vintagewinegrump-blog

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Cyberfeminism and a Woman's Right to Education

Reference

(2017, April 26).  Womens Right To Education. [Web log]. Retrieved from http://womensrights2education-blog.tumblr.com/ 

            AFP. (2015). ISIS executing ‘educated women’ in new wave of horror, says U.N. Al Arabiya Network. Retrieved from http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/01/20/ISIS-executing-educated-women-in-new-wave-of-horror-says-U-N-.html

Busari, S. (2016, October 17). Tearful scenes as kidnapped Chibok girls reunited with families.  CNN.  Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/17/africa/chibok-girls-boko-haram-released-reunited/

            Daniels, J. (2009). Rethinking cyberfeminism(s): race, gender, and embodiment.  Women’s Studies Quarterly.  37(1-2), 101-124.  Retrieved from https://myasucourses.asu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_15122273_1&course_id=_350415_1

          Kember, S. (2012). Notes towards a feminist futurist manifesto. Ada: A Journal Of Gender, New Media, and Technology, (1) doi:10.7264/N3057CV3. 

              Selwyn, B. (2016). Manifestations of the hidden curriculum. Word Press. Retrieved from https://manifestationsofthehiddencurriculum.wordpress.com/

Wilding, F. (1997). Where is feminism in cyberfeminism? Old Boys Network. Retrieved from http://www.obn.org/cfundef/faith_def.html. 

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

     I must mention that this one of the most thought provoking posts to date that I have read in this course!  The statement “Formation of in-groups automatically creates out-groups, those who are excluded from the conversation and activism” as you wrote is worth commenting on.  There are always going to be those who agree and disagree with various activism issues and there may be agreement with a issue; however, as we are learning in cyber activism, there is always going to be disagreement of the best way to address the issue.  Feminism is fluid and technology within cyber feminism activism is making the changes quicker and reaching more people than ever before; however, there are still marginalized groups who are not part of the discussions.  There are still those who do not have access to or the technological know-how to add more seeds to the discussions of cyber feminist discourse.  And, many times as cyber feminism provokes awareness of inequalities there is, as Sara Kember (2012) writes, “a tendency to speak in order to be right or ‘in fact, to put someone else in the wrong’” (para. 7).  Feminism is the opportunity for women to participate equally without discrimination and bias, and futuristic feminism activism will be transformed and carried into the future by technology that has yet to be discovered reaching marginalized and non-marginalized groups equally.  It is exciting to think about! 

                                                     Reference

          Kember, S. (2012). Notes towards a feminist futurist manifesto. Ada: A Journal  Of Gender, New Media, and Technology, (1) doi:10.7264/N3057CV3.  

(Response 14 - vintagewinegrump)

The Things That Bind Us

(Source)

If there is one thing this course has taught me, it would be how easy it is for an idea to reach people. The online actions of one person, be it Beyoncé, Signe Pierce in American Reflexxx, or even a webcam performer, can reach millions. Intentional or not, the dissemination of information has sparked conversations and encouraged people to utilize the internet as a tool for feminist collaboration and activism. These collaborations unite us by giving us spaces to transcend our physical selves and interact with those who may believe in our causes. The internet has provided countless platforms to push back against that which oppresses us, either online or in real life. Conversations which occur in chat rooms and on subreddits are transformed into physical action.

It’s always easy though, to gloss over the negative aspects of this heightened sense of collaboration and increased pushback against oppressive formations. I think the biggest issue facing feminist groups is inherent to any collaboration. Formation of in-groups automatically creates out-groups, those who are excluded from the conversation and activism. Cyberfeminist collaborations are subject to a tyranny of the majority, and this has been seen many times, especially for those who are trans, or young, or a person of color. Feminism is not only for white women, and although cyberfeminist collaborations are increasingly including underrepresented groups, there is still much work to do. 

So, what do we do going forward? The world around is changing. We always have access to the internet of things; anything is at our fingertips: food from any restaurant, insight to our acquaintance’s lives, or even hookups. “These emergent technosciences – Facebook and Google – seek to reinforce a notion of everyday life even as they change it almost beyond recognition” (Kember, 2012). The gradual change feels unassuming and normal until we look back. Five years ago, “Overly Attached Girlfriend” and “Gangnam Style” were going viral. Don’t they seem ancient now? Internet history moves so fast. The world may move too quickly, and there may be no place for an overhaul of thought. Cyberfeminist interventions may simply need the seeds for us to view our online content through a feminist lens.

(Source 1 and 2) 

Feminism, though, will grow and develop as our relationship to the online world continues in flux. As Kember states in her piece, Notes Towards a Future Feminist Manifesto, there is a “tendency in current forms of theorizing to regard processes of affect and relationality as solutions to asymmetries of power rather than as questions we have begun to pose to them” (2012). Recognition of ways to create spaces and solve problems are only the first step for a cyberfeminist intervention and cyberfeminist-welcoming future. 

