyone.” (Kaba & Smith, 2014) We need to try and understand feminist action and activism as something that women created for ourselves so our voices would be heart. In the information age, it is a bit easier to focus on the importance of this activism because people are more open minded and willing to learn about issues that are going on around them and this movement makes it easier.

“Our genealogies of feminism itself are also important precisely because they are not an investment in linearity – in going backwards to go forwards – but rather in ways of recognizing the complex, contested process of iteration and transformation.” We must recognize the changes that have taken place and the things we have achieved because it’ll further motivate us. I’m glad that something as well organized as the Women’s March was done in my time because it shows progression especially due to the fact that it was planned online and yet it was carried out globally.

The discussion must continue and now we have Blog posts, Twitter threads, YouTube videos, etc. to educate more people in this digital age.

 Kaba, M. and Smith, A. (2014). “Interlopers on Social Media: Feminism, Women of Color and Oppression.” Truth-Out.org

Kember, Sarah. 2012. "Notes Towards a Feminist Futurist Manifesto." Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology 1

[magicalcandylandfairy-blog]

Digital Labor Exploitation

WK 13 

https://youtu.be/cmSbXsFE3l8

https://youtu.be/bdnyEOljsUY

For this post I want to use the example of the Cups Song, we’ve all heard it or saw the movie that made it famous. We often believe that it was a creation for that movie or by the performer, Anna Kendrick without knowing that it was first performed on YouTube, by Lulu and The Lampshades. Although The Lulu and The Lampshades are not the original writers of the song they were the first to perform it with the cups and make the video viral. This is an example of using digital labor for exploitation. Martens, Marianne Convergence: The international Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. (p. 50 ) the line between readers and writers is blurred, and users’ affective labor results in user-generated content ripe for exploitation by publishers based on their end-user license agreements. Much like in the reading many companies or performers will seek out platforms such as YouTube or Instagram to find inspiration, but often take credit for others labor. The article speaks about allowing the input of fans for the creation or book series, but how do we separate interaction from actual participation in the creation process of original content?

        Clearly digital economies empower and create an outlet for artist and talent recruiters to connect. Often this can be an incredibly productive affect. However the labor exploitation is more than obvious.

 I don’t see a way to 100% control the act of exploitation in the digital world. But, I do think it a difficult lie to get away with since most content can not be deleted once it has been uploaded. This helps hold companies or fraudulent individuals accountable.I do think these digital economies have created a more equal playing field for all people no matter the gender. The have created a positive affect on the line of difference between gender or age. We have seen a great example of this in the past week when Pepsi released it stereotypical and offensive commercial. Digital economies quickly communicated and spoke out about the insult this posed. Activists were quick to make commentary and caused Pepsi to remove the Add as well as issue an apologie.In this case the digital economy experienced a positive affect.

[beingcee]

I like how you mentioned the cup song; I initially heard it from Lulu and the Lampshades before Anna Kendrick made it bigger through Pitch Perfect. This was a challenge also and through the power of the internet, it successfully made it to the big screen. Like you mentioned, many companies do take credit for successful trends that were started online and they hardly talk a little about where it originated from. Just like most things in the media, the hierarchy is a bit messed up; individuals who create content are usually looked down on while bigger media outlets steal their ideas. Another example would be the concept of Vine – this app brought about a lot of trends and I will be focusing on Kayla Newman aka Peaches Monroe who was the person that created the slang “on fleek”. A lot of singers and other well-known people have featured it in their content but she hasn’t made a dime for it. Yes, it is more difficult to control exploitation in the digital world but this is because we hardly talk about it.

[beingcee]

Cam Girlz

I found the film “Cam Girlz” to be very interesting and insightful. Most of the time, when people seek pleasure online, we focus on our pleasure rather than those pleasuring us. It was great to see how being a Cam Girl made all of these women feel free and confident about their bodies, their sexuality and their self as a whole. The internet has provided so many jobs and financial opportunities for people; the women talked about how this was their source of income. One of them stated that she wanted a job where she wouldn’t be restricted because of her tattoos and the color of her hair. For those who laud amateur pornography, the process of making homemade porn can represent a valuable opportunity for sexual self-expression (Ruberg, 2016). Another girl talked about her and her husband could survive solely based on the amount of money that she was bringing in – she also stated that she was making nearly as much as her husband who had a full-time job.  

