Figuring Out Cyberfeminism.

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

WST 394 Final Youtube Project

So, if after watching this video, you wouldn’t say that I’m probably one of the most uncomfortable people in front of a camera-- I’d say you were being way, way too nice.

Works Cited:

Jessica Brophy (2013). "Developing a Corporeal Cyberfeminism: Beyond Cyberutopia." In Keilty, Patrick, and Dean, Rebecca, eds. Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader. Sacramento, CA, USA: Litwin Books.

Mehreen Kasana (2014). "Feminisms and the Social Media Sphere." Women's Studies Quarterly.

Jill Filipovic (2007). "Blogging While Female: How Internet Misogyny Parallels "Real-World" Harassment." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism.

Gillian Youngs (2007). "Making the Virtual Real: Feminist Challenges in the Twenty-First Century." S&F Online.

Lie To Please (Skylar Kergil) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLCO931LoUI

Brothers (Skylar Kergil ft CHRIS) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjLeIOh5qkI

Tell Me A Story (Skylar Kergil) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbQDTE2s3dI

My Weiner ft Jurnie Smith (Ty Turner) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdqRcvGhxrI

The Perfect Valentine (Ty Turner) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmefBRPrLhM

Outed at Work (Ty Turner) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tqWLg5y8wU

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Weaponized Humor

“Humor is an effective tool in attacking misguided views and we all used it generously because, in simple terms (...) demands that it speak over you and your politics.” Mehreen Kasana; “Feminisms and the Social Sphere”

It’s funny, because it’s true. You know that laugh, that pained cackle? That comes deep from within a feminist’s gut after they hear or see an act so heinously wrong, or reads an article that is so full of vitriol that that’s the only real reaction they can have?

I think, here, that Kasana uses it as meaning that herself and the women behind Queer Brown Girls Doing Things (plus many other blogs) poke fun at the discourse that surrounds their everyday existence, but I’m pretty sure it can apply to the way they laugh.

What better way to share in that painful hilarity than to make a song about it?

Vlogger Ty Turner, self identified trans-man and Izzy-identified cool dude, covers subjects from Testosterone Shots Gone Wrong, to chest workouts; from vaping, to how trans people have sex, to how it feels when other ‘queer’/ally YouTubers talk about trans people (Arielle Scarcella, looking at you).

A look through the comment sections of his videos can be largely affirming, and at times as funny as the video itself-- but, as seen in ‘IRL comment section’ ‘American Reflexxx’ things can go really bad really fast, especially when it concerns a person of non cisgender identity/appearance.

I mean, really. Filipovic addresses the harassment of, and violent sexual attitudes towards female law students-- but that’s the sort of online environment faced by trans bloggers/vloggers every time they put themselves out there.

Humor becomes not only a tool, but a sort of weapon. This weapon is not to be beaten into plows to sow the seeds of submissiveness, but to fight against the popular theory that people of all genders’ lives, sex lives, genitalia, gender expression, etc are up for the scrutiny and criticism of all.

Invasive behaviors from normative groups (cisnormative, heteronormative, and even sometimes transnormative) don’t solely target women/female identifying groups. They target those identities and narratives that differ from their norms, tear them to shreds, and try to build them into images and lewd fantasies that are more pleasing.

But ya know, it helps to laugh. 

[yungsluug-blog]

women’s sexuality in affective economies

In an affective economy, “emotions do things, and they align individuals with communities—or bodily space with social space—through the very intensity of their attachments” (Ahmed 119). We saw in American Reflexxx that women openly expressing their sexuality is still a taboo in American culture, but what was particularly interesting were the reactions to Pierce’s mirrored mask, a literal and metaphorical reflection of society’s response to an anonymous overtly sexual woman. 

I noticed some parallels between American Reflexxx and Instagram user maidenfed. maidenfed often posts “controversial” sexual content and selfies, and her comments section is either praise or a mix of unwarranted observations about her body, whether it’s men expressing their desire for her to fulfill their fantasies or people insulting her appearance. One particular example consistent in both American Reflexxx and maidenfed’s comments is the fear that this hypersexualized woman is not biologically female. 