What will this intervention look like? Well, I would argue that it might not seem like an intervention at all. In fact, I think we all might take a note from Tavi Gevinson, a young person. At 11, Tavi Gevinson had a fashion blog called Style Rookie, which gained notoriety quickly. The publicity she had magnified the criticisms and uncertainty she had through her teenage years. She was always at a crossroads, “you can’t be smart and pretty, you can’t be a feminist who’s interested in fashion, you can’t care about clothes unless it’s for the sake of what other people, usually men, will think of you” (Gevinson, 2012). She realized that reconciling her confusion became easier when she realized that as a feminist, she didn’t have to play by a rulebook and that she could, as a woman, figure things out and change her mind. 

I honestly believe that this realization, for people everywhere, will be the basis of cyberfeminism. Feminism is not a code of conduct for how to act, whether in real life or online. It is, however, a mindset to experience, think, and support that which serves you and those who advocate for.  

Tavi launched a magazine, Rookie, in September of 2011. In her first editorial, she commented, “Rookie is not your guide to Being a Teen. It is not a pamphlet on How to Be a Young Woman. It is, quite simply, a bunch of writing and art we like and believe in.” Rookie is a space for young women to be represented, and to inspire them to give themselves “permission to ask their own questions and find their own answers” (Gevinson, 2012). I think this a beautiful thing. Online, we can abandon the façade we put up for real life and create these large collaborative spaces where we can all use each other to help us figure out what we actually support.

(Source)

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Dissembling Empowerment

             “The internet has created a whole new venue for reaching teens and, at the same time, a way to exploit their affective labor” (Martens, 2011, p. 57).  The internet can be both empowering and exploitive simultaneously.  Young individuals who want to feel empowered and connected to an online community by sharing their opinions and portraying their talents in cyber space are being exploited by companies for huge financial gain.  Unfortunately, companies are using affect to their advantage by using these online consumers to further market products under the guise that young individuals are empowered by sharing.  And yet, young individuals are excited by the prospect of having a voice and even sharing ideas for future products (Martens, 2011, p. 56).

            Affective labor, or labor completed freely and willingly while producing worth for the user gives young individuals a sense of empowerment by participating in commodified labor while inciting feelings of excitement, passion, and accomplishment for the consumer (Marten, 2011, p. 50).  Young individuals are excited by participating in an online forum where they can feel a sense of inclusion for a book, movie, or music; the shared interest that binds young individuals to an online community.  There are those online who have empowered themselves while empowering young individuals, for instance Geena Rocero, a transgender Filipino model, TED speaker, and transgender advocate. However; Geena is the rare case and has become commodified by marketing brands (i.e. Cover Girl) for their financial gain and hers too, of course.  Yet; by becoming marketed Geena draws awareness to transgender discourse.  Although, empowering for talented producers there is disempowerment because of commercialization of that producer by marketing brands.

              Consumer beware and read the fine print when sharing ideas!  Many companies such as Random House (Marten, 2011, p.55) are using to their advantage websites where fans of a book, music, or movie can come together and share their ideas and opinions.  “By posting messages, sending emails…you are granting [company] royalty free licensing to display and copy such communication” (Marten, 2011, p.55).  By using affective labor, companies are taking advantage of these free ideas to generate content or improve products; whereby, are then reproduced and remarketed back out to the consumer without compensation to the young individual who created the idea online.  Although; cyber space has given users a medium for sharing their ideas and giving them a sense of empowerment there are companies taking advantage of the free implied consent that cyber space grants to better market their brands.   

                                                 Reference

            Marten, M. (2011). Transmedia teens: affect, immaterial labor, and user-generated content. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 17(1), 49-68. doi:10.1177/1354856510383363.

(Post WK 13)

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Response vintagewinegrump

          “Sex work falls into the realm of digital labour that is too fun to count as work” (Ruberg, 2016, p. 152).  The reality of sexual labor for the performers in CAM GIRLZ involves making and keeping up the persona of fantasy that is costly to personal time and resources.  A great amount of labor by these performers goes into creating a persona, there is tremendous pressure to acquire more clients, to keep the “visiting” clients interested that they return to become regulars, and in retaining their best clients.  Camming is viewed as a less dangerous form of sex work, but is that really true?  Although, the CAM GIRLZ speak to empowerment in their labor, there are still harmful factors of exploitation and humiliation.  There are client requests that are so sexually expletive that the performer is unwilling to perform the act and risk losing a client.  There is the humiliation to the performer by clients who devalue the women with sexually violent comments.  There is also an increased chance of image sharing and exploitation of the performers work to other pornographic websites.  To paraphrase one performer as you did, “we are simply ones and zeroes”; thus removing identity and reality.  What are the dark and dangerous risks to camming that were not portrayed in CAM GIRLZ to both performer and audience?

                                                 Reference

          Ruberg, C. (2016). Doing it for free: digital labour and the fantasy of amateur online  pornography. Porn Studies 3(2), 147-159. doi:10.1080/23268743.216.1184477.

“One of my best clients - I knew that he was married and had a kid, and he sent me an email one day that he was leaving his wife and moving to where I was so we could be together… because he was in love with me. And I was like, ‘What are you talking about? This is a business relationship.’”