For some of these women, being a Cam girl is a way for them to cope and for others, it is a source of happiness. One of the women recently lost her husband and doing this was one of the ways that she was learning to cope. Another woman’s boyfriend broke up with her because she added a bit of weight and yet when she started being a cam girl, it led her to love her body more and her viewers loved her that way.

When we talk about affect online, we can see that some of the viewers were also included in the video – one of the guys included talked about how watching the girls made him happy because he enjoyed seeing them comfortable in their sexualities. The other guy mentioned that they allowed him to be himself.

This video taught me that self-love can result in a lot of things (including making a bit of money) and when people see that you are confident and you love yourself, they in turn will do the same.

[dicksplit]

[x]

[theycallmethechosenone]

https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePrinceSane/videosThis week, in looking at trans vloggers, I decided to start with Laura Horak’s article on trans visibility through YouTube. I knew that I wanted to talk about Stef Sanjati who is a trans youtuber that I follow on and off. She has been documenting her transition via YouTube and Instagram and has recently gone through facial feminization surgery. Stef Sanjati doesn’t regularly post about her transition, rather she vlogs/documents it in chunks and her other content consists of beauty tutorials, activism, and even some gaming videos. I wanted to talk about Stef because I didn’t realize how powerful her format was until reading Horak’s essay.

Stef Sanjati employs a video format that Horak calls a “talking head,” basically Sanjati talks to the camera in an interview type format where only her head and shoulders are visible. I hadn’t thought much to this format until Horak point out the political weight that this shot composition has. Horak claims that the talking head has been traditionally used to “convey authoritative information from “experts” (usually white, cisgendered men)” and has also been utilized by activists to “grant expertise” (574). With that information I realize the impact that other trans vloggers who employ such a simple shot composition have on their audience. By simply framing their vlogs in an authoritative way, trans vloggers are influencing their audiences with a conditioned response of expertise. Therefore their personal testimonies, activist information, and whatever other information they wish to give their audiences are understood to be coming from a person who is knowledgeable on the subject.

This simple format for disseminating information, I believe, not only supports cyberfeminism but also gives it credibility. Cyberfeminism through YouTube can be understood by audiences as not only real experiences of trans individuals, but information on transitioning and trans (or other issues) related activism as truthful and helpful. I had no idea how a simple framing of a shot could shift how an audience interprets the message.

Here’s a link to Stef Sanjati’s channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePrinceSane/videos

[beingcee]

I really love this gif, I feel like this is the honest truth about what trans people have to face in today’s society. They are continuously sexualized and at the same time, they are seen as different and abnormal. I agree with you, YouTube has definitely created a space where Trans people can talk about their experiences, teach the society and also create a community to make other trans people comfortable enough to talk about who they are as individuals. Seeing that these experiences are real, it makes it easier for other people to seek comfort in whoever they are watching. I absolutely love the “talking head” segment that you mentioned; this format creates room for Youtubers like Sanjati to be taken seriously and also for them to remain confident. The internet has made it easier for us to share our experiences and I absolutely love that Trans Youtubers are using this (and so many other platforms) to their advantage.

[beingcee]

Feelings Online - 2

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites and as of the fourth quarter of 2016, Facebook had 1.86 billion monthly active users. (Statista) Facebook also features a multitude of other sites and apps and some of them include: Spotify, Instagram, Pinterest, Indeed, Tinder, Shazam, etc. These apps all serve specific functions but Facebook has found a way to actively create memories when you connect your apps to your Facebook account. Apps are discursively framed by Facebook as tools that let users articulate – and more importantly publicise – ‘who they are’ by accommodating any user lifestyle preference, interest token, socio-cultural taste, consumer choice or even affect; ‘your runs, your bike rides, your cooking, your eating, your sleeping, your happiness, your fashion, anything you want’” (Kant, 2015)

When we think about affect, we can see that Facebook tailors everything we see on our account based on who we are, where we are, cache, ads, recommended videos, pages and even friends. These things affect how comfortable we feel online because we feel like the system knows everything about us without us saying it. The author I focused on – Tanya Kant, in her study, focused on Spotify and how it creates a user-friendly experience by giving the user an option to share what song they are listening to. However, Kevin, a participant of this study brought to our attention the fact that this can create social problems if you are listening to a song that most people tend to look down on. He says “If you forget [to switch to a private session on Spotify] then everybody’s like watching every song that you’re listening to, you could be listening to complete trash.” This in turn reminded me of the idea behind comments and how easy it is for an individual to get judged based on their likes or interests.