Like the people repeatedly jeering that “she’s a dude” in American Reflexxx, maidenfed’s commenters seem fixated on what she “could be hiding” (Avedisian). Despite the fact that maidenfed’s face is shown in most of her photos, the internet’s ubiquitous mask of relative anonymity seems to encourage commentors to fixate on her body–her perceived attractiveness as well as her gender identity. This internet etiquette transfers into corporeal life, representing the patriarchal notion of a “good” woman being one who keeps her sexuality under wraps, and a “real” woman one who values modesty. Those who do not fall into those categories cause disruption; in American Reflexxx, the crowd seemed to revel in their normalcy because “they were granted the power of commonality, one that they could all bond over” (Avedisian). Like Pierce, maidenfed’s unconventional sexual content makes her a target of  hatred; and like Pierce’s mask, the sheer veil of the internet makes her the target of obtrusive remarks about her identity as a woman (see comments by ziyad_v8, jvmesmzx, zinigrng, etc).

One notable difference is that maidenfed seems to have as many–if not more–supporters than haters, whereas Pierce had only one person help her after she was pushed down. This suggests that the internet provides an insulation to the harsh outside world; people like maidenfed “have been able to assert their voices in the age of the internet. We’ve been able to carve out our own hive where we can exchange ideas and aesthetics without being censored or discouraged by the powers that be” (Avedisian).

sources:

http://rhizome.org/editorial/2015/aug/19/interview-american-reflexxx/

Sara Ahmed (2004). “Affective Economies.” Social Text.

https://www.instagram.com/maidenfed/?hl=en

[weirdbabee]

While going through this week’s readings and video, American Reflexxx probably affected me the most due to the fact that it was shot in my hometown and the people in the video could have very well been people I grew up with (the ones harassing Pierce). I knew, shoot I still know, people who would react that way to a sexual woman, or to someone that may be transgender.

I believe your post was very well put together. Your comparisons between maidenfed and Pierce were, in my opinion, spot on. I especially like how you pointed out the differences between the two though; that maidenfed seems to have more supporters online because of the “safe space” that the internet provides us. However, do you think maidenfed’s supporters would support her offline, if forced into a situation such as the people Pierce came across during her walk? Do you think they would stick up for maidenfed? Or would they “go with the crowd” so to speak?

Also, do you believe the harassment maidenfed experiences has anything to do with the fact that, despite being beautiful, she does not meet the stereotypical beauty standards set by our society?

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Did the slowed down/distorted version of “Blurred Lines” freak anybody else out? If we’re going to talk about American Reflexxx, and the Internet as a placed that rules by affect, I think it would be irresponsible to leave that out. Pierce interrupts her creepy mob of antagonists by clacking her heels together. She does this a few times throughout the film.

Let’s juxtapose this with the way that the largely negative comments in the screenshots that you provided your readers (we the classmates) with are interrupted by the few positive comments, or even the @insertusernamehere type comments. Does this disrupt the noise created by the rabble, does it scare the negative commenters off?

I disagree that maidenfed has more supporters than Pierce, because of the “safe space” the Internet provides its users. For every heel clack, for every neutral-- or even positive—response, a thousand angry voices spring up. For everybody saying that the Booty Call class caption is an Upper Division class number, there will be a woman who repeatedly tries, and then succeeds in harming the subject.

I’m going to pip in and say, given the comment section, and the reactions of the mob in ‘American Reflexxx’—maidenfed would face the exact same treatment as Pierce, IRL Physical harm, untold amounts of verbal harassment—if she went to Myrtle Beach, that is. But the discussion on physical location playing a role in how someone interacts IRL and online is a discussion for a separate post.

P.s. Samantha/cheeseem0ji, did you actually recognize anybody in ‘American Reflexxx’?

[hydramoon]

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[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Speaking of accessibility and price, I wish I could have embedded a jpg or pdf of the infographic, but it costs at least 20 dollars a month (one month) to be able to do that. Yaaaaaaay.

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

This infographic was made with the infographic maker Venngage.

(Not being graphically adept is hard. Thank god for templates and a basic understanding of aesthetics. Which is another post for another time. However, some righteous justification is coming your way, reader. Are you ready?) The readings for this unit, for the project, gave me a great many feel. And you know what? Though the topics and issues within cyberfeminism range as far and wide as the readings, they all summarize as such-- the issue is accessibility. Or, a lack thereof.

This is a cyberfeminist issue, as well as a societal issue. Inspired by the Unit 3 reading by Emily Hong—the “case study of San Francisco’s Chinatown”—I decided to examine the readings of Unit 4 with what I like to call “accessibility goggles”. No, this isn’t some sort of new and politically correct Google Glass (shout out to super expensive and inaccessible bro-tech); “accessibility goggles” are what I use to evaluate resources and programs.