This recollection comes from one of the stars of CAM GIRLZ, Ginger Meadows (aka @gingervitis23), appearing around the 37-minute mark.

“There’s this huge dichotomy between how I feel about myself and my job when I’m working, and how I feel about myself and my job when I’m in public and telling people what I do for a living.”

The quote above, also from Meadows, also struck me as important because it relates to a visual aspect of the film I found really fascinating: The way things are framed for cam sessions. Furthermore, what is left out of frame, just beyond the open gaze of the webcam. In one of the opening scenes, an early subject is shown resting her laptop and webcam on a child’s step stool, likely that of her young son. Next to her, outside the frame of the cam, lies a neon green and orange toy gun, also her son’s.

These elements, which would “break form” or bring the viewer back to the reality of it all - that this is simply a business transaction made between a viewing audience and women with lives outside the internet - fascinate me as pieces within a larger visual narrative. Many of the women have a sort of “space” that delineates where they cam from the rest of their living quarters. Take Princess Hunny (@hunnybearr), who has a special corner draped in white ruffles and metallic letters that spell out “SPANK ME”, lifted from the aesthetics of a young teen girl’s bedroom. She waves around a Star Wars lightsaber and makes sound effects to the audience. This visual framework is a kind of labor, one that must be maintained in order for the subject to be seen as legible, as desirable, as “real”, even in her constructed world of sexual fantasy. 

In this specific instance, fandom culture and camming culture come together to make the subject “doubly disadvantaged” when it comes to being recognized for her work as a digital laborer. She does the work, thought it may seem “too fun” to count as real or valid as a form of labor for monetary exchange (Ruberg, 152). What is real work? And does unreal work make the laborer also unreal, also unintelligible? 

These binaries and strict dichotomies - between viewer and performer; between real and unreal; between personal and professional - must be upheld in order for everyone to survive. In “a community that blurs the line between creators and consumers”, leaving their wives may seem perfectly normal to ardent male cam audiences. Here, they are both the consumer and an executive producer of the fantasy worlds these women populate (Ruberg, 148). Though this mindset is misguided, 

Radhika Gajjala speaks to brown subjects being turned into an “algorithm/category by a conglomerate of individuals and groups, which work to serve up ideal, and appropriately grateful, racialized bodies… The affective transaction between the lending Self and distant, borrowing Other relies on both a data-ization (or virtualization) and a rematerialization of both the consumer and the producer…”

The author further problematizes the value placed upon nonwestern subjects (the ”Other”) during simulation of “a level playing field between both partners in the global socioeconomic transaction” (218). Similar critique can be woven into the fabric of CAM GIRLZ - and likely the overall camming experience, which is shown through the film’s subjects as white, able-bodied, and mostly not fat, though not in strict adherence to standards of emphasized femininity. When seen through a lens of the racist and imperialistic machinations produced and reinforced by (digital) global capitalism, what bodies are most profitable? Who must labor most, and least, to achieve their sociopolitical, monetary, and/or emotional goals (Ruberg, 154)? Furthermore, what labor do the majority white bodies need not perform in order to be likable? Are they already seen as worthy of investment (through praise, follows, and precious tokens)?

The answer may be obvious enough. Yet in the end, to paraphrase one cammer, we are all simply ones and zeroes.

- Blythe

@wst394cyberfeminisms

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Trans Women Are Not Women???

                                Trans Women Are Not Women???

            Ivan Fahy, an Irish model who identifies as gender expressive, androgynous, and non-binary, is a trans vlogger who uses such mediums as Facebook, Tumblr, and YouTube to break down gender norms and social boundaries around sexuality.  Just a quick note that Ivan uses the male pronoun and as such I will use the male pronoun to refer to Ivan. In the YouTube vlog entitled “Trans Women Are Not Women???”, he discusses his views on the topic of transwomen

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4jw993cjsk

  and argues that they are indeed women despite arguments by some feminists that transwomen are not women.  His viewpoint is expressed through experiences and privilege, noting that women from varying cultures experience diversity and thus not all women experience womanhood in the same way. 

            Ivan’s activism for transwomen through is expressionism of modeling, vlogging, and by hosting numerous workshops on such subjects as being LGBT, anti-homophobic, and transphobic bullying are synonymous with feminist activism; whereby, he focuses on abolishing gender role expectations for different races, classes, and genders.  He parallels transwomen and women’s experiences of sexism, misogyny, gender-based discrimination, sexualization, and objectification as similar discriminations and mutually inclusive.  He demonstrates quite well resistance, activism, and community amongst transwomen while recognizing the rejection of transwomen experiences by exclusionary feminist theorists.     

            In my opinion, he falls short on his theory of male privilege.  I assert his views of white, male privilege are unsophisticated.  He emphasizes that although he is a white male and has access to male privilege, he does not identify with cis normative male roles; therefore, he must sacrifice male privilege.  He is unable to be himself in expressionism of clothing and make-up choices which are female gender markers to society and this is used against him.  As a way of passing or being perceived as to belonging Ivan need only remove markers of female portrayal.  Society will recognize Ivan as a white male and thus will bring about gender cohesiveness and will remove gender confusion from societal view.  In other words, once Ivan is visibly male and this agrees with his being male at birth the roles are in agreement and he will once again be white, male and privileged according to society.

