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Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: frau sally benz
August 13th, 2009
Bio
frau sally benz is a twenty-something blogger from New York City. On her blog, Jump off the Bridge, she writes about feminism, race and ethnicity, activism, politics, and just about everything else you can think of, all through a feminist lens. Her work has also been featured on CHICKS ROCK!, The Feminist Underground, Feminist Review and Feministe.
When she’s not writing, she’s making a living in the non-profit world, fighting for human rights and women’s rights everywhere. She loves singing, dancing, walking, and yoga. All of these things keep her terribly busy and she doesn’t spend nearly enough time with her family and friends.
Define the online feminist blogging community.
To me, the feminist blogging community is a group whose goal it is to promote gender equality, first and foremost. There are a lot of people I would consider a part of the feminist blogging community even though they do not consider themselves feminist. I think that’s the one thing I don’t like about that label – it’s not completely inclusive. It also devalues, to some extent, the fact that many people I consider a part of this community don’t only focus on gender. We also focus on race, immigration, (dis)ability, trans issues, politics, the list goes on and on.
But regardless of what we focus on, I think having a feminist presence online is crucial. With the lack of women’s voices in traditional forms of media, it is so important to be able to create a space where we are not afraid to talk about women’s issues and the broad range of experiences we all have.
I became involved in the community as a reader and commenter first. I read a lot of blogs and was mostly a lurker (somebody who doesn’t speak up but reads constantly). I commented whenever I felt the urge – if a post was particularly interesting or if I was passionate about a particular issue.
I use the community in a number of ways. If there’s a call-to-action I receive that I feel particularly passionate about, I share it on my blog. If there’s something bothering me personally, I let it out on my blog. If there’s work that other bloggers have done that I admire and respect, I promote it on my blog. And so on…
My own work helps strengthen my voice. It lets me work out the things that come up in my head that I don’t have any other outlet for. I also learn a lot from reading the work of other bloggers in the community. Their passion, causes, words, and so forth are very inspiring and teach me so much. I think that’s the thing I love the most about the feminist blogging community – the way we all feed off of one another. Sometimes it leads to problems, and the back and forth, and the “blog wars” and all of that. But, mostly, it’s a way for all of us to engage in real dialogue and push each other to become better feminists, activists, and people.
I think the feminist bloggers who have been able to use their blogging as a way to get book deals and the like is actually a good thing. I don’t think that everyone who blogs does so with the intention of being published, but I don’t think there’s any shame in using the feminist blogging community as a way to lift your own voice to the point of selling your work.
We all need to make money in this world, and if our talent and passion is writing, then why shouldn’t we make money off of it?
I have nothing but respect for the bloggers who absolutely refuse to have ads on their blogs or only write for places where they will get paid. Whether their intention is to use their blogs as journals, or as a form of online activism, I don’t think this makes their writing any less valid or valuable. But I also respect those who want to sell their work. There is a tradition of women’s work being unpaid, so breaking out of that in the blogosphere is no different.
Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
I used to read a lot of blogs for some time before I started my own. I used to comment on the bigger feminist blogs and get shut down constantly. If I expressed a sentiment they didn’t agree with, I was labeled a troll and ignored. I liked the “smaller” feminist blogs – I like to call them the “indy blogs.” I felt that even when I disagreed with the blogger or the commenters, my opinion was at least heard, but I still wanted my own space to do that in. It started to drain me and I became frustrated that I didn’t have an outlet where I could voice my own opinion how I wanted, when I wanted. So I started my own blog!
When I started, my goal was to write about feminist issues and the things I’m passionate about through a feminist lens. I have always written whatever I felt like writing so it’s hard to think of one thing I started writing about. But looking back at my earlier posts, it was a lot of feminism, but also a lot of book-related posts and music.
Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I think my blog is a bit different from some of the others in the feminist blogosphere. It leans towards the personal– it’s my thoughts, my interests, my pet peeves, my frustrations, my experiences. Of course, a lot of my interests are feminist issues, activism, politics and the like. But I also try to keep it balanced, primarily for my own sanity and also to keep things interesting for my readers.
I like to say that I blog about the things I’m passionate about, all through a feminist lens. It’s hard to turn off that voice in my head.
Over time, it has shifted a bit. During the election season, I wrote almost exclusively about politics. When it was over, I wanted to disconnect from that and I’ve rarely written about politics since then. There have been periods of time when I wasn’t inspired to write anything substantial, so I would simply link to other blog posts or online advocacy campaigns. In general though, I don’t think my blog has changed much over time.
Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
I think this probably happens more than I realize. Even when I do realize, I don’t really make a big deal out of it. I usually change my phrasing if I feel I actually was unclear originally, or reiterate what I said if I feel they are simply not paying attention.
One funny story that comes to mind though is from my Manly Men Wear Skirts post. I am still surprised at how much interest there was in that post from people around the world who commented on it. Anyway, one anonymous commenter in particular seemed to get the impression that I was a man. I thought that was really weird and still don’t know why he thought I was a man. It was obvious that he hadn’t read the post because he completely missed the point I was making: I think it’s cool for men to wear skirts and he was arguing with me assuming that I had a problem with it. To assume I was a man just sort of topped it all off for me.
I responded by basically saying you’re a troll who didn’t read my post, and you think I’m a man, how interesting. It wasn’t a big blow-up or anything juicy like that, but I still think about it even a year later because the way I wrote my post somehow indicated to him that I was man and I find that very interesting indeed.
Describe your process of writing online.
When I write online, it’s more of a gut reaction than it is, say, a researched 10-page paper. Not to say that I don’t do research for any of my posts, but that is the general difference between my writing online and off-line.
With my online writing, everything sort of ebbs and flows from wherever my brain is at the time. That’s a strength of my blogging I think, but also a great weakness. If I’m not feeling inspired, I can go several weeks without writing a substantial post and I don’t like that at all. I don’t want to feel forced in my writing because people usually tell me that they love how passionate I am about what I wrote about – whether it’s a musician or Obama or feminism. But if things are going on in my personal life, it’s really hard to tap into my brain to get anything out.
Also, when I used to write off-line (I’m not in school anymore, so I don’t ever write if it’s not online), there was usually some sort of topic I had to write about. Even if I could choose the topic, there was a structure I was supposed to follow or some theme I was supposed to cover or something. That might be limiting in some cases, but at least it gives you a direction. There is really no direction in my blog. Again, some people think it’s a good thing because they like that I write about anything and everything. But it’s also a bad thing because I have to really think about what to write next.