Take, for instance, internet connectivity in San Francisco’s China Town. Hong refers to the limited broadband access, and the limited physical infrastructure for it. The library provides computers with hardline connectivity, and wi-fi that patrons can use during or even past hours—inside, or sitting out on the steps after dark. While this is all well and good, the fact of the matter? Not everybody can get out of bed (a circumstance referred to in Jennifer Cole’s “GimpGirl grows up (…)” article), or has a car, or has the time and money to spare to have their own personal computer, much less the time and money to take off of work to use it to non-work ends.

I’m getting away from the infographic, though. For someone like me, who has a hard time thinking in terms of shape and space (another shout out, this one to the glasses I have had to wear since I was 2.5 years old). Let’s take it, point-by-point. 1.) Pay Attention to Price!

When you pay attention to price, you pay attention to people. Let’s take, for instance, the organization “Black Girls Code”, and the summer camps they host (like the one featured in Episode 1 of their web mini-series). It’s amazing that 20 girls of ages 10-17, from various backgrounds, with various different skin tones, can learn about tech. They are taught how to build apps, perform in a (white) male dominated field, and how to empower their peers (as touched upon during one of the speeches during their mini-hackathon at the Facebook campus).

This absolutely amazing experience comes at the low, low price of $300 of tuition a girl (based off current prices on the BGC website). Scholarships are available, but at a limited number. Tshirts, teacher/counselor salaries, tech resources, etc—costs do add up, but that shouldn’t necessarily come down on the people that the service (experience) is meant for. This all probably sounds like “Find more money, you!”, but wouldn’t it be nice if mega corporations like Facebook covered the costs for every girl in attendance? At least in part? It can and should be done.

2.) Provide and Use Resources.

“They see the potential—the great, vast potential in these young black girls.”, states Ayori Se—volunteer for Black Girls Code. The engineer and professional mentor (killer tweeter, too) goes on to talk about how BGC serves the girls by acting on that potential.

‘Human Resources’ is a professional term/department/etc., right? So, how is it that our greatest resource is narrowed down to a few select parameters (i.e. white, male, straight, from Western culture, etc.) when it comes to tech and cyberspace focused professions? Chela Sandoval invokes the image of Silicon valley near the beginning of her article on “Cyborg Feminism and the Methodology of the Oppressed.”—bringing to mind images of thin, geeky, but white and successful men. She goes on to address issues faced by oppressed (racial) groups, in terms of ‘cyborgs’; she addresses the way certain people are programmed.

Wouldn’t it be neat if we created self-improving and realizing structures and methodologies, and taught all peoples how to use them?

3.) Get Social!

GimpGirl, Black Girls Code, Birth Without Fear, Facebook, Tumblr—all of these sites have one main thing in common. Social networking. From the early email lists of GimpGirl, to their Second Life ‘facilities’ (I’m picturing a warmly painted boutique office building, with a professional but artsy address sign, rendered in 3D animations). From the first blog post on Birth Without Fear, to the ‘new normal’ of birth it (and communities like it) have created. Facebook and tumblr have gone from places to express yourself and keep in contact with friends and loved ones, to places where massive social unrest is expressed, and people can participate in upper-division university courses.

Connections are how ideas and accessibility thrive. Technology becomes easier to understand and used when there are other people to explore it with. Paper app designs become full-fledged apps within a few days, with a little mentoring, and working with like-minded individuals.

Certain things (Bob Marley blackface filters on Snapchat, flame wars within GimpGirl, etc.) point out the flaws inherent in a (social) system, to be sure. But, with enough people accessing these systems, we can begin to dismantle and rebuild them, no?

4.) Listen to More Than a Soundbite.

A lot of issues are heard and dismissed in about thirty seconds—much like the way Marie Varghese’s sound bite about the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship. The reporter did not want to hear more than that, further canning the cause by proclaiming that it would make a great article for Black History Month.

Much like “(…) 85% of the Western world thinks Facebook is the internet (…).” (Liz Pelly), it could be said that modern cyberspace is 85% sound bite activism. 30 second video on why trans people should be allowed to pee, link that s*#t in a tweet, good deed done—right?