            Ivan Fahy lets individuals know that trans people can construct and have control over the way they present.  He creates a sense of community, empathy, and acceptance to viewers that may otherwise be vulnerable by encouraging the individual to take control over shaping themselves and their domain (Horak, 2014, p. 582).                            

                                                 Reference

     Fahy, I. (2017, March 22). Trans Women Are Not Women??? [YouTube].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4jw993cjsk.

      Horak, L. (2014). Trans on youtube intimacy, visibility, temporality. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. 1(4), 572-585. doi:10.1215/23289252-285255.

                                             (WST394 Post 11)

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

     Clearly social media, through such sites as Facebook have strong influence on affective economies.  As anyone who has a Facebook account can attest to, the comments of others can have a strong impact on the Facebook user.  The comments posted by others can instill anxiety, sadness, and fear.  This is evident in your post and how you refer to having logged on to Facebook happy only to have logged off sad after having read comments from “friends” and then how these feelings are carried with you throughout the rest of your day.

     Facebook can be used as a tool for self-promotion, it can assist in establishing connectivity, and it can be used as a venue for networking (Horning, 2014, p.11).  However; how can a Facebook user feel any sense of true personal connection when a user has hundreds of friends?  Facebook creates an illusion of belonging and acceptance to a multitude of others.  Social media creates a false sense of control and manageability of self-identity and presentation to the invisible audience.  “The connection of social media is ambiguous while always being responsive to social anxiety and curiosity” (Horning, 2014, P. 11).   

                                              Reference

     Horning, R. (2014), Reparative compulsions. #Social media anxieties a zine on digital Failure and attachment. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/socialmediaanxieties/docs/_sma

                                    (Response vintagewinegrump)

Facebook and Affect

The site I am choosing to analyze is Facebook. Specifically, Tanya Kant’s article which looks at Facebook and the role that affect plays in the application. Affect plays a big role in the Facebook app. The Facebook app claims that it allows for users to express themselves, but is this really true? Through this study, it was clear that Facebook allows us to express ourselves, promote ourselves and appeal to the invisible audience, but it also how auto posts change our identity in a way. Kant concludes that apps can be looked at as a “social network activity” which may act on the user’s behalf by posting for them. Apps like Spotify have the potential to intervene and mess up the staged performance that users are trying to create ultimately. The fact that these auto-posts are happening makes it clear that they are helping write our identities for us and perform for us. These apps have even the potential to affect us in our everyday lives and outside of the social media realm. These apps also have the potential to change us and make us more normative than we want to be. Kant is ultimately conceptualizing Facebook as an identity performance for an invisible audience. Obviously, affect or emotion on Facebook plays a big role. Sites like Spotify that bring up songs from the past (without asking permission in the now) are stirring up all different kinds of emotions without our permission. Facebook and other apps that auto-post for us create affect, which then has an effect on how we view ourselves and how we identify ourselves. Overall, when I think about it and analyze this article, I think that affect plays even a bigger role in the social world than I thought. These auto-posts I have been seeing have definitely affected how I have felt for the rest of the day, or how someone may have even thought about me. Facebook literally can write our story for us, stir up emotions for us, be us. This is really weird to think about considering I have gone on Facebook happy and gotten off sad. Affect clearly plays a big role here, from auto-posts, and just in general to creating a profile that appeals to an invisible audience. The link below is to an article about data collection and how cookies are collected which creates the ads we see online. kinda interesting! 

https://blog.adroll.com/product/how-do-advertising-cookies-work

picture: https://www.google.com/search?q=cookies&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNsZ64huzSAhVmilQKHZszDm8Q_AUICCgB&biw=1278&bih=655#imgrc=1CrkiW2VlGLIVM:

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Fear - A Four Letter Word

(WST394-WK 9)

                                           Fear – A Four Letter Word

            There is a quote by William Shakespeare that states, “In time we hate that which we often fear”.  In Sara Ahmed’s article Affective Economies (2004), she states that “it is the failure of emotions to be located in a body, object, or figure that allows emotions to (re)produce or generate the effects that they do” (p. 124).  Human nature is such that we tend to fear that which we do not understand and this is hardwired into us.  Emotions are an impulse to act, and fear triggers hormones that place the body on alert, making it ready for action, fight-or-flight.   

          Thus, the COMMENT section!  It is easier to be honest and forthright when we can displace any connection to a real person, such as in the video American Reflexxx.  The actress, by wearing a reflective mask, removed identity.  This allowed the crowd to displace any emotion to the human behind the mask; thereby, making the actress a target of aggression because the crowd did not understand the “object” (American Reflexxx, 2013).  This short film mirrors the comment section on YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.

