Feminism in Electronic Medias
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Suffragettes
were the first to give a voice for women and fight for their rights.
Certainly, women owe much to Suffragette's battle and their courage
have inspired many of their feminists descendants. Thanks to all
these brave people who stood up against society, women of today –
at least in Western countries- now have the exact same rights as
their male colleagues. But gender inequality persists, and the fight
is still going on. However, it is a fight of a very different nature,
using different tools. We are possibly witnessing in our society a
shift from third to four-wave feminism. The Internet and social
networking services (SNS), being in a considerable part responsible
of that shift. Indeed SNS have allowed digital-native young girls to
get involved in a new form of feminism.
First of all, we should examine the actual changes that SNS have
operated in feminism today and how it affects feminist activism. Many
thought “feminism” was kind of an outdated word, not relevant
anymore. But Internet and SNS have revealed the existence of a large,
world spread feminist community, still very lively and filled with
ebullient young women who stick together. It has been difficult to
translate national and regional successes into positive outcomes for
women’s rights at the international level, but communication
between feminists from all around the world have been improved
greatly. For instance, the Feminist Network Project
(feministnetworkproject.wordpress.com)
have created a Google Map where feminist activists and organizations
are located around the world, showing that feminist activism is
growing in every country around the world. This tool also increases
the networking, visibility and voice of feminists around the world.
SNS are also non-authoritative and decentralized places where dialog
can happen more easily from people-to-people directly. Social media
is inherently progressive, the user decide to take action and then it
goes from person to person through connections.
SNS are a more easy and accessible way to get involved in feminism
than it used to be when you had to check out for the nearest
association. One of the easiest
way to record how social medias and feminism are intrinsically
related is to pay attentions to all the feminist blogs and vlogs
flourishing on the Internet. If you type “feminist blog”
on Google browser, 15 400 000 results will appear. Also, many videos
on YouTube show young women taking position as a feminist and
explaining why. It is a great way to promote “feminist coming out”
when people mocking you for showing interest in these matters are
still out there. And it is very
true that the word is spreading trough SNS. Kasari Govender,
the executive director of West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund
(a women’s rights group in Vancouver) certified that SNS have
increased access to information about gender issues. She herself
promotes gender quality via Twitter. And she is not the only one to
do that: according to Twitter, conversations about “feminism” has
increased of about three hundred percent over the past three years.
This is an impressive number illustrating how feminist's visibility
is now at stake in the web.
One of the most important change that social medias have brought, is
permitting an instant mobilization and response when a sexist attack
is committed. Digital natives feminist know how to use SNS to
propagate campaigns to a maximum of people in a minimum of time. The
time where flyer's had to be made and distributed with uncertainty as
for the result is definitely over. A
striking example is “The Rush Limbaugh case”. When Rush
Limbaugh called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a
“slut” and “prostitute”, a strong feminist protest exploded.
The campaign was almost instantaneous, coordinated by no individual
or organization, and entirely free of cost. Anyone can launched it's
own petition or campaign, digital natives feminists do not have to
wait and rely on their eldest organizations to take up the cause.
As we have just seen, major shifts
have taken place in the way digital natives deal with feminism today.
Not only these changes have transformed feminism they have also
allowed young girls and women to feel a new sense of
self-empowerment, that -as digital natives- they do not fear to
spread through SNS. Behind common issues women can now attach and
vindicate their own personal stories via SNS, without fear of being
judged by their peers. A sensitive subject like rape, often kept
quiet, has been revealed on Twitter with the hashtag #IdidNotReport,
throwing light upon the massive number of rapes committed and
unreported. Also on
Twitter street harassment has been evoked and women have been allowed
to testify about this for of harassment often denied by society.
Feeling that the Internet can be a safe way to express themselves,
marginalized women tend to talk more making society acknowledges
their very own existence.
With self-empowerment, people and especially women are more able to
notice gender stereotyping and fight it with the help of SNS, what
used to be discussed within small circles are accessible to the mass.
An advertising made by Always: “#LikeAGirl” was a huge hit on the
SNS and showed how now digital native generation re-appropriates
gender stereotypes. These kind of campaigns are most likely to be
seen by young girls, especially because numbers show that women are
the one using the most SNS and are the most likely to share links or
sign on line petitions. So it is comprehensive that they will turn to
subjects that concern them: such as feminism. But most importantly,
by making their voices heard digital natives are throwing lights upon
sensitive subjects, campaigns like #HobbyLobby or #YesAllWomen
illustrate this phenomenon.
But all this self-empowerment can
sometimes be controversial, through SNS it is a kind of “fashion
polish” that has been brought upon feminism blurring lines between
crave for attention or truly activism. More and more celebrities
keep coming out as feminists, relayed by the Internet and the SNS.
Beyonce, Lena Dunham or Jennifer Lawrence have all claimed, in a more
or less explicit manner, that they were supporting the feminist
cause. And that is not all, a blog like Jezebel
heralded
"we avoid saying misogynist things about women's weight.",
mixes up what can be considered as a feminist message with sweet and
lights subjects. The tag line is indeed: “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion
for Women. Without Airbrushing”. That tends to demote feminist's
engagement. Jezebel
is
not the only one taking advantage of the feminist wave, even
traditional medias (paper or on line newspaper for instance) are now
always on the lookout for new trendy feminist tags on Twitter
because they now that it will bring readers.
For now on we have only cover
actions taking place on the Internet, and one could argue that
sharing, tweeting, clicking, is not enough commitment to such an
important cause. But despite what we could think, digital natives
feminist using SNS also have a real political influence.
Issues that used to be
society taboos are now going mainstream, and a shift is happening in
what we consider normal. Again, rapes and street harassment is now at
the core of debate when it used to be completely ignored. Women never
talked about domestic violence,happening to themselves or to others,
now they dare have a saying. TMZ released a damning video of
Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating his girlfriend (now
wife) unconscious. The response was swift: commentators called the
NFL response an “epic breach of trust.” and Rice was even cut
from the team. Justice can be done when the voice of people find a
way to be loud enough. Indeed, burst of anger started on SNS can have
an impact on reexamining issues. Institutions can be shaken by what
is happening on line. When abortion was threatened is Spain, many
hashtags were created on line but it also lead to street protest.
With #Aufschrein for the first time German society is shaken at it's
roots by something started on the Internet.
But
despite this concrete political activism there are still some
downsizes to 2.0 feminism. On SNS people are looking for
entertainment, it can lead to a form “infotainment” minimizing
the importance of discussing feminism and gender equality.
A
meme of Judith Butler has been created simplifying it's main ideas
and putting her at the same foot with kittens. Incomprehension and
simplification is the main risk here. One last danger is the
exclusion of the non digital natives feminists. Communicating only
trough SNS creates a gap between generations, building a sort of
digital wall between people wanting the same thing though. It is the
duty of the digital-natives who want to get involved in feminism to
seek other ways to get involved.
To put it in a nutshell, a new form of feminism, a fourth wave
feminism, have indeed rise today thanks to SNS. Because it is
simpler, faster, it can reach the masses and allow self-empowerment,
SNS are the tools feminism have to deal with now. And because it is
not just virtual activism but also real political leverage, SNS have
to be taken seriously and be considered as an ally in gender equality
struggle, despite the downsizes that come with them.
Ressources:
Bennett, J. (2014). Behold the Power of #Hashtag Feminism. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/3319081/whyistayed-hashtag-feminism-activism/
Sadler. V. (2013). Social Media Bolsters Feminism, Not Derails It. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/victoria-sadler/social-media-feminism_b_3981098.html