Why not, in order to further understand the issue, and expand the discourse, post the video, and then watch longer ones. Read articles, and interviews, and visit with organizations that champion the issue. Speak with those handy dandy (social) groups about what the next step is.

Yes, you would like to hear about the scholarship, or how online sex-ed can augment current public education. Please, yes, you are very interested in how disabled and trans people and cigender/able-bodied people use augmented reality tech to explore their (cyber)place in the world.

Listen hard to the people that speak. Then, maybe, add your voice to pump up the volume, so others might hear and be able to join.

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Snapping In

From a white, middle class perspective: it would be impossible to separate the “virtual” and “real” worlds. One can take examples from YouTube, YikYak, Birth Without Fear, Buzzfeed, etc.. The “Internet” (to refer to the larger concept and all specific applications and sites and networks) is as embodied as television, or “real life”.

For the purposes of this blog post, though, I would like to examine how Snapchat functions as an online space that the intersection of the “virtual” and the “real” becomes increasingly blurred.

As Lisa Nakamura quotes Steven Marche in “Glitch Racism: Networks as Actors within Vernacular Internet Theory”, “the Internet has reached peak hate”. Let’s examine, for a moment, the fact that Snapchat decided to include a “Bob Marley” face swapping(ish) filter on April 20th, 2016.

To be honest? The entire incident was an example of blatant racist tendencies. An article by The Washington Post claims that the face-swap celebrity blackface wasn’t exclusive to Snapchat—just more public. Other apps/networks allowed users to do a similar face-swap with President Obama, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, etc.. A South Korean singer did a faceswap with Kanye—but that was only racist because he said racist things while doing it. Right?

 “Errors aren’t alien to the system, they’re part of the system.”

-“Glitch Racism (…)”, Lisa Nakamura

 Snapchat is also famous for its ‘live snaps’ of large/’major’ events, such as Country Thunder, the Met Gala, NYC Fashion Week, etc.. There seems to be a bias in the snaps from the events that get included in the live feed. Some might say that’s a dumb thing to focus on. I say that it’s not too hard to see that the rich, the conventionally beautiful, the able-bodied, ‘insert socially acceptable identifier here’ are the ones most featured. How do you get to go to these cool, (semi-) exclusive events if you don’t have the money, the wheelchair access, the right skin color, sex, or gender? Not to mention religion and countless other intersectional identifiers.

Oftentimes, much like in Lori Beth De Hertogh’s reading this Unit, women/people of color and poor people come as an afterthought in the quickly expanding virtual space (it allegedly just passed Twitter in users). As “The internet is sometimes extolled as a space where one can be or become anyone.” (Brophy 139), Snapchat seems to be a network that’s trying to be a space where—with a five second video, or an ill-chosen filter—anyone can do/be anything. Then why, exactly, is it so inaccessible/unrelatable for large swaths of the population?

[yungsluug-blog]

This unit’s readings were really interesting because they focus on something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately: “good” feminism vs. “bad” feminism, and how, in the realm of feminism and cyberfeminism, it seems like even “good” feminists and feminist spaces are problematic.

More specifically, I’ve noticed that it’s pretty difficult to find a feminist icon that hasn’t said or done something to reproduce inequalities in some way. Sylvia Plath, for example, is definitely one of my feminist icons, but one will find racial slurs scattered throughout her novel “The Bell Jar.” Another example is the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (a notorious feminist event built, staffed and attended only by women), which has caused controversy due to its trans-exclusionary, “women born women” policies. This creates a sort of “two steps forward, one step back” cycle of uplifting some women while oppressing others.

The issue is that people and events and spaces that claim to support women are only supporting certain women, and when you’re only supporting a fraction of women, no one is really benefiting. The internet is no exception; just as the personal is political, the internet is reality: “Internet practices of girls and self-identified women reveals…that they use the Internet to transform their material, corporeal lives in a number of complex ways that both resist and reinforce hierarchies of gender and race” (Daniels 101).

There are various feminist websites that, like Sylvia Plath and MWMF, choose to ignore certain members of their demographic. I took a look at an article on Unicorn Booty, an online news magazine, where author Kit Partin called out Jezebel, xoJane and Feministing for being feminist websites that conveniently “stayed relatively silent on police brutality issues.” Partin referenced an article on hellobeautiful.com called “ #SolidarityisSTILLforWhiteWomen: Feminist Sites Quiet On Ferguson & We’re So Not Surprised” describing the trend of feminists who are not interested in  “niche” women’s issues (like issues faced by poor women, or disabled women, or women of color) despite the fact that “if the feminist movement will continue to grow, it has to treat the concerns of women from all socioeconomic backgrounds equally.”