Affect is also demonstrated in the comments on the YouTube video Cliteracy (from WST313: Women and Sexuality): 

             Cliteracy – Sophie Wallace – TEDxSalford  

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg2RoARuAHM

In most cases, just the word clit raises eyebrows, creates discomfort, and is taboo by societal standards to discuss.  Female sexuality, desire, and sexual response are important topics of discussion within the feminist perspective.  The comments following this video are a mixture of support and negative; a good example of affective economy.  For instance, Elizabeth Bradley writes (2015), in part,

            “Amazing and brave! Here's hoping this movement will shift 4000 years of patriarchal terror (hatred) of female sexuality!”

And, Kyle Hahn writes (2015), in part,

             “This chick is a typical man-hater. She starts off with misinformation like saying vagina means "sword holder" playing on the fears of women that men only want to thrust themselves into women in some sort of conquest”.  

              As part of the Cliteracy project, Sophie Wallace posted a short discussion of the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u54YSnkog5U.  

Take a good look at the comments section as this too is clearly a good example of affective economy online. The comments from both examples above focus on a circulation of emotions between people and between people and objects/images, which focuses on emotions that one feels and also the emotions the comments elicit.  

                                              Reference

Pierce, S. & Coates, A. (2015, April 7). American Reflexxx. [YouTube]. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXn1xavynj8

Wallace, S. (2013, August 29). Sophie Wallace on Cliteracy. [YouTube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u54YSnkog5U

Wallace, S. (2015, July 5). Cliteracy. [YouTube]. TedxSalford. Retrieved from    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg2RoARuAHM.

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Do You Hear Me?

                                             Do You Hear Me?                                          

            There are so many challenges that face women today that could benefit from a feminist perspective and discussion.  Women today are still faced with gender-based income inequality, sexual violence, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and reproductive choice rights, to name just a few of the many issues that could benefit from a cyber-feminist perspective.  However, how will women gain on their political activism if their voices are not heard?  The most challenging issue today is valuing the women who express their opinions and speak up to challenge gender norms and patriarchal control over women’s issues and have the ability to do so without harassment and threats of violence into silence.  If voices are silenced there are no discussions, there are no opinions, and the advancement of a feminist agenda are futile.    

            Women, historically, have been held to a dominant/subordinate paradigm with women primarily in the subordinate role.  Women are expected to have no opinion and if she expresses a strong opinion she is labeled “bossy”, “demanding”, and a “bitch”.  This name calling is society’s way of asserting control over her behavior, a form of communicating to her that she has no valuable opinion and therefore should remain silent.  Assertiveness and expressions of opinions of society’s injustices against women attracts harassment and bullying on social media in the forms of trolls who are in it for the fun.  Trolls thrive on exerting a strong and violent reaction from a blogger or author for the trolls’ own enjoyment, for sport.  These trolls and others who hide behind anonymity online are asserting control of women to be quiet.  These trolls are exerting real world society control online in an attempt to douse the spirit of challenging society’s gender expectations of women. 

            Many bloggers are harassed at such violent levels that they choose to terminate their online writings.  Woman blogger Lindy West describes in the Podcast “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT ALL IN CAPS” (2016), where she talks about the realities of being a strong woman blogger and activist online (This American Life).  She states that people respond to her many blogs with unkind words such as “fat”, “ugly”, “not a real journalist” and she has even gone as far as to confront her trolls (This American Life, 2016).  Kathy Sierra, a blogger on Twitter, chose to end her writings after receiving many threats of violence over many years, which included threats against her family and death threats (Croeser, 2016, para. 17).  There are numerous other feminist bloggers who have been threatened into utter silence!  Author Whitney Philips (2016), argues that “Not only does the act of trolling replicate gendered notions of dominance and success, it also exhibits a profound sense of entitlement, one spurred by expansionist and colonialist ideologies” (Croeser, para. 27).  Feminist voices are being silenced out of fear!

           Activist Laurie Penny writes (2013), “The hatred of women in public spaces online is reaching epidemic levels and it's time to end the pretense that it's either acceptable or inevitable." (Watson, para. 4).  Women pay a very high price to be heard.  Women activists and bloggers are on the receiving end of name calling, scorn, ridicule, and threats of violence all for communicating what they believe or for pointing out social injustices that affect women.  Without these feminist activists and their contributions to feminist discourse, there are no more conversations of women’s issues, there are no more opportunities for meaningful engagement of a multitude of social issues facing women today, and the voices will eventually all fall silent!            

                                           References

     (2015, January 23). If you don’t have anything nice to say, say it all in caps. This American Life. Podcast retrieved from https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/545/if-you-dont-have-anything-nice-to-say-say-it-in-all-caps

     Croeser, S. (2016). Thinking beyond ‘free speech’ in responding to online harassment.  A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology. 10, doi:10.7264/N35Q4TC4.