There are usually two types of posts – the improvised, gut-reaction posts, and the planned, researched posts. My methods for these are completely different.
If I read something that annoys me or excites me, I sit and think about what is really getting to me. Is it the tone of the author? Is it the obvious sexism? Is it the underlying racism? Is it praising something I also love? Once I’ve put my finger on what’s bugging me, I start writing. I just let the words come to me and let them all out. Once I’m done, I try to read through and edit. This is the tricky part because most of these types of posts aren’t happy at all. The neutral or happy posts are easy to read through again and sometimes I try to organize things better and whatnot. But it’s usually a rant, and I have no patience for reading and editing when I’m ranting because it just makes me mad all over again. These are usually the posts with the most grammatical errors and curses. But it’s written, and I post it as is. To me, it’s more important to have it written and have my voice documented than it is to be perfectly correct in my delivery.
The planned posts have an entirely different routine. I’ll think of something I want to write about and start to collect links about it or make notes about things I’ve observed or read off-line. Then I try to outline the post – why am I writing this, what am I trying to say, what are the points I want to make, etc. If it’s a series of posts, I try to think about how to break them up in a way that makes sense. Then I draft something without referring to the outline at first. This helps me figure out if there’s more I wanted to say that I haven’t even included in the outline. I then change the outline and write another draft, this time referring to the outline while I’m writing. Depending on what I’m writing, I either leave it at its form after the second draft, or keep on going.
For example, I did a series I called Legendary Latinas for Women’s History Month. I finalized the idea about a week before March began, and I started outlines for all six posts right away. Each post went through at least four drafts before I got to the version I published, a couple of them were as many as eight drafts. It was definitely the most work I’ve ever done on any of my posts.
Describe your online reading habits.
In the past couple of months, I haven’t had the time to keep up with my regular reading, but I generally love reading other blogs. I find new blogs through friends on Twitter, links on Tumblr, or through the blogrolls of blogs I already read and like. Also, if somebody has a guest blogger and I really like their post, I check out their blog right away and see if I like that as well. When I find a blog I like, I add it to my Google Reader, and try to keep up with the posts. I then share links to posts I like the same way I find them – through Twitter, Tumblr, and Google Reader. If I have enough posts I really like back to back, I’ll add a link love post to my blog, which I call blog-hopping.
Sharing the material we each read and write is definitely what helps foster this online community. Even though a lot of us might interact through Twitter, Tumblr, over email, in person, whatever, our documented voices are in the blogosphere. That is where we go to make sure we compliment each other on a job well done, or when we want to start featuring guest bloggers, or if we take issue with something somebody has written. It usually comes full circle in some way.
Without that sharing and exchanging of links and ideas, I think we’d all have a lot less material to write about and we would all feel very much in our own bubbles. Nobody would read my work but me and a handful of others, and that’s not much of a community at all.
You can follow frau sally benz on Twitter at http://twitter.com/frausallybenz
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Laura Sundstrom
August 3rd, 2009
Bio
I am Laura Sundstrom, a 22-year-old college graduate. I grew up in East Grand Rapids, MI. This is a Christian, conservative community that my parents moved to so that I could have a good education. Growing up, especially during high school, I was used to being the one liberal, feminist among my friends or in a class (but I don’t know if I would have described myself as a feminist when I was that age). In high school, I also saw entitlement and privilege at work among most of my classmates because the neighborhood was one of the richest in the area, even though my family did not fit into that.
I went to college at Beloit College in Beloit, WI, a place completely different than that of my childhood and high school. Here I was able to give a voice and an argument to my opinions. This is where I found feminism and developed myself as a feminist. I majored in Women’s and Gender Studies and one of my proudest projects was one that I completed with two friends about the cultural implications of breasts.
I graduated from Beloit College in May 2009 with a B.A. cum laude. I am currently back living in Grand Rapids, MI and looking for a job. Ultimately I want to end up in nonprofit work focusing of reproductive rights and women’s issues. In my spare time, that which is not spent looking for a job or volunteering at Planned Parenthood, I work on my blog, Adventures of a Young Feminist (http://youngfeministadventures.blogspot.com).
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
The feminist blogging community exists as a way for feminists to enter into conversation with one another and develop theories and ideas in a supportive atmosphere. One of the most important parts of the feminist blogging community is the conversation that it fosters among feminists as well as with people outside of the feminist blogging community. I see feminist blogging as a form of activism. Activism, in this way, is any attempt to raise awareness about feminist issues and foster some form of change. Feminist bloggers raise awareness about feminist issues in every post that they write.
Even though I see all feminist blogs as a small form of activism, the feminist blogging community is very spread out and, like feminism itself, very wide ranging. Feminist blogs tackle a wide variety of issues through a feminist lens, from race and class, to pop culture and politics. I think that it is beneficial to have all of these voices and opinions, but sometimes there is a lot to read and a lot to tackle, emotionally, mentally, and academically. Not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, it is just overwhelming sometimes, just like feminism is.
And every feminist bloggers voice deserves to be heard. That is one thing that is so great about the blogosphere; everyone’s voice can be heard. This is especially beneficial for people whose voices are usually silenced by society. As feminists, we should listen to every woman’s voice, even if we disagree with her. Women’s voices deserve to be heard because they are generally silenced by society and it also helps to foster the ever-important coversation.
The feminist blogging community has also allowed me a space where I feel like I fit in. It’s hard to feel that way right now having left my physical proximity to my friends after college and living in a community that overall does not share my values. In the feminist blogging community, I can find people that share my values or are willing to debate my values with me. In addition to blogging, there are so many other technological tools that I use in tandem with my blogging, such as Facebook and Twitter that help to foster this feminist community that I have come to cherish.
2. Tell me about how you became a blogger.
During college, I was used to having daily conversations and debates about feminism and other social justice issues. I grew accustomed to have that sort of community around me; a community that wasn’t afraid to talk about important and controversial issues. After I graduated and was no longer in that kind of environment, I realized how much that kind of community had meant to me and I started to miss it.
I have only been blogging for a little over a month now (I started in mid June 2009). After graduation, I started reading more feminist blogs than I had in college as a way to keep up with my feminist news and keep my analytical skills tuned. In June, I attended to National NOW (National Organization for Women) Conference in Indianapolis, IN. Here I attended a workshop on feminist blogging led by the authors of Viva la Feminista, Appetite for Equal Rights, and Jump Off the Bridge. This workshop, where they talked about the importance of having your voice heard and the community that blogging brings, is where I decided to start my blog.