While I was reading this journal, Instagram kept coming to mind because it is another app that you can connect to Facebook and you can post a picture that you just posted on your Instagram to your Facebook profile. However, this can pose a problem because Instagram is an app that is seen as more open (you can post your spring break pictures here), while Facebook is stereotypically more conservative because of your family members.

I found it interesting that although a social networking site and be tailored to please us, the dynamics of that same site might work against us which is why I chose the video below. Although these sites are for us, most of what we post is intended to please others and not ourself.

Works Cited

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/            

Kant, Tanya. 2015. "'Spotify Has Added an Event to Your Past’: (Re)writing the Self through Facebook’s Autoposting Apps." The Fibreculture Journal 25

[ajonesy4791-deactivated20171128]

Comments

Todays society revolves around the use of social media. Sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc have allowed for people to create situations and openly voice their opinions. When I personally view the comments section on things such as a YouTube video, a majority of the time I find them to be extremely vulgar, degrading, and most of the time unnecessary. This is one of the main reasons I tend to not frequent the comments section on certain sites. With the internet being as popular as it has been for the past 8-10 years, we have grown accustomed to feeling entitled to accessing other peoples information (Avedisaian, 2015). This has eventually evolved to others thinking it is their place to trigger very real emotional responses. After reading through these articles, I immediately though of Lauren Bushnell, the winner of last season “The Bachelor”. I have often times visited her Instagram page and seen comments in regards to her body and what they thought of it. For example, in this video (https://www.instagram.com/p/BRJ1ciejJoM/?taken-by=laurenbushnell) there are comments left on her page such as “she has become disgustingly thin. People can defend it and pretend it’s something else but pretty obvious to me as to what’s going on”, “don’t lose anymore weight!!!!!!!!”, and “someone give her a damn cheeseburger and fries”. These people are expressing their emotions towards the video posted and how she was not fitting to their ideal body.

[beingcee]

I always try to avoid reading Instagram comments – they are always negative about 80% of the time (especially when I’m on a famous person’s page. Most of these comments are either sexual, degrading, offensive or a mix of everything negative you could possibly say to someone. “Comments sections have devolved into places where anonymous strangers can punch at those they despise, admire, envy – or perhaps all of the above” (New York Times, April 2016).

One of the cons of the internet is that it is so easy to spew hate anonymously – for those we know personally and those we don’t even know at all! Like you mentioned, in this day and age, social media is something nearly everyone has and even if you don’t, you can view the comments on some of these sites without an account. For example, on YouTube, it is so easy to see hate comments and also, there is a dislike button so it makes it worse.

However, some of these sites have found ways for both account holders and commenters to get rid of some comments. On Instagram and YouTube, you can disable comments or even report them as spam. This doesn’t entirely solve the problem but it does help.

[beingcee]

Sybil Nwulu - Digital Artifact (Image)

Every Body is beautiful.

There is constantly an online argument going on about what body time is better, what skin tone is better and so on. We have people who have decided to objectify women and separate them with the use of hashtags; I have seen #TeamThick, #TeamSkinny, #TeamLightSkin or #TeamDarkSkin. What we fail to realize that we are all different and beautiful in our own way, regardless of what we look like.

Beauty isn’t defined by Size.

Our society has instilled this image of what the perfect body is and how it should look. The perfect body is seen as skinny, a size small or medium and less than 150 pounds. But what we tend to forget is that the average clothing size in the United States is a size 16, which is considered “Big” when it is in fact average.

Beauty isn’t defined by Race.

In America, white is considered beautiful…period. We can see it everywhere we go and wherever we look, in the movies, in music videos, in ads and in the workplace. Whiteness is the norm – but what if I told you that People of Color (POC) can be beautiful too? In some third world countries (My country, Nigeria, for example), people bleach their skin because they want to be lighter. But, how would they know they are beautiful as well if they aren’t getting represented enough in the media? Black is beautiful too. Brown is beautiful. Everybody is beautiful.