     Watson, T. (2013). Cyberfeminism and its cost: fighting back against online misogyny. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2013/09/23/cybersexism-and-its-cost-fighting-back-against-online-misogyny/#799a914ed38d

                                (Midterm Project-WST394)

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Women’s Reproductive Rights from Marches to Cyber-Space

           It is with the death last week of “Jane Roe”, whose real name was Norma McCrovey, the central figure of the early 1970’s in the abortions rights issues (link to article http://thetab.com/us/2017/02/20/jane-roe-legacy-61117), and the ruling by a federal judge this week preventing Texas from cutting off Medicaid money to Planned parenthood (link to article http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/21/judge-blocks-texas-from-cutting-medicaid-funding-to-planned-parenthood.html) that I felt it is once again time to speak about a women’s right to reproductive choice and how this voice has changed from the 1970’s to now.  The foundation of feminist theory is the idea of sexual politics; a women’s body, both in and outside of intimate relationships are positions of patriarchal control and are spaces where women are most oppressed. The control over women’s bodies by intimate partner, family, community, society and the state demonstrates itself in sexual and reproductive rights.  In the 1970’s the voices for reproductive rights were heard in the streets with marches and today with technology these voices are projected on to blogs like the  

(Link to website: http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/category/reproductive-choice/)

And on Tumblr (screen shot of my search on “reproductive rights” included).  Try it, the list goes on and on and on….           

          One of the major benefits of cyberfeminism on the reproductive rights debate is the expanded audience that can now be reached on the web in contrast to the public, physical marches of the past.  Historically, feminist activism was dependent on women assembling in physical locations such as assembly halls or in the streets, or in private places such as homes to plan their public campaigns for political and legal empowerment.  The limitations of physical space and audience were challenges to a women’s reproductive rights movement.  With the development of new technologies and communication there is an emergence of the cyberspace platform for women to utilize and expand upon.  A feminist internet allows us to harness the power of the internet to convey the realities of women’s lives to the world.  Although, this is an empowering tool there are limitations involved with cyber space; these include limitations to audience based on social inequality with regard to access to, use of, impact of, and the socio-economic inequality of information and communication technology, or what is otherwise known as the digital divide (Hong, 2016).  Regardless of the limitations, the fluidity of feminism from the street marches to the cyberfeminisim of new technology on reproductive rights activism is immensely expansive.  

                                           Reference

Hong, E. (2016). Digital inequality and racialized place in the 21st

century: a case study of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

First Monday. Retrieved from

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6196/5187

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

           Your comment of “Growing up I felt like I had a whole new identity…I could be whoever I wanted, I could identify as anything…’people’ knew me only as the person I portrayed to be over the internet” is a reflection of my thoughts as I was reading Developing a Corporeal Cyberfeminsim by J. Brophy (2013). 

“A user’s experience is a performance in which both the agency of the users and the apparatus come into play” (Brophy, 2013, p.156)

This entire sentence really articulates to me how the real and virtual can become blurred.  It reminds me of an actor/actress preparing for a role in a play/movie in which; although, the actor/actress is playing a role he/she is still inserting or relying on learned experiences to create the character.  "A new cyberfeminism would take into account the user’s experiences as a whole rather than trying to separate the mind/body dualism" (Brophy, 2013, p. 156)  As much as one tries to “create” an alter identity in cyberspace the realities of life intrude and reminds us that we are real and creating a role(s) to “play” online.  And, just as the roles change dependent on the movie subject, the roles online change dependent on the site used (ex. Facebook, Tumblr, etc.), wouldn’t you agree?   

Reference

Brophy, J. (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.  

Week 5

This week of readings were a slight challenge for me. Understanding corporeal cyberfeminism took some time, but throughout the articles I grasped bits and pieces. Was this a problem for any of you? Reality can be lost while on the internet, as well as blurred. Jessica Brophy had explained in Developing a Corporeal Cyberfeminism: Beyond Cyberutopia that people connect to themselves online and create them selfs as cyberselves. They had learned this creation of cyberselves through watching chat rooms and interviews. These cyberselves are given genders and indignities through the slang term of ASL. ASL stands for age sex and location. By the internet giving real life people the ability to create their own identity over the internet, real life people are allowing the cyberworld to be another form of reality. This form of reality allows people to hide behind their screens. Hiding behind screens gives people the freedom to harass the people of the internet. People are easily able to express sexism, racism, and many more different forms of hate over the internet. Brophy had noted that, “Cyberfeminists should not understand cyberspace as a utopian replacement for the spaces of lived experiences, but rather as an augmentation of those spaces. These complex inter-relations should not be reduced to a bifurcation of online and offline where either is considered entirely separate from and unaffected by the other; rather, the material conditions of the offline world need to remain visible to scholars,” (Brophy 142). As a woman, who has grew up with technology as one of my main form of communication. Like observed, I was also in chatrooms and a participant of one who used instant messaging. Growing up I felt like I had a whole new identity and was a new person while online. I could be whoever I wanted, I could identify as anything. The internet was truly an embodied experience for me. I had made many friends online, who knew me only has the person i portrayed to be over the internet. Did others do the same? Did you experience the internet the same as I did? Did you create a new identity?

https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/sep/24/online-offline-personality-digital-identity

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Feministing (Post #4)

                                            Feministing

            Feministing (included is the link http://feministing.com/) is a feminist website founded in 2004 by Jessica Valenti for young women as a platform for offering a “bold, snarky voice for young feminists in the media” (Feministing, 2017).  It is a space that encourages feminist exchange of ideas while supporting feminist activism and is a way for young women to connect with feminist organizations and grassroots activists (Feministing, 2017).  The Feministing staff is, according to the website, diverse with regards to race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and geography (Feministing, 2017). 

