WST 394-Cyberfeminisms

Amy Dean

[iknowbutidontknow]

This is my final :-) I discuss white feminism and intersectional feminism

[iknowbutidontknow]

The Appropriation of Black Culture

In my college career, I have focused mainly on the plight of Native Americans and the appropriation of their cultures. So this week I thought it was very interesting to focus on the appropriation of black culture because I feel like if I were paying more attention, I would notice this phenomenon daily. The appropriation of their culture has been almost a cultural norm since before Elvis Presley became a giant in the music industry with him basically stealing music from less popular black artists. 

Naw Magazine’s Sherisa Kuffour wrote a very interesting piece named “The Appropriation of Black Culture is not just a Fad,” where she discusses how cultural appropriation of black culture is ever present in the fashion industry and how it’s there to stay. The phrase “everybody wants to be black until it’s time to be black” is something Kuffour says is a truism in the creative industry. I relate this to how some white people get dreads because these certain groups of people don’t understand fully take into account how black people literally couldn’t get hired at certain places if they had dreads, but white people want them because it’s trendy. 

Even popular words like relating to your group of friends as a “squad” or using “fleek” to describe your makeup has origins in African American vernacular. Adopting these words without caring about the origins is damaging to the black community and it is prudent to give credit where it’s due. Doreen St. Felix asserts that, “Cultural sharing is ancient. That the speed and relative borderlessness of the internet makes cross-platform, global dissemination seem like a consequence of tech is a convenient amnesia.” We all need to collectively be aware that this exists and that the appropriation of black culture needs to be recognized as a pressing issue. 

http://nawmagazine.com/black-culture-appropriation-not-fad/

[iknowbutidontknow]

Restricted Mode on YouTube

A friend told me over the weekend about how the restricted mode on YouTube wipes out virtually all videos of the LBGTQIA community, so for this weeks post I wanted to focus on this topic. The restricted mode on YouTube is implemented in schools and by parents to protect students and young children from “inappropriate” and “sensitive” material, however, how are coming out videos and other videos of the LGBTQIA nature deemed inappropriate? 

When thinking of this weeks topic of Being Seen and Being Heard, it is shocking to me that the restricted mode is specifically targeting material of the LGBTQIA community. Laura Horak in her study “Trans on YouTube”, she explains why YouTube is such a powerful tool for the transgender community by, “YouTube’s predilection for the personal and the spectacular have made it a powerful tool for some trans people to construct the ways that their bodies are looked at and heard—and to connect geographically disparate people in intimate ways.”  If you watch the video above of YouTube star Gigi Gorgeous, she says that the only videos you can see of her with the restricted mode are her makeup video, essentially the videos of her talking about her sexuality and transition,are virtually no where to be seen. To her, these stories need to be heard for kids not to feel alone and for people just to know more about the topics discussed. Another youtuber, fiona, made this tweet to address the issue: 

Through stories, one can really start to empathize with a certain group, in this case with the transgender community. For a lot of people, the internet is the only exposure that they have to the LBGTQIA community and the restricted mode has silenced it. The restricted mode blatantly took away these stories from big groups of people and thinking about the damage that has already been done because of that is hard to know. At least YouTube has apologized and plans on changing the restrictions, but to some, that’s not enough to mend the issue. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/technology/youtube-lgbt-videos.html?_r=0

[iknowbutidontknow]

Affective Economies + Trump

Affective economics refers to the emotional drive to draw people in and influence consumption of a particular product. Affective economics essentially seeks to create an emotional bond between the consumer and the product. When connecting affective economics to the internet, specifically through websites like youtube, tumblr and facebook, you can see this phenomena spread through all channels. 

I took a semi-political route on this post. Basically, the video is the tape recording of Trump saying the infamous and disgraceful “grab her by the p****” line. I linked it above, but feel free to spare yourself from listening to it because it’s obviously extremely offensive and rude. However, the comment section is interesting because it clearly displays the divide of whether or not this is “locker room talk” or how this soundclip proves that he does not have the proper temperament to be president. One of the comments I chose to focus on it this: 

John is affected by the things Trump says because he thinks the dismissal of offensive and damaging rhetoric is the reason why some men rape. His emotions toward the subject are clearly affecting his political choices. Feelings are necessary in an online discourse because the person posting it is almost anonymous, unlike in real life where people can dispute with you with a differing opinion. You can obviously do this in a comment section, but the person has no obligation to reply to it. Emotions fuel online discourse because people don’t necessarily have to explain themselves. 