I came home on a Sunday and that day is when I started my blog. I came to blogging with the idea that I would spread my feminist values and build a community around my blog.
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I am still new to blogging, so I am still learning some of the ropes. I am constantly debating about how many posts I should write in a day or a week, if I don’t have a wide enough range of topics in my posts, etc. I am really pleased with how my blog has developed over the past month. I have people reading my blog who seem to value my opinion and I have had some people comment on my blog that do not share my opinion. I value this aspect of it because I did want to foster conversation with my blog. A big part of that is debating issues and values and you need people who disagree with you to foster this kind of conversation. A lot of what I blog about is the intersection of feminism and pop culture, but I also think that it is important to convey important feminist news to my readers as well. I also write posts about my investments in feminism and what I see as important in “the feminist agenda.”
4. Tell me about a time that you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
Since I am new to blogging and have a small following, I have not had too many instances where I was misread or misunderstood, or at least not that I know about. I guess this example that I am about to give is an instance of being misunderstood. I recently received an email from a reader attacking me for deleting his comment. This was what I would call a technological misunderstanding, because it was a technological glitch that caused his comment to not come through.
He saw this as a silencing of his voice and as a result attacked my investments in feminism. He accused me of armchair philosophy and not doing anything to further the feminist cause. While supposedly deleting his comment and armchair philosophy might not seem entirely connected, his argument did make sense, even if it wasn’t true.
From that original email that he sent, our conversation about it progressed in a very interesting way. I responded to him by letting him know that I did not delete his comment, that it must have been a technological glitch and that I was not going to legitimize any of his other arguments with a response because I saw it as a personal attack. From there he apologized and explained his reasoning and position on feminism (which I am not going to go into in order to not reveal too many personal details about this individual). The email conversation that resulted from this misunderstanding inspired me to write a post about blogging as a form of activism…so there was some good that came out of it this misunderstanding.
5. Describe your process of writing online.
Right now, blogging is really my only form of writing. I have a constant list of ideas for blog posts going that I look to for inspiration. But usually, I get my ideas from reading other blogs, receiving some feminist news, or from what I watch, what I see in the world, and my investments in feminism. I don’t really have a set structure for my blog posts, I just kind of write until I have nothing else to say. Like the structure, I don’t really have a set length for my posts either. It just depends on how much I have to say about a topic. Posts about my investments in feminism tend to be a little longer, but that is not always the case. I try to write at least one post a day, but sometimes I let this go on the weekend if I am doing something else. I also try to write no more than four posts a day because I don’t want to overwhelm my readers, and I can save some of those ideas for a day when inspiration isn’t coming as easily.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
I have way too many blogs that I follow. I use Google Reader to keep track of all of them and try to at least skim through all of the blog posts that come through there. I am always looking for new feminist blogs to read because I think that each feminist blogger has something important to add to the conversation. I find new blogs mainly through blogs that I already follow. I look at comments on both my blog and the blogs that I follow to see if there are any new blogs that I find interesting. I also look at who the blogs I follow are referencing in their posts – where the blogs that I already follow get their inspiration, because I would probably like that blog as well.
I share interesting posts on feminist blogs that I find with my readers in a weekly post containing links to posts that I have not already discussed in the previous week. I call this post “This Week in Blogs” and include posts that I find interesting or important to the discussion of feminist values. I try to include at least one post from some of my favorite blogs in these posts, so the lists have grown with each week as I find new feminist blogs. Finding and sharing these feminist blogs and posts fosters community and conversation because it encourages an informed and meaningful discussion about feminist issues.
You can follow Laura on Twitter at http://twitter.com/YFemAdventures
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Mary Lee Shalvoy
July 22nd, 2009
Bio
My name is Mary Lee Shalvoy and I am 49. I was born in New Jersey on July 1, 1960. I grew up in northern NJ, 10 miles due west of New York City and lived there, pretty much until I left for college. I went through 12 years of Catholic school, four at an all-girls’ high school. I graduated from Mount Holyoke College, a women’s college in Massachusetts, in 1982, after spending my junior year at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. It was after college that I had a series of jobs and moved several times.
I worked as a traveling teacher for a year, living on Long Island, NY; Syracuse, NY and then Alexandria, VA. I moved back to the NJ/NY area and worked for Scholastic writing classrooom reading magazines and after about a year moved into Manhattan, where I lived for five years. I changed jobs a couple of times, working as an editor for Scholastic and a computer textbook publisher, a freelance textbook writer and then a reporter for a computer business trade newspaper.
That last job got me transferred to Los Angeles, where I lived for five years. In L.A., I met my husband and experienced a bout with cancer (malignant melanoma). We moved to northern San Diego county for a job for my husband, which is when I launched my freelance writing and independent consultant career, in 1992 and have kept it going ever since. My husband and I had three kids–fraternal girl twins and then two years later a single girl–while we were living there. We also started a small company, just expanding the business writing I was doing into deeper consulting and market research in the computer industry.
From San Diego, we moved to the San Francisco Bay area, after another five years (see a pattern?). We settled in Alameda, which is in the East Bay region. Here is where we divorced and I continued the consulting business and I started writing for many small, regional newspapers and magazines. One was a column called “Mom, Mom, Mom” in which I write about being a single mom to three girls here in Alameda.
Blog: http://maryleeshalvoy.wordpress.com/
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
I don’t define myself as a feminist or as a blogger. I guess I’ve always just considered myself a woman and a writer. Also, I wouldn’t define the blogging community of women as “feminists.” I know that there is a community of feminists online, but the women I have connected with are either part of the Mom community or just the general community of women online.
During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, I went to an all-women’s college (Mount Holyoke in MA), and perhaps because we all felt strongly about the role of women in society and our purpose in life, we would never call ourselves feminists—the only feminists at school were very militant lesbians, another reason we (the heterosexuals) were hesitant to call ourselves feminsts! I once had a lesbian at Mount Holyoke tell me that she wished we could send all men to the moon and just keep and harvest their sperm, because that’s all we needed from them. She was an active “feminist” and I did not share her opinion, nor did I want to be considered part of her group.
