VIRTUAL FEMINISMS

Abstract

While feminist media scholars have recognized the growing importance of feminist blogs, such as Jezebel, Racialicious, and Feministe, to contemporary feminism, the contribution of girls to this feminist blogosphere remains understudied. In this paper, the author addresses this research gap by investigating the complex and diverse ways that girls are using blogging communities to participate in a feminist political activism that reflects their needs as contemporary young feminists within a neoliberal cultural context. This analysis draws upon two case studies of popular blogs by teenage feminists, and interviews that were conducted with four girl bloggers who participated in these two communities. The author argues that through the practice of blogging, teenage girls are actively reframing what it means to participate in feminist politics, drawing on opportunities that the Internet provides to embrace new understandings of community, activism, and even feminism itself.

Keywords:

• feminism
• girls’ studies
• new media
• blogging
• activism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Mary Celeste Kearney at the University of Texas at Austin for her comments on earlier drafts of this paper, as well as Dr Leslie Regan Shade and Dr Lynn Schofield Clark for their interest in publishing this research. Finally, I would like to thank the girl bloggers I interviewed – without them, this project would have been impossible.

Notes

All names are pseudonyms in order to protect the privacy of my respondents.

Two of the interviews were conducted via a series of emails, one was conducted in person, and one was conducted in a phone conversation.

It is important to recognize that despite the continual spread of new media technologies, the ‘digital divide’ remains a reality for many people both inside and outside of the United States. Issues of access to technology continue to be important for scholars to consider, as well as the ways in which unequal access impacts what kinds of content we see (and do not see) online.

Jane Hunter (2002) provides a fascinating discussion of girls’ writing in school newspapers advocating for women's suffrage during the late 1800s. This type of girls’ engagement, despite being overtly political, is often overlooked as feminist activism.

I am referring here to films distributed by traditional means, such as DVD and not films posted to online video sharing sites, such as YouTube. Online distribution of films would fall into my discussion of online content.

Research such as that done by Livingstone et al. (2007), indicate that one's civic engagement online is significantly influenced by offline demographic factors. However, this research does not focus specifically on feminism, and thus, more audience research specifically related to feminist websites needs to be done in order to determine how – or if – online feminist content reaches non-feminist readers.

I am basing this statement on self-descriptions by commenters. For example, commenters would occasionally mention their race or ethnicity (black, Jewish), their gender, or their specific age. I do not want to imply that the Internet is accessible to everyone and I recognize the barriers that the digital divide creates, both nationally and internationally. Additionally, The Seventeen Magazine Project may not be accessible to those who do not speak English or those not familiar with Seventeen Magazine, for example.