The contents of content put online, like this video, affects people’s emotions because they look things up that they are passionate about and interest them. Jamila  Lamieux goes so far to say, “Comments sections have devolved into places where anonymous strangers can punch up at those they despise, admire, envy — or perhaps all of the above.” Just the mere act of someone commenting on a video about feminism relates to cyberfeminism because the comments are exist online. Internet content like youtube videos and articles and the comment sections attached to them can create a discourse that is worthy of a glance, but most of the time, I find myself just ignoring it because some people put nonsensical comments on it just to upset people.

[iknowbutidontknow]

I chose to do my digital artifact on people’s views on abortion on social media. This mainly is geared towards facebook, because I think in general it needs more cyberfeminist intervention. However, this can be geared towards any social media site. 

I am under the impression that most people who are pro-life just don’t like the concept of killing a baby (this has in fact been debunked many times) or that they are religious. However, they don’t seem to critically think about  why women are put in positions that they need to get abortions. My parents and I have always had really healthy conversations about sex growing up, so when I got older, I knew how to implement safe sex practices. However, I know many women did not grow up with parents who had open conversations regarding sex and considering sex education in this country is not decent in any standards, this creates a population who are vastly uneducated about sex. This is not only dangerous for them, but it is dangerous to the general population as well. I think if I saw more pro-life people who advocate for better sex education or simply talk about having sex in a healthy way instead of only demonizing abortions and the people who get them, I could try to respect people who are pro-life. However, I have actually never seen these views of people who are pro-life, so that is why I made this post. 

This semester while reading through the readings for the unit called Digital Feminist Intervention, it really struck me at how much we collectively can make a change if we’re persistent and call out inequalities if we see them online. Feminist tools like the one I made above is simple and to the point and easy to understand. Chela Sandoval’s writing called, Cyborg Feminism and the Methodology of the Oppressed, she states, “And indeed, if cyborg consciousness is to be considered as anything other than which it replicates the now dominant global world order, then cyborg consciousness must be developed out of a set of technologies that together compromise the methodology of the oppressed, a methodology that can provide the guides for survival and resistance under first world transnational cultural conditions” (119)” What I gather from this statement is if the internet reflects the thoughts and ideas of the people who use it, then social consciousness reflects often the views of the oppressed across different cultures and gender identities. I think the internet is a powerful tool to broaden people’s views and minds because the resources available are vast and can be accessible to everyone. This is why we need to stay adamant on being advocates for change, for me my aim may be opening people’s mind about abortions, but to others it may be other aspects to social justice. 

Works cited:

Campeau, André. "Chela Sandoval, Methodology of the Oppressed. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2000, 241 p., bibliogr., index." Anthropologie et Sociétés 26.2-3 (2002): 284. Web.

Tschangyeul, Kim. Droplet. 1929. London, England. 

[iknowbutidontknow]

How Cyberfeminism has Changed the Fight for Equality

When thinking about how feminism has changed and been shaped because of tools  of the internet, it creates an interesting commentary of how people are exposed to feminism in general. I am not ashamed to say that my exposure to feminism has been through tumblr. I think I was 14 when I first made an account and I remember seeing feminist posts and started to think critically about their messages. I came from a household of mostly women where my mom was the bread winner and her mom was on the front lines of the women’s marches in the 60s and 70s so I always knew what feminism was, but through tumblr, I was able to learn words/phrases like intersectional feminism, non-binary etc etc and apply it to every day use because these things affect me and people around me. As I’ve gotten older, I don’t rely heavily on tumblr feminism anymore because I like to look at more scholarly articles now so I can know more aspects and sources, but that definitely doesn’t mean that if people rely solely on images from the internet to explore feminist theory that they should stop. Because honestly, images like: 

really make you think about feminist theory. These are short and succinct and get the job done. Images like these get shared on facebook and twitter a lot and I can’t help but think this helps the fight for equality. People nowadays don’t have to be apart of grandiose protests to want equality of the sexes, they can share images like this to help the struggle. Now I know sharing feminist images like these won’t end the patriarchy or make things equal, but they are exposing people to aspects of feminism, which doesn’t hinder the struggle. 