I am not sure whether it’s helpful for “feminists” to have a presence. I believe that the term “feminist” is outdated and carries a negative connotation at this point in time. It brings up images either of women early in the 20th century fighting for suffrage or of women in the 1970’s fighting for further equality (or of the whole militant lesbian ideology that men are only needed for their sperm for procreation). The first two groups were critical for the advancement of women in society and we wouldn’t be as far as we have come today without all of their hard work and activism, but I still think that to make progress, we need to move forward as a group of women—all together, not separated into niche communities, such as feminists, Moms, Career women or single women. We could really make a big difference if we united as women first.
I inadvertently became part of the Mom community through Twitter! My Twitter username is mommommom because of the column I write for a tiny local newspaper. However, I use the community now to try to connect with women because it makes me feel a part of a larger world; it makes me feel better about myself and my life as a Mom and a woman working in the world. It’s fun!
I struggle with the commoditization of online writing in general. I don’t think this issue is restricted to the feminist or even the women’s community. I think it’s a challenge to all writers across the board. How do you establish writing as something of value when anyone and everyone can write a blog, with no standards and nothing set up to ensure quality? As newspapers continue to die, the community of editors and copyeditors is dying with them. Blogs do fine whether the writing is good or not. In fact, in one blogging seminar I attended, the teacher insisted that it was better to write a post with a certain disregard for grammar, punctuation and even word smithing because it made the blog appear more timely and real. This mindset is horrifying to me because it contributes to the downgrading of online writing (and writing in general) and makes it much more difficult to make a living writing. (It’s hard enough as it is!)
In terms of awareness, I am not sure about feminists per se, but I do believe that women have been gaining considerable power through online writing. Women are finding a voice and an audience online that didn’t exist before.
2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
Again, I am not really a blogger. I was a writer and a trade journalist for many years. When I married and had children, I steered away from writing using my own byline. I was a business writer and I did a lot of public relations work and market research report writing—nothing that really required a byline. I did a lot of ghostwriting, too. After my divorce, I realized that I missed having a byline and started writing articles for small local papers to build my portfolio. I soon started writing a monthly column called “Mom, Mom, Mom” for one of the town newspapers about my life as a single mom raising three daughters in Alameda, CA. I set up a WordPress blog as a place to host my writing portfolio and published works, including the column. Three years and 37 columns later, plus some additional freelance work, I now have a decent “blog.”
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
What I plan on changing moving forward is to actually blog! I would like to just write more, and now that I have somewhat of an audience on Twitter, I think it would be fun to write more often about the things that interest me. Unfortunately, I am a generalist journalist by nature and I am hesitant to focus on any one area. Most likely, I will continue to write about my life as a mom and a woman and a sort-of entrepreneur.
4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
The only time anything like this happened, it was someone commenting on a book review I wrote. They really disliked the book and really didn’t agree with my favorable review. It wasn’t that serious and no one had to come to my defense.
5. Describe your process of writing online.
When I do write specifically for online purposes (I have ghostwritten many blogs and have written posts for some of my clients using my own name), I use the same routine as when I am working on any other business-related writing. Technically, I write in Microsoft Word and then cut and paste into the blogging software. As far as the actual writing process goes, it depends on what I am writing about. If it’s an opinion piece or more of a personal essay, I just write from my head and it takes some writing and then I step back and re-read and re-write until the deadline hits or until I like the piece enough to publish. I do a lot of research for most of my pieces, online research and phone calling, depending on the subject.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
I used to do a lot of web surfing, but lately I’ve found that I spend time reading through Twitter posted links to find a lot of my reading material! I share in many ways—email, retweeting on Twitter, posting to Facebook. And, absolutely, it creates a community. I’ve made friends and learned so much about others by sharing online. That’s how I met you, right?
You can follow Mary Lee on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mommommom.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Liza Donnelly
July 21st, 2009
Photo Credit: Craig Semetko, via http://lizadonnelly.com
Bio
Liza Donnelly is a contract cartoonist with The New Yorker Magazine. When she first began selling to The New Yorker, she was the youngest and one of only three cartoonists who were women. In 2005, she wrote Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons, a history of the women who drew cartoons for the magazine as well as the present women contributors. Other recent books are Sex and Sensibility: Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love in 200 Cartoons and Cartoon Marriage: Adventures in Love and Matrimony with the New Yorker’s Cartooning Couple. Liza has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, BetterTV and has been profiled in numerous magazines and newspapers. Her cartoons can also be found on two websites: wowowow.com and doubleX.com On the faculty at Vassar College, Liza teaches Women’s Studies and American Culture. She is a charter member of an international project,Cartooning for Peace, helping to promote understanding around the world through humor. Chronicle Books is publishing her next book in 2010.
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
I became involved after being invited to have a regular feature of my cartoons on the feminist website wowowow.com There, I receive comments on my cartoons which I think provide the responders with a forum for their views. I also think it is helpful for them to see a mainstream woman, such as myself (by mainstream, I mean selling to the New Yorker) as a feminist expressing feminist views. Also, on this site and another one I now work for, doubleX.com, I am given freedom to do humor about what I want. They do not edit me, thus I can express myself and get feedback. Most of the work I do on these two sites would not be published by mainstream publications. In some sense, I suppose my cartoons are used to sell the sites, but I do think my cartoons provide awareness and insight that, because it is through humor, allows very easy access and relatability.
The two sites I work for are of different generations: wowowow.com is primarily for older women, doublex is for younger. I find I slightly shift what I send to them sometimes. I think perhaps the internet may be the thing that unites the feminist generations. Thankfully!
2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
Other than the sites I work for menitoned above, I have a website that has a blog capacity. I began this site to promote my feminst book, Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest Women Cartoonists and their Cartoons. Now I post blogs of cartoons and comment on there, more often than not feminist in nature. I also began a blog on open.salon.com, to get my cartoons to a wider audience.
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I blog/cartoon about women in culture, media. I make fun of women and of our cuture, hopefully being informative and thought provoking at the same time. I never do humor that is hurtful or divisive (unless you call attacking our culture and certain male and female behavior divisive!) This hasn’t changed since I started.
4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
Once a cartoon of mine was misunderstood and the guy really slammed it. It concerned me for a moment, but then I didn’t care. I think had this been 20 years ago, I would have felt more hurt. Now I am much tougher.