Being healthy isn’t defined by Size. | Mental Health is health too.

How healthy you are depends on who you are as an individual. You aren’t healthy just because you are slim, the same way you aren’t unhealthy because you are fat. Everybody has fat in their body, some have it more than others but this doesn’t exactly mean that they are unhealthy. The scale isn’t always the truth and as a plus sized woman who isn’t exactly unhealthy, it’d be amazing for other people to understand this too. People fail to realize that perfection is a thing of the mind and every individual needs to be in a good state of mind to remain strong. When people bring others down about their bodies and their physical health, they tend to forget about how important mental health is. A person who is slim might look healthy to you but they also might be fighting depression and some other disorders. We need to realize the importance of not only our physical health – but also our mental health.

Your body is beautiful, you are beautiful.

The goal of my artifact is to show that regardless of how you look, you are beautiful. A lot of people online tend to bash others with the use of the hashtags I mentioned above and this creates a separation in what is considered beautiful. However, now we can see so many hashtags that have sufficed that speaks volumes for these groups that tend to be oppressed. Some of them include: #BlackGirlMagic, #BlackLivesMatter, #IssaGayGirl, #WeWearWhatWeWant, #BlackGaySlay, #DisabledAndCute, #CareFreeBlackKids2k16 and #BlackJoy. Janell Hobson said “This political engagement with the meanings of our raced and gendered embodiment also intertwines with our access to media technologies and our acknowledgement of the power dynamics that frame not only which bodies gain visibility but also who controls how that visibility is then consumed and interpreted.” in her article about how visibility is the new politics and I couldn’t agree with this more. Beauty is everywhere but some people are so underrepresented and I hope my artifact passes a strong message to these underrepresented groups.

Works Cited:

Janelle Hobson (2016). “Black Beauty and Digital Spaces: The New Visibility Politics.” Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology.

[beingcee]

Transformative Online Spaces

The internet is a very huge space – it is the one thing that can easily bring the world together. The internet has helped feminism grow in a lot of ways; it has helped people understand the concept, it has brought people who support feminism together and it has also created room for feminists to pass knowledge around. When I think of what the internet has done for feminism, I always remember the most recent thing which would be the women’s march. This event was planned and carried out via social media! And most of the women communicated via the internet.

           Still, feminist activism has grown much more because of how easy it is for the internet to bring people. Just with the click of a button, people can join a movement. “powerful conversations about women, gender, power, and technology are happening all over the web. The platforms are different than the CyberFeminists anticipated. We don't consciousness-raise through CD-ROMs, hang out as avatar Amazons in virtual worlds, or author non-narrative hyperlinked novels—instead, we share ideas in Facebook groups, launch online magazines, and deploy hashtags to try to bring issues to light.” (Evans, 2014).

           There have been so many other feminist activism projects that the internet ahs helped a lot with – one of the well-known ones would be the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Without the internet, the project honestly wouldn’t have been successful. So many projects are getting known through the use of hashtags, websites and even fun videos to pass a message across. Now-a-days, people can easily fund a pro-feminism project through gofundme.com – when we compare this to how things probably would’ve been done without the internet, we need to remember how stressful and time consuming and probably unsuccessful it would’ve been.

           Now, passing a positive message is just a click or a hashtag away and it is much more easier to pass our message across.

Evans, Claire L. (2014). "'We Are the Future Cunt': CyberFeminism in the 90s." Motherboard (Vice).

[beingcee]

Virtual Worlds, Lived Realities

I feel like in this day and age, it is difficult to think of an online space where the intersection of the "virtual" and the "real" becomes is blurred – however, I feel like twitter is the closest to this. I have been on twitter for about 6 years now and every single time I go online; I sometimes don’t think about what is going on around me – it’s kind of like I am in a different space. “Some of the rhetoric surrounding the internet, particularly in reference to gender and the internet, has been utopian in nature. The internet is sometimes extolled as a space where one can be or become anyone.” (Brophy, 2013). Initially, whenever I would go on twitter, I would go because I was stressed and I didn’t want to think about the reality of what is going on around me. However, recently, twitter users now talk about the reality of what is going on around us (especially in light of the recent movements). So, I now get most of my news from twitter. Most people tend to forget that they have a life outside of the internet so they hide under an anonymous account and spew hate – this would be an example of these anonymous people viewing twitter as an embodied experience.