Now why do people turn to internet tools like tumblr to explore feminism? According to Sarah Perry in a Dazed interview, she says, “Women’s rights is a topic that is very much discussed on Tumblr, especially when it comes to reproductive rights and intersectionality. I'm always seeing posts about new legislation that's in place or being considered, accompanied by support or outrage from users. Topics like self-love take a more personal tone and aren’t politicised as much. While body positivity is a very vast social movement, I wouldn't necessarily call it political. But if you're looking for politically active young people in general, Tumblr is a good place to go.” 

I think the internet changed how feminism is because there is so much vast knowledge about people’s lived experiences and the history of feminism being available. 

[blogemilybrooke-blog]

WST394: Been Catfished?

This week we were able to learn about the virtual world and reality. When reading our in class text, I was curious as to what a corporeal cyberfeminism truly meant in regards to a virtual world that can not only incorporate a sense of reality, but blur the lines of virtual compared to a real reality. “The anonymous freedom to “try on” genders or sexualities without social recourse is often cited as one of the most liberating dimensions of life online;however, a user may reify and enact stereotypes, thereby reinforcing the normative understandings of gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity” (Brophy, 140). When having a virtual and real reality, it is easy for one to change or simply fake their sexuality or gender online.

Unlike other dating websites, okcupid.com, does not force you to have an existing social media profile. Therefore, when filling out a biography and entering information about yourself, as well as uploading new photos, it is quite easy to either over exaggerate, or flat out be another person. With recent times, becoming a different person online and making a virtual world really one’s own reality, there has been an increased amount of risk in online dating. The television network, MTV, actually filmed a show titled, “Catfished”, which gave different “real” scenarios of online partners being tricked by other online partners when meeting them in real life. Situations varied, but ultimately showed that people who were pranking or lying were holding a virtual persona, but was becoming actual reality for them. After the filming the television show, the term “catfished” has been a term adopted not only into pop culture, but as well as Webster’s Dictionary.

Although there are many more examples to when virtual worlds can be blurred into real actual reality, the internet shows us it’s power on the human emotional intelligence.

[iknowbutidontknow]

I have to admit, your post intrigued me because of the picture! So funny!

I also really like the topic of your post because I feel as if “catfishing” has been a heavily talked about issue in our generation. “Catfishing” has subconsciously been something we have to worry about with online relationships or friendships based only with communicating on the internet. I can imagine that it is really liberating to pretend you’re something you’re not on the internet because this persona personified can be what you want to be or just to see how other people react to the persona. You can be whatever you want to be and that thought either scares people or fascinates people. As Brophy puts it, “In such discourses of liberation, the internet can be a place where differences and social contexts are erased, creating a true meritocracy or Utopian ideal,” (139). The internet can be used to escape reality, but it should in no way serve as a tool to bring others into your own delusions.

[iknowbutidontknow]

Cyberfeminism + Online Resistance

Shoshana Magnet in her article Feminist sexualities, race and the internet: an investigation of suicidegirls.com, she studies the resistance and feminism of the “punk” women who model for suicide girls. The creators of the website are wanting to resist the typical image in porn: a bottle blonde with big boobs and a perfect body. Suicidegirls.com is resistance against the norm in regards to pornography, but the website itself is problematic in a lot of ways including the lack of women of color and different body types. 

This example of suicidegirls.com proves that when it comes to online resistance of a cultural norm, problems and accusations may follow. I tried not to make both my sources of my Tumblr posts from Facebook, but what I’m about to explain made me extremely distraught and this is the perfect time to discuss this in a feminist frame of mind. One of my childhood friends (names are omitted for privacy) comes from a very conservative household and she uses her Facebook, like most of us do, to share our beliefs with friends and family from topics ranging from cooking recipes and to women’s health. I think we can all agree that the political climate has changed the way our Facebook feed looks. Anyways, my friend posted this: 

This is (for whatever reason) a very controversial opinion and when you post something like this on your Facebook where your conservative family can comment their dated opinions on the subject, it’s almost as if you become the martyr of your resistance. The positives of posting your opinions on Facebook is the possibility that you can educate people on a topic they don’t know about and getting your ideas out there. There is nothing inherently bad about doing so and the only draw back  to posting your opinions on Facebook, except for when someone comments along the lines of this: 

Whether or not you agree with abortion, I think the way he commented is full of hate and honestly stupidity. It also doesn’t make this better that this is her grandfather saying this. 