5. Describe your process of writing online.
I do weekly cartoons, but the ones I do for feminist sites are often arrived at differently. I saturate my brain with contemporary culture, feminist issues, and start doodling. Key words, phrases enter and I try to use what’s very current.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
I read the New York Times, the DailyBeast.com and The Washington Post online, mostly. I love sharing what I find online–articles, newsworthing things, mostly–on twitter. I get a lot from twitter as well. I think that venue is a great community for feminists. I post my cartoons there, also. I also use what I find online in my classroom because i think young women really respond to very current material. I don’t go to online feminist sites every day, I must say, but try to visit regularly. The sites I visit most often are feministing.com, theillusionists.org and womensenews. I would do more, it’s just a matter of time.
You can follow Liza on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizadonnelly.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Rebecca Welzenbach
July 20th, 2009
Rebecca (right) with her friend, Anne
Bio
I’m Rebecca Welzenbach, 24, currently of Ann Arbor Michigan. I graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in English Literature in 2007 and just completed my Master’s of Science in Information with a focus on Archives and Records Management at the University of Michigan. I currently work in the UM Library with the digitization of library materials and with electronic scholarly publishing.
Blog: http://littlehelpplease.blogspot.com/
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
The feminist blogging community is not something I had thought about, as such, until this project was defined and proposed. The blogs I read happen to be mostly written by women, and so it’s not surprising that they happen to write more about issues of concern to women than men do.
I suppose the presence of an online community is as beneficial to feminists as it is to any other group: it makes it easy to communicate across long distances, to try out ideas and get feedback on them, and to develop and maintain contact with those who have similar interests. I’m not sure that this is specifically beneficial to feminists anymore than any other group, other than that women seem to like blogging–I can think of more women than men who have blogs, and the men I can think of tend to do more link posting than personal writing–so perhaps this medium is particularly suited to women’s conversations. Or maybe it’s suited to young people’s conversations, or writers’ conversations….I guess it’s hard to say.
My blog is about advice columns–feminist issues are not my explicit or deliberate focus, but they are relevant to my blog in interesting ways. Most of the major syndicated advice columnists are women, who are guiding their readers (men and women alike) by setting the “norms” for marriage, family, careers, relationships, neighborliness, etiquette, etc. I did not start this blog because I wanted to investigate the development of social mores as delineated by unsung female leaders in the media (ha!). I just read the columns compulsively while drinking my morning coffee and wanted to comment on them publicly. But over the last year or so I’ve read the feminist-oriented blogs of several other women, and their focus and perspective have cast an interesting light on much of what I read and write about, and on the whole world of advice columns in general.
As far as a community turning online writing into a commodity to be sold, I’m not sure. Isn’t it the dream of nearly every writer that their work would become a commodity, i.e., something others are willing to pay for? A defined community increases the audience for a blog, I suppose, which increases the likelihood (or pipe dream) that it could earn millions from ad revenues (as opposed to personal online journals written in isolation, where there’s neither hope nor promise of an audience or a revenue). I guess I don’t see this as a good or bad thing, or even that different of a thing than nonline publishing (yes, nonline). It cuts out the middleman of the publisher who makes the calls, of course, but it’s still true that some writing will command an audience and turn a profit, and other writing will not. Writing is (and has always been) both professional and expressional…. I guess I don’t see it being commodified in any particularly surprising or damaging way that it hasn’t been for centuries.
2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
I first started blogging my senior year of high school–before Facebook and MySpace, everyone had Xanga! Mostly my friends and I used it as a tool to keep in touch as we all went off to separate colleges, or when we left school for semesters abroad.
When Facebook came in, the blogging plummeted (at least in my world). I tried to start up again in grad school, but I had nothing to say, and no one was reading. Last summer I started fresh with a new blog that had a narrower focus: it specifically looks at and responds to the problems and solutions published in advice columns.
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I write about what I read in the advice columns and comment on whether or not I agree with the advice. I started because, well, I read a lot of advice columns, and I talk about them a lot. When I realized how many sentences I was starting with “today in Dear Abby….” I thought, maybe there are other people who actually WANT to hear about this–and have something to say about it themselves. I was hoping others would like to read it and respond, but I also just wanted a way to record what has, totally accidentally, become a bit of an obsessive hobby. I’ve followed the major syndicated columnists since I was in jr. high (oh, the fateful day Ann Landers died!) and so have noticed patterns of trends, changes in the columnists’ style and opinions as they age, and issues that crop up again and again…and again. The blog gives me a chance to record that and reflect on it a bit–to do something with all this background in advice columns I have, which is completely and totally useless, except for writing a blog about advice columns.
Although personal, journal-style blogs are still going strong (and even have great success if you happen to have dramatic story to tell and the imagination to dream it big, like the pioneer woman [http://thepioneerwoman.com/]) I think that “niche” blogs are where it’s at these days in terms of identifying and building community. There’s so much information out there, you have to have a focus. Either it’s “my life” or “my favorite topic.” Unless you’re a fantastic writer and shameless self-promoter, only the latter will draw an audience broader than your family and close friends. (In fact, you have to be a fantastic writer and a shameless self-promoter anyway, but having a focus that interests people who don’t even know you doesn’t hurt).
A specific topic tells people what to expect at your blog–and most likely the kind of person you are and the kind of people who read what you write–it pre-defines the community by establishing up front what you have in common.
4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
I don’t have a specific instance in mind…I haven’t had an experience where I’ve really been reamed out over a misunderstanding (mostly because my audience is simply not that big, and mostly consists of friends). I tend to edit and re-edit over the course of the day (as described below), and try to work out confusing or misleading writing along the way. Of course there’s no guarantee I always succeed, or that readers will get what I mean…but I tend to do a lot of self-editing, trying to look for and head-off possible misunderstandings before everyone reads the post.
5. Describe your process of writing online.
I read the columns each day and pick the one that’s most interesting, controversial, entertaining, moving, or relevant to how I happen to be feeling. When I first started the blog, I’d choose excerpts from the column–now I basically just place the whole letter and response in my blog and add commentary–either after, or interpolated throughout the text of the letters. I write, read, edit, read, post, read, edit, post, read, edit, post, read, edit, post, read. I pity the fool who gets some kind of alert every time I update a post (is that an option you can sign up for?). I like that I can change what I wrote, because I often write my initial post at 6:30 a.m. Obviously several hours later when I’m more awake, I might be feeling more eloquent, or I might want to refine a thought. My posts are imported to Facebook, and it drives me nuts that I might edit a post 5 times, but my Facebook note still shows the old, imperfect version.