This reminds me of another thing that has been happening a lot online and that would be doxing – but the examples I’ve seen happen have been for “good” reasons. This would be an example of what I would consider doxing for a “good” reason.  http://fusion.net/story/349307/justin-woodard-belmont-racist-snapchat/. Doxing would be an example of online users crossing the thin line between the real and the virtual.

The clip above is from a Netflix show called “Black Mirror”. This clip shows people whose lives are based on ratings so their reality is intertwined with the virtual. 

[ajonesy4791-deactivated20171128]

Week 4

In the article Feminist sexualities, race and the internet: an investigation of suicidegirls.com by Shoshana Magnet, she portrays the resistance online through women who do not fit ones typical image when envisioning sexual, nude photographs. However, these women display the image of punk women with a great deal of tattoos and piercings. The twist to the website is these explicit photos are not simply put for ones viewing pleasure, but have a more in depth meaning placed behind them by attaching a blog to the photo about life experiences they have endured (Magnet, 2007). Ultimately, this website is exclusive to a specific “type” of woman and is not equal to all. We see this all around — from websites to big name companies. While others are welcome to view the site, an individual must fit a certain image to be exclusively involved. Another example of this is Victorias Secret. Victorias Secret promotes women being sexy in their product, however, there is huge lack of diversity amongst their models. While anybody can purchase VS products, the representation of their products can be misleading. The models consist of tall, toned, light skinned girls. To me, this is the same concept that surrounds the idea of suicidegirls.com  On the flip side of Victorias Secret, is Aerie. Aerie is the lingerie brand for American Eagle that launched a game changing campaign with real models that were not airbrushed. They advertised flaws amongst girls with all different body types. While many girls fantasize about achieving the looks of a Victoria Secret model, it is not real. I feel that within society we need to normalize normal again. Varying body types, stretch marks, cellulite, different skin colors, acne, etc., is all normal! Yet we have these sites that are exclusive to girls that only fit a certain image. What type of company would you want to represent?

VS

[beingcee]

Let me start by saying the first picture pissed me off a bit. I feel like the caption itself is disrespectful; like, what do they mean by “A body for every body”...when all of the models in the picture are of similar sizes. I feel like if sites want to promote their clothes, they should consider using the average female body size (which is a size 16). To answer the question you posed at the end, I would definitely want to represent the company in the second picture. Seeing that it has taken me a long time to accept my flaws, it is so amazing to find a clothing company that would accept them as well. 

I recently came across a website that sells nude clothing to women of all colors and one thing that I noticed is that although their brand is all about including all races, they also include different body sizes when marketing their outfits on instagram. The Website is https://www.nu-nude.com/ and here are some of their pictures!

[beingcee]

Reproducing Inequalities Online

Twitter is currently one of the biggest social media platforms and I personally use it a lot. The term “twitter feminist” was coined some years ago because of the rise of cyberfeminists. I think that this term is a bit offensive because it is something that almost every feminist on twitter is tagged as; what most people seem to forget is that awareness is a huge part of solving a problem. “Anyone can identify as feminist because it’s a label that one adopts and is not bestowed. This has and will continue to cause all manner of consternation because some are invested in being gatekeepers.” (Kaba & Smith, 2014) No one is in charge of “feminists” but so many people want to police other feminists. Whenever a feminist makes a valid point on twitter, they are attacked and called a twitter feminist.

Being on twitter has exposed how misogynistic so many people are and being behind a computer or your cell phone tends to give people a huge sense of freedom. Knowing that “Oh, I am at home and I can log off any time I want” gives people a sense of security. After listening to the podcast “The Writing On the Wall” and hearing the story of what happened to Colgate university student, Mellissa Melendez, who was attacked online (On Yik Yak) because she was of a different race, it is safe to say that the anonymity of the internet gives terrible people a safe space to show their true colors.

However, we must see through the negatives and look at what social media is doing for us; sure, so many people drag feminists on twitter (and other platforms) but it is so great to know that we are no by ourselves. Also, social media is an amazing way to connect with people who have the same views and values as you do and that is one of the reasons why I don’t think the negatives outweigh the positives.