Now, all of her friends and family had access to this, maybe even more people if her Facebook privacy settings are different. Posting your opinion on Facebook comes at the expense of the person who posts it. When you post a political or controversial opinion on Facebook, you should prepare for the consequences of doing so. Going off that, I think it’s great that people share their beliefs on their Facebook because it spreads different points of views to people who may not be exposed to them. It’s liberating, but also shows how out of touch people can be. 

I think Zoe R. makes a good point in her article How Feminism Has Shaped My Feminist Identity,  “I think anyone must be prepared to bare all and wear their hearts on their sleeves in order to express themselves. But doing so in such a hypercritical world, in the context of social media that preys on girls who demonstrate anything that can be interpreted as weakness, is challenging.” If ideas weren’t spread and cultural norms weren’t challenged and resisted, we would be living in a much different world right now. 

Thank you for reading, xx. 

[superwoodlandwoman-blog]

Privileged with a Pussyhat

(rudyespi - Instagram)

After reading through the week, I believe that the greatest contributing factor to online inequality and oppression is anonymity. When trolling, harassing, or even being “annoying” on anonymous websites or social media platforms, such as 4chan or YikYak, a person can hide behind a blanket of anonymity. We can rationalize and justify saying things we never would to a person’s face because we assume we will never interact with that person again, let alone meet them. However, we could see how dangerous anonymity can be in the Reply All podcast. Because someone made an anonymous threat on YikYak, rooted in a racist belief, the entire campus was shut down. Because of anonymous threats, geared specifically towards members of the ACC, students chose to finish their semester off campus, in a place where they felt safe. In both cases, anonymous threats broke academic institutions.  

Anonymity should be a gift on the internet, a place to lift each other up, free from the constraints of our physical characteristics. However, we read about how people on the internet tear each other down, consumed by differences, radicalized by anonymity.

This week, I couldn’t help but relate the idea of inequality and oppression in safe spaces to the Women’s March on Washington and the Sister Marches which took place around the world.   

Like the 4,876,700 women who participated in the 673 marches around the world, I was thrilled to don my hat and stand for my rights. I felt that by banding together with millions of women, my voice and cause were being heard. It was hard to imagine that not all women who marched felt the same way that I did. But the reality is, as a white, heterosexual cisgender woman, the Women’s March was specifically geared towards me and my privilege.

Marcia Chatelain, a professor of history and African-American studies at Georgetown, offered a solemn reminder of the exclusivity of the Women’s March. While she acknowledges the importance of coming together, she warns that we must always “appreciate the people who can’t [come together] because of their physical, economic, or social mobility, their fear of the police, or the fact that they’re incarcerated. While we celebrate the coming together of the community in a physical space, we are at our best when we recognize the people who are unable to do that.” This sentiment was echoed by other activists, fighting for intersectionality. Bob Bland, the Brooklyn fashion designed behind the “Nasty Woman” shirts, stressed the importance of the focus of all people and all struggles, asking white women participating to “understand their privilege and acknowledge the struggle that women of color face.”

I would like to extend Bland’s sentiments further. I believe it is a beautiful thing when feminists unite to support a cause and create a space to share their voices and struggles. But, to truly unite and fight oppression, we need to all band together, acknowledge intersectionality, and fight for collective causes, even if we are too privileged to face them in our everyday lives. As Mariame Kaba and Andrea Smith said, “feminism actually needs less focus on individuals and more on the collective struggle to uproot oppression” (2014). Let’s fight for all people.