I try not to change anything that pertains to a comment I’ve received….my comment volume is very low, though (0-10 comments on any given post, 3 of which are usually my responses to comments), so this is rarely an issue.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
I don’t do a great job of finding interesting reading material online at all. I typically click back and forth between Facebook, my email, and my blog (which links to other people’s blogs, which I also follow). I will read what friends have posted, or I’ll peruse newspapers. If I find something good, I’ll share it on Facebook…that’s about it.
Finding and sharing can create a community, although it doesn’t always. I have friends who I know will always post the weirdest celebrity news…they post it to the world at large (typically on Facebook), but can anticipate a certain group who will read it and respond.
Communities spring up, I guess, around sources of information. So someone who does a lot of finding and sharing is at the heart of a community–it’s about the topic they’re sharing, but also about their perception and interest in it…others who are interested both in the topic and how the finder shares it choose to participate.
So maybe a community needs two major features: a common interest and a common way of experiencing/expressing that interest. Hm.
You can follow Rebecca on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rwelzenb. You can also read her comments on feminism from the Undomestic 10 interview by clicking here.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Amanda ReCupido
July 17th, 2009
Bio
Name: Amanda ReCupido
Age: 23
Location: New York
Occupation: Public & Media Relations, secret blogger, Twitter-er extraordinaire
Education: BA in Writing from Illinois Wesleyan University, Graduate Certificate in Publishing from NYU
Blog: http://www.undomesticgoddess.com
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
I feel I came on quietly to the feminist blogging community, and I didn’t really feel a sense of “community” until Twitter exploded; it was then I began to reach out to and connect with feminists from all around the country and around the world – and even made new feminist friends right in my own city. I find the community to be supportive, collaborative, and cross-generational. I’ve heard of instances of animosity between older and younger feminists, but in my experience, I’ve found several feminists in the next generation who have not only encouraged me, but befriended me. A great example of women helping women online is the launch of http://www.shewrites.com, a social network for women writers. This is a great way to connect with and share information with fellow women writers and bloggers, and may even help you make some money off that blogging!
I should also make a note about “mommy bloggers.” Just like housewives were considered an advertiser’s gold mine back in the day (or maybe they still are?), online marketers are realizing the power and savvy these techie moms have. And kudos to them! Women (who both work and don’t) are proving something online, though “mommy blogger” still has a negative connotation. Women use social networks more than men, but there are still biases when it comes to twitter followers (both women and men are more likely to follow men). Women are online, but credibility still needs to be recognized on a grander scale. There are plenty of women in tech, but the number of start-ups run by women is ridiculously low.
Is it beneficial for feminists to have a presence on the internet? YES. Absolutely yes. In this day and age, for any cause, if you’re not on the internet, you’re nowhere. Working for a non-profit by day, I understand the power of an online message and the conversation you are able to create with your audience almost immediately. This is an essential tool for a social cause to raise awareness and create a call to action. We can tweet and blog all we want, but if nothing actually HAPPENS, we’re just making noise.
2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
I started blogging simply because Facebook notes couldn’t contain me anymore. 🙂 It started out as me documenting my attempts at cooking, and slowly evolved into being very feminist-leaning, beginning with humorous notes on feminist-related things I’d see around me, on TV, in advertisements, etc. Soon I realized that these things were EVERYWHERE, and there was almost too much of it to write about (probably my favorite feminist site that covers a whole range of feminist topics well is http://www.feministing.com). Same with my Twitter. I started out just being me and musing on what I had for lunch (okay not really, but more mundane things), but once I realized I was tweeting a lot about feminism anyways, I switched my name to match my blog and suddenly collected an ARMY of feminist followers, and I have become more enlightened about and engaged in feminist issues ever since.
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I brushed on this briefly before that my content did change, and I’m happy for it. While writing about burning dinner can be funny (and I still will blog about food and kitchen mishaps on occasion), I’ve realized that I can make feminism just as accessible by adding a dose of humor to it. Of course, there are some more serious posts, but in both ways I feel I am contributing to something greater than myself. I’ve also started interviewing people about their views on feminism, just to see where the holes in the conversation lie (wait, you mean all feminists don’t burn their bras? Feminists can be MEN??), with the end goal being to find ways to change these misconceptions in society. I’ve been amazed at the response I’ve gotten, and how many people thank ME for giving them the opportunity to think about these issues on a serious level. I hope that type of conversation continues off my blog and into the real world.
4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
Hmm, I haven’t had anything too controversial happen with my blog or twitter. I’ve had instances where I’ll tweet something ridiculously sexist someone else said, and find that my community will back me up in agreement. Maybe the time we both took on the tweeting anti-feminist, until we both realized he wasn’t worth our time. Oftentimes, you have to determine whether a commenter is commenting to add to the conversation, or just to be an ass. If it’s the former, I find I like to thank them for a different point of view or some new information I haven’t heard about. If they’re crazy, I usually just leave it alone.
5. Describe your process of writing online.
I have so much of an un-process it’s unbelievable, especially having gone through the formal methods of writing in school – blogging all but abandons that, if only because you already have the mechanics embedded into your brain already. I actually remember when I first started blogging after I graduated college, thinking that blog posts were like mini-papers, with links serving as your works cited. My best blog posts are ones that I write in 10 minutes when I’m really heated about an issue. Bloggers are different than journalists in that you can be as opinionated as you want to be, and you SHOULD incite comments, either for you or against you. Controversy creates not only an active readership, but also the anger/excitement in people to initiate CHANGE.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
I read over 30+ blogs that I manage through Google Reader. I’ll share interesting links on Twitter. I also find Twitter to be a great resource for discovering new information. It’s fun to see what links you post that get re-tweeted and passed on, which shows you what’s getting people riled up. In this you can find people with similar interests, respond to each other, and form a new online relationship. I’ve also shared information from feminist books I’ve read, and sparked interest in that author for some people through those tweets. With Twitter and with blogging, you just never know what will resonate with people, and I’ve found the results to be pleasantly surprising.
You can follow Amanda on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TheUndomestic. You can also read her interviews about feminism, The Undomestic 10, here.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Sharna Fulton
July 14th, 2009
Bio
Name: Sharna Fulton
Age: 48
Location: Loganville, GA; (originally from Denver, CO but a Bostonian at heart)
Occupation: PR & Marketing, Cartoonist
Education: BA English Literature, University of Colorado, Boulder 1983
Blogs: www.chloepinkcartoon.blogspot.com (main blog!); www.peaceofthepie.com
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
I first became interested in feminist blogging a few years ago when I began looking for a place for Chloe Pink to go to work. I thought NOW (National Organization for Women) might be interested in her, so I became a NOW member and began visiting their site.