Kaba, M. and Smith, A. (2014). "Interlopers on Social Media: Feminism, Women of Color and Oppression." Truth-Out.org

Podcast: "The Writing On the Wall" & "Yik Yak Returns" (Reply All)

[britaneebee-blog]

Tumblr # 2

In “We are the Future Cunt: Cyber Feminism in the 90′s” , Claire Evans posits Cyberfeminism loosely as thought, criticism and art. Evens clarifies we don’t quite know the exact definition of Cyberfeminism but we know what it is not. Still, throughout this week’s readings, I postulated a working definition of cyberfeminsm to frame my theorizing. Given its origin with VNS Matrix (among others) I concurred that cyberfeminism  is that which uses the bustling internet to create a world of visibility for that which is not yet visible or recognized in society and its structures. Furthermore, cyber feminism is characterized by creating and organizing space for opinions, discussion, knowledge and action We see this today in the the #yesallwomen campaign. This campaign sought to bring awareness to both obvious and discrete harassment women face that those with male privilege may have never been aware of otherwise. Furthermore, this campaign created a community of women vocalizing that which is not widely accepted during IRL dinner conversation. This campaign was poignant, personal, political and possible due to the organizing ability of the internet.

While the internet has provided a unique platform for knowledge sharing and creating within a feminist community that is not to say our real life society doesn’t creep in. Evens reminds readers cyberfeminst participant’s “fears of being silenced, threatened or bullied” still persist online. I would suspect many of us in this class could recount stories of gendered harassment that took place within a technological arena, whether its turning down a tinder date request, or commenting on a feminist youtube video. Evans goes as far as to suggest misogyny follows users online regardless of anonymity and can then result in perpetuating misogyny IRL. Evans concludes that within a cyber age, a feedback loop is now operating between cyberspace and society.

[beingcee]

 I really enjoyed reading this post because the whole time I was like:

I started noticing Cyberfeminism a lot in 2015 but I never knew it was around in the 90s. I am an avid user of both Twitter and Tumblr and these two platforms are where I tend to notice a lot of Feminists. Like Claire Evans did mention, we do not have an exact definition but we know what it isn’t; we know that feminism isn’t something you turn to when it suits your own personal wants. I really like your own definition of Cyberfeminism because that is honestly what it is. In this day and age, the internet is an amazing tool to have and it is easy relay information to a wide range of people. The internet has also contributed to a lot of movements that have helped women and in “real life”, a lot of people are more comfortable with taking about where they stand with feminism.

[beingcee]

Introduction Post

Hello everyone, my name is Sybil and I prefer to be called that. My pronouns are She/her. I am a Psychology major, and I am also minoring in Women and Gender Studies. I was born and raised in Nigeria but I have been in Arizona since 2011. I want to be a School Psychologist some day and I feel like both my degrees will help me empower high school students in the future. I have a great relationship with the internet, to be honest, I do spend a lot of the time online (I got excited when I found out we’d be using Tumblr for our assignments). I was recently a member of a CyberPsychology lab because I wanted to learn and understand more about the Psychology of the internet. One thing I like about the internet is the memes and the opportunities it provides us with – it makes it easy for people to connect with each other, grow their businesses and also show how creative they are. One thing that scares me about the internet would be how big it is – whatever you post will remain online forever. The anonymity of the internet also scares me, people can hide behind anonymous accounts and be cruel online. I am taking this class because I want to learn more about the internet and how it has pushed the feminist movement forward; I know it has played a huge role in it (especially via Tumblr and Twitter). A lot of women are empowered because of other powerful women online who share their experiences. For example, there is an Instagram page that is dedicated to showing how different the human body is and so many people share their pictures and their flaws and people are so accepting of it. The account is @thenakediaries on Instagram and it is partially NSFW. There are also several YouTube channels that promote body positivity amongst other things. Another reason why I am taking this class is because I want to find more resources to help me better myself as an individual. Seeing that I am in the minority (I am an African woman and I am not skinny), I also want to find things tailored to me. Here is a video by one of my favorite  YouTubers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ksURdydNQI

[thegoodvybe]

[blackfashion]

twitter | @youfunnyb

IG | @youfunnyb

[arabwife]

i may b sad but did u see my outfit