I don’t think there’s an easy solution to the perpetuating of oppression in feminist spaces, but I think it’s important to remember that “the internet is far from a postcorporeal utopia, but is instead a space which has retained a ‘cultural map of assumed whiteness’” (Magnet 588), and remember the importance of intersectionality.

sources:

Jessie Daniels (2009). “Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment.” Women’s Studies Quarterly

Shoshana Magnet (2007). “Feminist Sexualities, Race and the Internet: An Investigation of Suicidegirls.com.” New Media and Society.

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Do you think “good (cyber)feminism” vs. “bad (cyber)feminism”, in more academic terms, comes down to whether they “(…)reproduce rather than subvert white, heterosexual, masculine cultures and hierarchies of power.” (“Rethinking Cyberfeminisms” Daniels)? Because, it seems that the “good feminists” you kind of allude to would be ones that don’t contribute to hegemonic discourse.

But, what if the otherwise “good feminists” make themselves “bad feminists” by unconsciously (or consciously) reproducing these damaging ideas and cultural ‘norms’? Such as Sylvia Plath, operating under some problematic cultural norms for her time, or the music fest you refer to, or any person/event/media source/etc that follows this “two steps forward, one step back” cycle?

I mean, I get what you’re trying to wrap your head around here, and I also think about this problem a lot. However, I’d like to break it down a little further. Should a “good feminist” be concerned /only/ with “women’s issues”, whether cisgender or transgender or somewhere in between? Does the “bad feminist” show respect for intersectional issues that people of all gender identities face, without fully focusing on the intersectional issues of people who identify as women (cis, trans, or otherwise)?

Sometimes I have a lot more questions than I have answers. What I’m trying to say, hear, is that your post resonated with me—especially when you said that there’s no easy solution to the perpetuating of oppression in feminist spaces.

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Izzy finds examples of Cyberfeminism.

Ok, more academic part of the first week’s assignment:

I am going to be up front and be honest in that I didn’t read all of the readings for this unit. Why? Because the Faith Wilding article literally hurt to read. You would think with what the current feminist wave being super intersectional, they would consider that maybe whit text on a red background isn’t for everybody’s eyes... Anyhow, I would like to provide my example of a feminist campaign? Website? I personally think this link could be considered a campaign, but feel free to reblog/reply so we can discuss! https://www.reddit.com/r/feminism Traister probably appreciates this subreddit, especially if she is aware of the general stigma that reddit carries as a whole. Here are all sorts of ideas from all sorts of people that would make a younger her giddy to explore. Also, forth wave feminism lives here, I think. This is a perfect example of how the ‘millenial’ (and other) generation(s) think about and talk about feminism-- by putting everything out there at once, and listening/responding to new articles and questions and ideas almost instantaneously. And, what with the option to be anonymous or quite personal with your sources and comments? Perfect for discourse. Also, here’s a multimedia article that I think embodies this week’s unit, and that you all will enjoy! (This counts as a media source, right?) https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahjewell/things-you-realise-when-you-become-a-feminist?utm_term=.wwn58DnOV#.cnjylaPNZ

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Hi, I’m Izzy. Pt. 2.

The internet keeps me sane, at this point in my life. It connects me to places and ideas that aren’t Ft. Sam Houston or the Army. It’s a blessing and a curse and makes me hungry to learn more once I find something interesting or challenging to think about. Like cyberfeminism, and what it is/can be. (sidenote: i am the Grand Pubah of Grumpytown right now, so I promise my next posts will be more interesting)

[pornthrowaway6901-blog]

Hi, I’m Izzy. Pt. 1

Once upon a time, I was a smol queerby (queer baby) from Arizona, taking classes at the Arizona State University Tempe campus. Now, I am a slightly bigger queerby currently living on Ft Sam Houston, San Antonio, TX. 

I’m taking this class because I took a class with Rachel in Tempe, and it was amazing. Plus, women/gender studies and any topic surrounding the realm of feminism is absolutely fascinating for me. Also, let’s be real, I needed a 3 credit upper division or few to finish my degree.

Pt. 2 coming soon to a tumblr near you! (because i need to go do an army-type thing)