Blogging Feminism: (Web)Sites of Resistance
Contributors include Gwendolyn Beetham, Tracy L. M. Kennedy, Hosu Kim, Patricia G. Lange, Mary C. Matthews, Shireen Mitchell, Chris Nolan, Tedra Osell, Clancy Ratliff, Deborah Siegel, Shira Tarrant, Rebecca Traister, Jessica Valenti, Marie Varghese and Gillian Youngs.
As blogging has more widespread interest, especially vis-á-vis electoral politics, feminist activity on the internet has remained marginal to the mainstream. Thus, we were thrilled when Gwendolyn Beetham and Jessica Valenti proposed “Blogging Feminism: (Web)sites of Resistance” as a Scholar and Feminist Online journal topic, as well as a theme for a Barnard Center for Research on Women panel discussion. As Beetham and Valenti point out in their introduction, all too much feminist activity exists in the blogosphere invisibly. This theme runs through many of this journal’s contributions, and is taken up directly by Clancy Ratliff and Tedra Osell in the section entitled “Women and Politics in the Blogosphere.”
Another central aim of “Blogging Feminism” is bringing to the fore the innovative work developed by feminist bloggers, especially in the political realm. Marie Varghese’s piece, for example, insightfully points to the spaces available online for movement-making that are scarce or entirely absent in mainstream media, as she analyzes media representations of the horrific murder of Rashawn Brazell, a black gay teen. Mary Matthews, on the other hand, points to vlogs (video blogs) as another ripe site for feminist creativity. This issue of Scholar and Feminist Online aims to bring together feminist bloggers, vloggers, scholars and activists who create and analyze our virtual world.
Since the Internet is one of the main sites where young feminists articulate their vision, our web journal has often focused on topics that are particularly important to the lives of young feminists. Such issues include “Young Feminists Take on the Family” (Issue 2.3), “Feminist Television Studies: The Case of HBO” (Issue 3.1) and “Jewish Women Changing America: Cross-Generational Conversations” (Issue 5.1). “Blogging Feminism” continues to explore the wide range of activity to which young feminists devote themselves. Focal points for the works included in this issue include gender, cyber-activism, sexuality, race, class and globalization in the blogosphere and beyond.
We are particularly interested in how technological innovations help to transform the world by adding multiple voices to discussions and multiple forms of representations. As a result, this issue includes technological innovations for S&F Online. Taking full advantage of the interactive nature of the Internet, “Blogging Feminism” includes a new blog section where readers can post comments during the week following the journal’s launch (May 1-8, 2007). Prominent feminist bloggers, the issue’s contributors and our readership have been invited to participate. Additionally, this issue includes the video and transcript of the November 2006 panel discussion on blogging and feminism, featuring Lauren Spees, Michelle Riblett ’05 (Hollaback), Alice Marwick (Tiara) and Liza Sabater (Culture Kitchen), and moderated by Gwendolyn Beetham and Jessica Valenti. The video of the 2006 panel has also been posted on YouTube as an additional way to expand our audience and the conversation. We hope you will join the conversation.