[iknowbutidontknow]

Your post has delved deep into what I have been feeling for a while. Feminism that isn’t inclusive isn’t feminism. That’s why I had such issues with all of the speakers at the women’s march being mostly white. It’s like...are people more comfortable with white women speaking about feminism because their issues don’t involve racism or trans-phobia? When I was listening to the podcast on the anonymous app “YikYak”, I was disgusted by all of the stories of women telling their stories of racism. So not only do WOC deal with issues of racism, something that isn’t even close to being solved, especially with our new president, they also have to deal with issues of oppression because of their gender. 

I, too, am a white heterosexual female and though I deal with issues because of my gender, I will never understand personally the complexity of racism and trans-phobia.  Knowing this, feminism needs to be more refined and accepting of WOC’s issues along with trans-gender issues and oppression. The women’s march brought together people of all different backgrounds, but as a whole, it needs to be better. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your insightful post- and to quote my favorite TV show The Newsroom- ,“The first step in fixing a problem is acknowledging there is a problem.” 

[iknowbutidontknow]

Cyberfeminism + Traveling

TW SEXUAL ASSAULT + DRUGS + ALCOHOL

Though there is no official definition of cyberfeminism, upon reviewing the articles in class and also self reflecting about the topic, I came to the conclusion that a facet of cyberfeminism has to deal with creating a safe space for women to tell their stories without judgement and to create an open dialogue of the hardships women face. I came to this conclusion with the help of the Ted Talk with Kate Lazo.  In this weeks Tumblr post, I decided to talk about a facebook group I’m in called “Girls Love Travel” (GLT). GLT essentially is a page where women ask about travel recommendations, flight deals and sharing stories about their travels. Sometimes, women write a post on the GLT timeline to warn women of certain places and relate it back to their lived experiences in that specific place. Honestly, I think it is really honorable for women to tell their  painful stories solely just to warn women of the harsh realities that traveling can often times bring. 

Below are snap shots of the story: 

Now, this story is heartbreaking, but again I commend the author for getting her story out there to inform the women of this page of being mindful and careful of where they are going. Girls have to have each others backs, for the world for women is a lot safer for us when we are united. 

As we all have probably seen around the interwebs of a story like this, usually there are comments along the lines of, “This wouldn’t have happened if she weren’t drunk,” or, “She was asking for it,” but the women of GLT made no comments of the sort. Actually, they were all very understanding of the situation, offered advice and wanted to know the name of the hostel so they would never go there: 

I was shocked that the comments were ALL supportive and not judgmental of this awful story. I think this is why the GLT page is great, it’s women from all over the world uniting over their love for travel and the page provides a safe space to spread ideas and ask questions. 

In a little way, I feel as if this is one of the beautiful parts of cyberfeminism. Reading Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism, I read the quote, “Subversive uses of the new communications technologies can facilitate the work of a transnational movement which aims to infiltrate and infect the networks of power and communication through activist, feminist, projects of solidarity, education, freedom, vision, and resistance.” I think this correlates well to what the GLT page is all about: women coming together to seek guidance and reassurance. 

I think it is interesting how technology has changed that ways in which people travel, especially when it comes to women. Below is an interesting article on how the internet has changed how women solo-travel: 

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/solo-female-travel-differences/

Though there exists concerns for men traveling, women have a lot more to be nervous about. 

[iknowbutidontknow]

Introduction

(above is my favorite picture I took while studying abroad in Spain. This was taken in Granada). 

Hi there! I’m Amy (she/her). I’m currently studying Spanish linguistics and I take particular interest in immigration, American Indian issues and of course, feminism. I was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona and in the future I want to be an immigration lawyer.   

As much as I have tried, I’m not able to cut down on my internet addiction. I wake up in the morning and I check all my social media, I fall asleep at night while scrolling through tumblr, etc.. I rely heavily on the internet in my day to day life and upon reflection, I’m okay with that. I like google maps and I like being able to communicate with my friends and family all day even if they’re far away from me. The things that scare me about the internet is kids from a very young age being able to have access to the black whole that is the internet and that social skills and empathy will decline because of social media and texting. You also don’t have the pleasure of being ignorant, for there is no excuse anymore because of the mass amounts of information that the internet has. I am taking this class because I enjoy learning about feminism and what happens when feminism and the interwebs collide. 

An interesting article about how the internet kills empathy:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/18/small.vorgan.internet.empathy/