#FemFuture: a necessary conversation
Looking at the future of the online feminist community.
‘#FemFuture: Online Revolution’ is a research paper looking at how to strategise and how best to sustain and build on the successes of online feminism.
It was produced by Vanessa Valenti, co-founder of US feminist website Feministing, and Courtney Martin, in conjunction with the Barnard Center for Research on Women.
The paper highlights the significance that the internet, and in particular social media, is playing in creating an online feminist community, not only raising awareness of gender inequality, but aiding the organisation of action to bring that inequality to an end.
It reveals how the world wide web is enabling individual voices to join together and form a chorus against patriarchal injustice.
A recent study from a US think tank dubbed American women between 18-29 years of age “the power users of social networking” and reveals that almost nine out of ten use social media.
Whether signing an online petition, joining a twitter campaign, or writing a blog, these technological tools are not just consciousness-raising, but also have the capacity to mobilise thousands in the time it would have previously taken to come up with a rousing protest banner.
Indeed, as the report is keen to accentuate, so loud is the cacophony created by online campaigns that they often have the power to actually change things.
Last year the Komen Foundation announced that it was going to withdraw funding from American women’s health organization Planned Parenthood because it offers abortion services in conjunction with its reproductive health services.
In response to this threat, digital strategist and women’s activist Deanna Zandt set up a Tumblr page entitled Planned Parenthood Saved Me.
Featuring stories from hundreds of women around America, it became a testament to the essential services offered by the reproductive healthcare provider.
The report suggests that the collection of narratives on Planned Parenthood Saved Me played a significant part in compelling Komen to change direction, a notion borne out by a statement issued by Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s director, on the issue.
“During the last week, millions spontaneously joined a national conversation…”Richards said.
“This compassionate outcry in support of those most in need rose above political, ideological, and cultural divides, and will surely be recognised as one of our nation’s better moments during a contentious political time. Planned Parenthood thanks each and every person who has contributed.”
There are similar stories of online activism bringing about change in the UK.
Writer Elizabeth Plank was so incensed by the International Boxing Federation’s decision to force female boxers to wear micro-minis while they competed at the Olympics that her outraged tweet led to a 50,000-strong online petition and eventually resulted in the decision being overturned.
“I started out alone, but social media became my megaphone. It allowed me to amplify my voice and reach thousands of other voices that were dying to be heard too,” Plank explained.
It is the ‘thousands of other voices’ which abound on feminist blogs and micro blogs that reassure those who thought they were alone and reinvigorate those who thought nobody was listening.
What the report also highlights, however, is that with bloggers, campaign organisers, and founders of online feminist communities sometimes holding down other jobs or fighting for ‘scraps’ from donors and third-party advertising companies to fund their projects, the inevitable fatigue is waiting to set in.
The report lays out a number of interventions to avoid this kind of burn-out, but they all build towards one main goal: developing interconnectivity between the vast and disparate feminist online communities and collectives, so that they can work collaboratively, exchanging skills and sharing the load.
Political analyst Zerlina Maxwell contends that ‘online feminists shouldn’t have to be unpaid martyrs for the cause’ and this is certainly true.
However, by taking the metaphorical room of one’s own that the internet has given many women, shouldn’t we be suspicious about that room being moved into a house – even if it is with like-minded individuals?
A number of feminist bloggers have come out and criticised the report, in particular because of the apparent desire for a few – dare I say white, middle-class, mainstream feminist New Yorkers – to take control of the many.
A large proportion of those who have come out against the findings not only feel that women of colour are barely represented in the report*, but they absolutely, positively, do not want to be subsumed under the umbrella of online feminism as laid out by the authors.
A number of others have turned to the internet exactly because they do not live in a big city or because they have health issues which limit their ability to participate in feminist activities in person; in this regard they feel that the issues that they face as a result of their isolated situation cannot and should not be conferred upon by those that do not understand the challenges they face.
And it is here that we reach impasse.
The internet certainly is arguably the most valuable ally that feminism has found in the 21st century, but many of the challenges that this report highlights really are threatening the progress that we are on the brink of making.
So while the proposals laid out by #FemFuture may not be the answer, there is certainly a discussion that needs to be had until the future of online feminism can be secured.
You can follow the full discussion on Twitter on #FemFuture.
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*A response received from Vanessa Valenti, one of the authors of the report, pointed out that this linked article did not explicitly state that ‘women of colour are barely represented in the report’.
In addition, Kristin Rawls in her piece FemFuture? A Few Reasons to Ignore “Online Feminism”, has also stated that
‘…it’s important to point out that several women of color attended the convening and had ideas included in the report.’