As far as my own consciously “feminist” blogging, it began when I worked on the Obama campaign last fall. I started to express some of my political views–which are pretty radical for where I live in the south–on Huffington Post. I even started my own blog to encourage corporate social responsibility. Once I had a few of these “Sharna Op-eds” under my belt, it led me to more opinionated views in the area of feminism. I am still dipping my toe gently into the social media pool–not trying to create too great a wave–but rather a few ripples to create new thoughts for those that live their lives in what I see as a rote manner.
When I got on Twitter the first of the year, I found a platform to express some of the views I’ve had. I’m sure many other women and feminists discovered this too. Like all bloggers with a wide ranging set of views, interests and values, I believe Facebook and Twitter are helping feminists get their opinions out of the closet and into the mainstream, where they need to be. Although, being the appeasers and caretakers of everyone’s feelings before our own, I am sure women will be slower to follow the Twitter craze and expose their inner feelings.
For instance, yesterday, on my Facebook page, I posted a link to a story about caregiving with the headline, “When work ends for women, play doesn’t start. Caregiving does.” This lead to some discourse from a Facebook friend about how she is happy she is compassionate. This in turn gave me the opportunity to reinforce the message I was trying to present. I said, “It’s great we, as women are compassionate, but we must also value that about ourselves.”
I hope that I can move traditional mindsets in women through Chloe Pink and my social networking writings. Us women/girls need to value ourselves more highly, be curious about life and take risks needed to follow our dreams. My thoughts are a work in progress.
Of course, I hope all this leads to my professional success as a cartoonist. However, I’ve had enough life experience now to know that artistic pursuits must come from an inner drive and focus rather than the need for fame or capital success.
2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
I first began blogging when I had an e-commerce giftware business, www.sportspottery.com (now owned by someone else). I sold handpainted wares to marathoners and other athletes (mainly women.) I wrote about my customers, their athletic accomplishments and also, about owning a business as a woman.
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
As a 15 year ad agency copywriter, the new microblogging social networking tools of Facebook “What are you doing” and Twittering in 140 characters are the perfect format for me. They allow me to craft a headline and often direct it to a link with information my followers might find useful. Writing in this way allows me to distance myself a bit from what I’m trying to promote in the sort of way, I guess, conservatives might accuse the New York Times of having a liberal slant. Still, the facts are the facts. I’m merely presenting the facts I see are important so they don’t go overlooked.
Secondly, I use these web 2.0 tools to report on things that may be of interest to my FB and Twitter community. I’m not interested in relaying to them what I had for dinner unless it was a gourmet meal I had in Paris or somehow managed to make myself. That would be real news.
On www.chloepinkcartoon.blogspot.com:
Chloe Pink
Chloe is a labor of love and has been in existence since 2006 when I created her for the National Stationery Show. (Although, she has been with me all my life as I all I ever wanted to do was write and illustrate a cartoon strip.) My hero is Charles Schultz.
As you know, Chloe Pink is the cartoon spokesmodel for women and girls. The Chloe Pink pledge is to be curious about life, have self confidence and follow your dreams. Pete is her friend. But Pete is also a supporter because us girls need all the support we can get!
Through the Chloe Pink cartoon blog, I hope to reinforce these values for women and girls amidst the joys and pitfalls we experience in our feminine lives.
On this blog, I’ll post cartoons and then write a paragraph or two about why I did it, the inspiration, etc. I hope for it to be somewhat of a teaching tool for women and girls and to get them to be more confident, follow their dreams and get more out of life.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m a “woman girl” and and there’s a little Chloe Pink in me. So, you see, every situation I experience is possible fodder for the CP strip. Be it a tennis match, buying a cup of coffee, getting my haircut, whatever…So, if you show no sportsmanlike conduct on the court, beware. 
You just might end up as a character in my next strip. The bottom line is that I get the opportunity to explore why women girls act the way they do, how we can be better, etc.
As Carrie Fisher, the famous writer says, “You need to be an archaelogist of your own life.”
Through Chloe, I am able to do just that: Express the challenges I have as a woman/girl and also to show how I and other women and girls can truly succeed while being their very own best unique self. Just like Chloe.
4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
Recently I wrote a post about my rules for tweeting on a local county blog: http://www.talkgwinnett.com/2009/give-credit-for-tweets-sake-my-twitter-rules/ One of my rules is to not bash politicians or political ideas. I explained you could opine and gently persuade, but don’t bash. Someone commented that this would take all the fun out of it. I then had to remind them, they could do whatever they wanted. However, if they worked for themselves or had clients, they could lose business over it. The person never responded and I didn’t feel badly about it.
Other occasions, which I won’t bore you with the details, mainly concern readers who are misreading what you wrote (like the above) and thus, are off track when they comment back. It’s up to us content originators to stay on top of our writings and to comment back to all comments. Always remember, it’s a never ending two way conversation. If you want to be understood, you will have to seekto understand first, then recomment and recomment again and again. That’s what blogging is all about. The writing hand moves on…and on….
5. Describe your process of writing online.
Chloe Pink Studio
As far as inspiration, of course I get stuff those I follow on twitter. I have 4 twitter accounts and of course, all those informative Facebook “friends.”
And mainly, I just try to get information from living. I’m always questioning why about everything. I’m naturally that way, but my husband is extremely that way. And he has rubbed off on me over the years.
Finally, I’d be remiss without my daily Starbucks venti 1/2 caf. I just downloaded all my French CD’s on my new I-pod Nano. Mind blowing for this baby boomer. And that Chloe Pink studio is a must! Every girl needs a room of her own where boys-especially husbands–must absolutely KEEP OUT! So, we can dream and do the seriously important work. In pink, of course.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
I follow Atlanta Journal Constitution, New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, etc. I blog on cause marketing, so I google search for businesses partnering with charities. I also blog/do marketing on home care for seniors. Since women are the primary caregivers in our society, I’m starting to see overlap in all these areas: feminism, home care, cause marketing. It all works together in layers.
I have older and younger women and men friends who keep me posted and thinking.
You can follow Sharna on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chloepink and http://twitter.com/sharnafulton. You can also read her comments on feminism from the Undomestic 10 interview by clicking here.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community: Esmeralda Tijhoff
July 10th, 2009
Bio
Hi! I’m Esmeralda Tijhoff, a 28 year old woman from an average city, Groningen, in the Netherlands. I’ve studied history at the university of Groningen and specialized in women’s history and genderstudies at the University of Utrecht. Since my main interest is doing research, I have started my own company after I completed my studies. Having my own business provides me with the time and the flexibility to devote one or two days a week to historical research and scientific conferences.