            Feministing; although, a catalyst for young feminist with a diverse team, continues to perpetuate the oppression they work so diligently to fight against.  As theorists like Lori Kendall state, the vision of cyberspace as viewed in a utopian lens finds that social hierarchies continue to be replicated online (Schwartz, 2016).  The following is an excerpt from Feministing “What Is Not Allowed in the Comments Section and the Community Site” section, “Sexism, racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and hate speech have no place here” and such comments that violate their policy will be flagged, deleted and if such comments continue the author will be banned from their website (Feministing, 2017).  And, yet, the following is from their website and Facebook page: 

               This image is in response, according to Maya Dusenbery the Executive Director of Feministing, to racist police violence and brutality, a part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.  To some this is a depiction of empowerment against an oppressive state and police brutality and to others this depicts a response of violence against police.  In today’s society, people are demanding to be viewed as individuals and not on the basis of race and stereotyping based on one’s ethnicity.  Does this not apply to the stereotyped depictions of ALL police because of the actions of one police officer?  Did Feministing violate its own policy of “hate speech has no place here”?

            Feministing, a place for resistance against racist, sexist, ageist, transphobic, sizeism, ableism, homophobic language or ideas, is beneficial to providing a forum of communication and activism for feminist ideology and yet, this forum continues to perpetuate the same oppression they speak out against.  Sky Croser (2016) writes free speech reinforces a host of exclusions, is an expression of incorrect ideas, and yet, is the building block of truth-seeking and discovery.  The downside to resistance in cyber space is ‘real life’ contaminates and continues to discriminate using gender, class, and race discrimination and hierarchies (Magnet, 2007).   

                                              References

Bolger, D. & Brodsky, A. Feministing.  Center for Sex & Culture, 2017, http://feministing.com/.   Accessed 31 January 2017

Croeser, S. (2016). Thinking beyond ‘free speech’ in responding to online harassment.  A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology. 10, doi:10.7264/N35Q4TC4.

Magnet, S. (2007). Feminist sexualities, race and the internet, an investigation of suicidegirls.com. New Media, and Technology. 9(4), 577-602,             doi:1177/1461444807080326

Prime, M. Image retrieved from http://feministing.com/2015/06/10/image-of-the-day-black-girls-matter/

Schwartz, A. (2016). Critical blogging: constructing femmescapes online.  A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, 9, doi:107264/N32Z13S5.

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

           Social media has multiple forums that allow for one to post their feelings to cyber space and to debate the injustices in the world.  However; as we learned from our readings this week, there are downsides to social media and its ability for anyone to voice their true feelings anonymously.  The anonymity afforded online can bring out the dark impulses that might otherwise be oppressed.  In fact, internet trolls, a person who provokes emotional responses by disrupting normal discussions do so for “sport”.  The troll posts inflammatory comments in the hopes of creating strong emotional response all for their own amusement.  Just as is expressed in this post, social media outlets allow for unremarkably crude and harsh comments, so much so that those who are posting are choosing to disable the comment sections in an attempt to avoid the negativity.  The inability to comment freely regardless of it being considered objectionable, harmful, or inconvenient is a right protected by the First Amendment in the U.S Constitution.  So in effect, is the disabling of comments a form of censorship?  Or, is the right to free speech as it applies to social media a topic that needs to be considered? 

Porn Clichés in Virtual Reality

(source)

Ben Sullivan talked about virtual reality porn and how much this technology can completely change the way people experience porn–you could be anyone, do whatever sex act you please with as many people you want. Of course, the VR videos available are the same old sex fantasy–you’re a white male with a, “bronzed six-pack” about to, “…receive oral sex from two women…” One of the main reasons why these clichés continue to be mass produced, at least right now, is because the technology to make VR is expensive and the only companies that are able to afford that expense are Pornhub and Brazzers–which sticks to the mainstream stereotypes that straight white men typically like, also known as “conservative” porn. Studios that are more, as described, “indie,” and are just starting are having a more difficult time getting to express their creativity through the VR experience.

What I really enjoyed from this article is the other ideas that UK sex blogger Erika Lust had for the VR headsets:

“‘That can be a great thing for women, and for people in general,’ she said. ‘Just in terms of expanding empathy, imagine everything you could do with VR. Imagine putting someone into the position of being a woman walking home in the night and being followed… Scary, yes, but a reality for many,’ she said.” (x)

Like Buzzfeed’s video, What It’s Like To Be A Woman Online, they mentioned twitter as one of their social media outlets. I would agree that within the website there are the crude, harsh, and sexist tweeters that can definitely make women, and even transgender, feel unsafe and uncomfortable. If you do get a compliment, it has to be about your body… If you ignore them, you’re a crazy, raging bitch for not saying thank you, giving them a chance, or sending nudes back to unwanted dick pictures. I think anytime I mention the word, “feminist/feminism,” it’s like I can feel men roll their eyes into the back of their close-minded heads. Instead of realizing our struggle, they say we should appreciate the creepy/inappropriate compliments or say that women have it worse in other countries so our problems are irrelevant or aren’t worth changing because we’re already so privileged. I saw many men and suprisingly some women preaching this idea after the women march nationwide. It makes me sick to think that people actually feel that way. We just want to be equal.

