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Blog it! Virtual communities like the blogosphere have untapped potential for social change and feminism. How can feminists in Australia harness it? Kathy Fox reports. December 2006 Is this what a feminist looks like?
That’s the message underscoring Dale Spender‘s 1995 book Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. Urging women to embrace online forums, Spender reminded feminists that when women are sidelined from powerful communications technology; from the European print revolution to public computer labs, we pay with lost status. Jump to now and geek girl is a term of pride. The digital divide in Australia stems primarily from differences in employment, age, region and usage patterns, not gender. An Australian Bureau of Statistics 2000 survey showed 47% of female adults are net users, to 53% of males. Access isn’t equality though. Thriving online debates about raunch and veils illustrate what they protest; intense focus on the viewing of women remains unmatched by women’s views on broader issues in influential public spheres. Overseas, sites like Feminist.com and the f-word are bridging the online gender gap. Searching for local equivalents draws high ratios of inactive sites and Islamophobia though. Women are talking online but how do we get heard? Be The Agenda Independent progressive organisation Get Up! campaigns for national causes online. "The blogosphere is a terrific way for people to build momentum, share ideas, talk about issues that maybe aren’t covered in the mainstream news; and often times break stories, or get mainstream media to talk about an issue that’s being swept under the carpet." The successful push for a conscience vote on the abortion drug RU486 illustrates this. While a few male “squeaky wheels” in parliament drive reproductive health agendas; Reproductive Choice Australia figures show an 81 per cent silent majority of Australians are pro-choice. When Get Up! enabled instantaneous emails to politicians on the issue through their website, M.P’s were flooded with over 9,000 supporting emails and increased commercial news coverage. McCoombs says the new media laws, loosening limits on concentrated media ownership, may drive more people to alternative news sources. The challenge for political bloggers will be to deliver news that has ‘reach, impact and scope’that readerscan use to‘make decisions and hold politicians accountable’. A blogosphere of our own Social movements are sustained by community; providing opportunities for transmitting political knowledge and skills, and alliance building. All Girl Army is a USA based blog collective, made up of young women and their mentors, who explore feminist issues. Founder Heather Corrine says members and readers benefit from the virtual community approach. “Young women’s voices, especially as young as 11, 12, 13, are often hard to find in the feminist dialogue, but obviously of really critical importance,” she says. “Very few young women have grown up with feminist theory, very few with anyone even defining what feminism is besides ‘You go, girl’.” “For those of us who are older and still working as active feminists, knowing how your (literal and symbolic) daughters feel, what they need from their viewpoint, is crucial in directing feminist activism so that it serves all of us best, no matter our age.” Collective blog platforms deliver young women visibility Corrine says. “[The advantages are] international, of spanning economic class pretty decently, and of allowing the women to speak in their own voice, to their own issues, to start to very tangibly see the connections between them, and how the personal is political,’ she says. It takes some to know one Even if you’re everybody’s MySpace ‘top friend’ and know about major feminist organisations, cultivating local feminist community can be tricky. Feminist networks are often submerged; or operating within niches like professional groups and higher education. When Kitty Carra and Andrea Fox left employment in the Women’s sector and fell out of that feminist loop, it prompted the question: how do people without network entry points find feminism? Their answer is Brisbane Feminism Online, a monthly e-newsletter aimed at keeping women informed about local network events. Editing e-news with feminist feature topics is sustainable on Carra and Fox’s time budgets, while meeting an additional goal, says Fox, of empowering women who can’t make the events to feel that they aren’t “the only feminist here”. Promotions are an ongoing consideration says Fox. “If we want to be a contact point for women we need to be visible.” Word of mouth by approaching existing community networks, developing an online presence (website and interactive forums) and holding face-to-face discussion groups has now built Brisban Feminism Online’s subscriber base and extended community access beyond the women’s sector. Their profile now makes them a contact for mainstream media and people seeking further information on the newsletter topics. “Our main way of seeing that we reach people is when the world out there contacts us,” says Fox. Superhighway or glass ceiling Once online women seeking an equal say, face the same communication considerations as offline; including language, content, social and power dynamics. Many feminists are harnessing the low maintenance flexibility of blogs to bypass hierarchies in the online environment and publish on their own terms. Suki Lombard of Suki has an Opinion says: "Blogging gives me the widest possible audience, enormous flexibility and a 21st century place to house my feminism. It’s a matter of convenience and time management." “Gender will not define interesting,” says Lombard who posts on topical issues and encourages feminists wanting to promote their blogs to "Write well. Be a crowd of one. Celebrate your uniqueness." To promote the feminist blogosphere, Lombard recommends the monthly Carnival of Feminists. The online 'carnival' showcases the finest international feminist ideas and writing, while networking through cross-linkage of blog posts and different bloggers. “This is great way to distil international feminist blogging,” says Lombard. “Perhaps that’s the point of the internet, there are no boundaries.” Kate Deborah of Moment to Moment contributes to group blogs Larvatus Prodeo and Sarsaparilla, focussing on politics and cultural matters respectively. Considering what influences women’s participation in political blogging, Kate thinks it’s is the diversity of content that can be found in women’s blogs. “Women's blogs can often be more willing to discuss a wide range of political topics, and in a greater variety of ways,” she says. “This multiplicity of focus tends to be looked down upon by some political bloggers as being irrelevant. I think this reflects the old divide between the personal and the political.” Of the sometimes derisive nature of political commentary, Kate observes that women bloggers do “get in amongst that” yet a well implemented comments policy limits pointless abuse. “If a woman is prepared to tackle difficult subjects and make her voice heard, it encourages other women to do so. I think it also galvanises women when they receive support from other bloggers,” she says. “I think the best political blogs, like Lavatus Prodeo, are those willing to discuss things that matter to people outside of white male Canberra junkies.” Blogs Suki Has an Opinion http://www.machinegunkeyboard.com/shao/ Moment to Moment http://blinkandyoullmissit.typepad.com/momenttomoment/ Larvatus Prodeo http://larvatusprodeo.net/ Sarsparilla http://sarsaparillablog.net/ The F Word http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/ Feministing http://www.feministing.com/ Feminist carvnival blog http://www.feministcarnival.blogspot.com/ Blogger resources Reporters without borders blog guide http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542 Media bloggers http://www.mediabloggers.org/ |
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