My company is called Fonkel. I design and program websites and web applications. I also write articles and all kinds of texts for promotions. Since February 2009, I’ve been appointed lecturer at the University of Groningen. I’m also an editor of the Dutch feminist magazine LOVER. I write and edit articles for the printed magazine. I also blog for them on http://www.tijdschriftlover.nl. Other blog of mine are a bit scattered around on the internet. Some English blogs can be found on http://feministvisionsforeurope.blogspot.com.
1. Define the online feminist blogging community.
The feminist blogging community on the internet in my view is a scattered community. We have platforms to discuss topics with each other, like the European Feminist Forum, but our blogs are more imbedded in our own local online community and not so much in a brother feminist community made up by feminists. This is the case for almost every personal blog by a feminist.
The blogs on the webpages of feminist organizations are a bit more incorporated in a ‘feminist online world’ since these blogs are read and commented on by mostly feminist readers. These blogs thus become a news portal for feminist viewpoints and news. The exchange of news, opinions and analyses by these blogs, and in a lesser extent the personal blogs, have strengthened feminists and girls worldwide.
As a journalist, I am always very happy to read the blogs of feminist organizations. They provide me with inside information and a lot of useful quotes to share with my own audience. Therefore, the presence of a blog makes it more likely for an organization or group to be mentioned in an article.
As a feminist, I love to read and recognize other feminists out there. It can be quite lonesome to be an outspoken feminist in this world. A blog full of humor does not only give me the necessary smile and happiness, but it can also provide my not-yet-feminist-audience on communities like Twitter a nice introduction into controversial topics.
I’ve been a writer for quite some time. From 2001 on, I’ve build my own feminist websites and provided them with content, filling them with pictures, photo’s, articles and columns, now called ‘blogs’. These sites were set up out of need to share and reach out to other people. The sites have strengthened local and national feminist initiatives and generated a lot of (media) attention.
At the moment, I use my blogging, twittering and online commenting as a tool to ‘spread the feminist word’ and inform other women about today’s initiatives. In the process, I’ve met some great other feminists, and I have learned the differences between feminists, especially between Dutch and Spanish and East-European feminists, or between West-European and American feminists. We are all so different! We use different styles and theories, we even have different short term goals, although in the long run, we all seem to agree on some basic issues.
2. Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
In the early days of internet, I started dumping provocative texts on websites that provided an opportunity to react. Around 2001, I learned to build my own websites and used this knowledge to set up websites in order to collect and share feminist articles and articles about women’s history. I also published columns about gender and equality on these sites. I felt a strong urge and need to discuss sexism in society. Internet seemed to be the best place to reach out to as many people as possible. The information needed to be made available, and I wanted to help doing so. One of my websites for example contained information about upcoming events, feminist organizations and were to find them, opening hours and addresses of gay bars, booklists about women’s history, women’s activism, women and religion, gender theories etc. I put a lot of my own articles and columns online and as much articles of others I could get permission for. These websites are now no longer online.
3. Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I still blog and write for the same reasons: ‘convert’ people to feminism, and building a strong feminist platform. Nowadays, I blog about feminist music, or girls in DIY bands, I respond to already available news and I collect ‘new’ news and give an gender analysis on these issues. I started blogging about music because I’m the guitarplayer in a women’s band and I think women’s presence in music, loud music like punk or hardcore, is still too limited.
4. Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
A couple of years ago, I posted a blog about abortion. I used some provocative words, because I think the subject is very disturbing for a women and should not be put aside using small words, or belittling notion. My statement that a women’s body can be occupied by a cell that’s growing without permission, got me some hateful comments. My point about pregnancy being not always a woman’s own choice, was misread as an excuse for women to be ‘slutty’ and kill the consequences in order to keep their own selfish way of life.
I was not so much surprised by this reaction, since abortion is a subject that’s almost always a reason for disagreement. I was surprised by the tone, and the lack of reflection and the impossibility to have an intelligent discussion on the internet. Besides this, I was surprised by the sometimes conservative reactions by leftwing people, like Marxists and socialists. I thought they would understand the need for self determination, but they sometimes cared more about ‘the unborn child’ than about the mothers life!
The most misreading happens on forums however. I also support a Take Back The Streets action, called Witchnight. Of course, there is a lot of misreading due to the name. People who misread the blogs, comments on forums and website, think we are a group of witches. They don’t think about a feminist action, because in the Netherlands, there are almost no groups calling themselves feminist. It is much more likely that we are witches then feminists. This has led to disturbing and also funny comments, boycotts and actions against our graffiti. This does frustrate me sometimes, but it also gives much possibilities for media attention, like: “Christian action against feminist demonstration”. When people react in such a way on forums, it provides us with the room to explain more about feminist action. In this way, we have stumbled upon some weird forums were our group was discussed.
5. Describe your process of writing online.
My routine for writing online pieces is not so different from my ‘offline’ writing. I just keep thing shorter and use a lot more satirical or ‘fun’ comments to keep the readers on my webpage.
An article is in average 1500 words, a blog about 500 words. So if I write a blog, I will cut down far more. I also try to give my message in the first 300 words, using the last 200 for the background information. People don’t read everything in a blog, they just scan it. If they like the first two sentences, they might read the first 300 words. If they like that, they will attempt to finish the whole piece.
The older women however, print the blog and read it as an article! So if I write for an audience of 30+, I tend to keep the blog at a maximum of 1000 words. Besides this, I always, always post a picture with a blog. An article can attract readers with a good title, a blog must have a picture.
6. Describe your online reading habits.
Thanks to Twitter, I have gained excess to a whole lot more of interesting blogs! Feminist bloggers tweet about their new posts, and even tell me were interesting posts of others are. I have read so many interesting blogs due to these wonderful people on Twitter! Before Twitter existed, I used Google to find articles and blogs about topics. Later on, I could filter my search by selecting ‘blogs’ in Google. I’ve bookmarked some of the feminist web pages that provide blogs regularly. Now I just look into Twitter and use the search function there! This direct contact between feminists gave me an awareness of the very existence of a feminist community online. Internet is no longer just a news provider, but also a communication tool for people who identify on the same level.
You can follow Esmeralda on Twitter at http://twitter.com/esmoves.
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.