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Filtered - Silence

         The image above entitled cyber-fem is from Humanity Media, H+ Magazine in an article called On the Importance of Being a Cyborg Feminist (2009).  The image conveys a filtering or a silencing of women’s ideas and conversations in the cyberspace realm.   As Claire Evans (2014) discusses in ‘We Are the Future Cunt’: CyberFeminism in the 90s, the internet was expected to be the perfect platform for female thought and expression; yet, reality crossed over to cyber space where fears of being silenced, bullied, and threatened are muzzling women’s voices, ideas, and self-expression (para. 11).  As she further explains, anonymity on the web was a means of possibly transcending gender; but, “the problems of the real world have become the problems of the digital world.” (para. 12).  Cyber bullying to control and silence is common on the internet today and is a reality of the techno world that had so much promise for consciences awareness of women’s issues and expressionism.  Cyberfeminism functions to expose the marginalized and ask “why is it so?”  Picture in your mind the cyborg, a rebellious and incomplete image, which disrupts the norms and in the case of cyberfeminism, a disruption of society’s expectations and rules of gender norms.               

          Deep Lab http://www.deeplab.net/#home “is a collaborative group of cyberfeminist researchers, artists, writers, engineers, and cultural producers” who are working together to make sure the voices are heard (Deep Lab, 2016).  Although, the cyberfeminism movement peaked in the 1990’s and has since dissipated there are many women working together to make sure the movement continues to move forward (Evans, 2014, para. 1).  There is debate about how feminist theory of the early 1970’s may have paved the way for cyberfeminism today (Wilding, 1997, para. 2).   Regardless, feminist theory dialogue of women’s rights, privileges, interests, and concerns in the 1970’s is now conveyed using a cyber tech medium called the internet.  It is interesting how even the founders of cyberfeminism cannot define its meaning and are only able to come up with a list of what it is not.  As Faith Wilding (1997), discusses in Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?, defining cyberfeminism can be fluid and as this movement changes so can the definition.  The ideas, strategies, actions, and desires of cyberfeminism are working to make sure the discussions are still occurring to initiate change for women and to make sure these voices of change are not silenced. 

                                               Reference

           Deep Lab (2016). Retrieved from http://www.deeplab.net/#home.  

           Evans, C.L. (2014, November). ‘We are the future cunt’: cyberfeminism in the 90s. Motherboard. Retrieved from http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we-are-the-future-cunt-cyberfeminism-in-the-90s.

           Evans, C.L. (2014, December). An oral history of the first cyberfeminists. Motherboard.  Retrieved from http://motherboard.vice.com/read/an-oral-history-of-the-first-cyberfeminists-vns-matrix.

           Munkittrick, K. (2009, July). On the importance of being a cyborg feminist. H+ Magazine.  Retrieved from http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/07/21/importance-being-cyborg-feminist/.

           Wilding, F. (1997). Where is feminism in cyberfeminism? Old Boys Network. Retrieved from http://www.obn.org/cfundef/faith_def.html.  

[vintagewinegrump-blog]

Introduction

          I am Tamara Follensbee, a senior working on my undergraduate studies in Family and Human Development.  I live in AZ and I am married to a caring and supportive husband.  We have 1 son together, Michael III, who is 9 years old and I have 4 adult children from a previous marriage.  I have 2 grandchildren, Ella (18 mos.) and Jameson (13 mos.). Yes, to confirm for you, I am a “vintage” student who is pursuing a degree to open up a new pathway to a second career within the Assisted Living community or hospice care.  I consider myself a heterosexual female, married and attracted to men, but find some women to be attractive.  I am feminine one day and another day not so much; our society would label me as a “tomboy”.

My relationship with the internet is defined below:

         I have a love-hate relationship with the internet and the content that can be found within.  I spend a medium-to-high amount of time on the internet, especially with taking online classes through ASU.  I find that my time on the internet is increasing more and more with new technologies, apps, and with more and more institutions using the internet for various purposes.  My true confession is that I especially like the convenience of shopping on the internet to avoid large crowds at Christmas time, BONUS!  Ssshhh, don’t tell anyone!

          The following clip will explain how I view many in our society today and the “addiction” to being connected through social media and the internet by any device not just a computer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNgGFJgNYOQ

         My interest in this class is one, to challenge my views and open my mind to other interpretations and two, to gain a deeper understanding of how the internet is used to influence and control society’s views of gender and gender equality.  Plus, I find it interesting how the internet can be used to form communities and create a space for women where they can create new and multiple identities or “alter-self”. 

          Thank you and I look forward to reading your ideas and comments.