Why would I write a paper about feminist blogging?

As you know by now, I am obsessed with blogs. Or rather, this movement towards electronic communication of intellectual thought. I read anywhere from 10 to 30 blogs a day. Most of these blogs are feminist focused. Throughout the semester, I have been wondering if these blogs have impacted feminist legal theory in any way, or if they may be capable of doing so. While reading the assignments for the semester, I realized that much of the third-wave literature, along with other theorists work, was clearly relatable to my ideas.

This thesis I am (hoping to) advance…

I hope to show that blogging can be interpreted as a feminist legal method, as an added method to Katharine Bartlett’s exploration of feminist legal methods (asking the “woman question,” feminist practical reasoning, consciousness-raising).

My paper will show that feminist blogging is doing the law in ways that are not currently valued or even recognized, but must be in the near future to understand the FLT of the third-wave and beyond.

What would the FLT experts say about my paper?

Catherine MacKinnon – This illustrious theorist may initially condemn my notion of blogging as a new, improved form of consciousness-raising. She may say that because blogging is not a “face-to-face social experience” or that it is not a sort of parallel method of FLT. However, I believe that other aspects of MacKinnon’s method are applicable to blogging. For example, MacKinnon writes, “the most apparent quality of [consciousness-raising] is its aim of grasping women’s situation as it lived through.” There is nothing more immediate than the ability of women to head to a computer and blog about their experiences. I see blogging as a metaphorical embodiment of digital consciousness-raising.

Katie Roiphe – This third-wave theorist is likely to embrace blogging as a way to move beyond the rape-crisis feminists’ process by which to discuss difficult issues. On the issue of rape, which she discusses in “The Morning After,” Roiphe criticizes rape-crisis feminists for their seemingly one-dimensional way of treating rape culture’s effect on women. Her belief that “rape-crisis feminists reproduce the idea that there is something vulnerable to be taken or lost, that there is something pure to be violated,” is challenged by feminist bloggers. Blogging provides rape victims, and women in general, with an anonymous venue to discuss how differently rape affects his/her individual life. For example, on AngryBlackBitch, the blogger (who calls herself “this bitch”) writes in regard to the Duke lacrosse players rape case:

“First, let me say that I own my response to this case. That's right, I own it…Feminism will only be harmed if we fail to explore our individual responses, the community's reaction and what the struggle can take from this to grow stronger.”

Roiphe would agree with me that the above passage is not “language of virtue and violation,” which is the sort of language she criticizes feminists, such as Catherine MacKinnon for using through traditional consciousness-raising techniques.

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese – This theorist goes against the grain of traditional FLT thought and this why I had to integrate her into my paper. She would support blogging and detest it simultaneously. On one hand, her commentary in Feminism without Illusions challenges the issue of abortion in the feminist context, and therefore would support a free exchange of feminist issues via the Internet. Alternatively, her opposition to “a decisive reinforcement of the extreme individualistic view of society as composed of atomized individuals” seems to indicate a lack of support for such an individualistic activity such as blogging. Fox-Genovese recognizes the feminist “contradiction between the commitment to community…and the commitment to individual right.” This is a very real issue in the blogging community, and particularly for feminist bloggers. Several articles have discussed the blogosphere, with emphasis on its effect on women bloggers, e.g. A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs (NY Times), Dispatches from the Blog Battle Zone (BusinessWeek Online), How the Web Became a Sexists’ Paradise (Guardian News).

Kimberle Williams Crenshaw – This author is likely to have conflicting views about my support of blogging as a valid, important feminist legal method. First, her influential theory of intersectionality is applicable to feminist blogging in many ways. Her criticism of traditional feminist theory as being exclusive to the economically-healthy, white woman’s perspective, led to her proposition that FLT must begin to “include an analysis of race if it hopes to express the aspirations of non-white women.” Maia on Alas, a blog comments on this very issue:

“The gendered behavior expected of a woman depends on the time and place, culture and class that that woman lives in…That’s not to say that middle-class white women shouldn’t analyze the experiences they have of being middle-class white women. The problem is not that these discussions happen, but that they become a stand in for all women.”

Blogging accomplishes this goal by providing an unrestricted space for people from all sectors of life to publish their views. AngryBlackBitch is just one example of incorporating an African-American and traditional feminist perspective.

There is the potential for backlash to this though. If it were possible to track the readership statistics (race, class, geography) of race-oriented feminist blogs, and it became evident that only people of a specific demographic are logging on to these blogs, it would defeat (what I think may be) Crenshaw’s desire to broaden the depth of FLT to recognize all individuals’ unique makeup in discussion of feminism as a whole.

Jennifer Baumgardner/Amy Richards – These third-wave writers clearly began a trend of viewing feminism from different angles with Manifesta. My introductory passage reads:

“The Internet thrives on connection, but not on human contact – it truly is a cave of one’s own. With no one watching, one’s inner diatribes and prejudices can be let loose.”

The Manifesta authors know the internet is integral to the development and promotion of feminist ideals. I hope that the authors will be proud of my Feminist Blogger’s Manifesta as well.

Strengths & weaknesses, of course.

I welcome any/all comments on this section following my presentation.

The strengths of this paper include: the unique nature of my proposition – feminist bloggers are doing the law without knowing they are. To say that these bloggers are doing the law, means that they are contributing to FLT in a variety of ways that I discuss in the paper. I hope to prove that doing the law is not just practicing law or engaging in outright activism, it can include opening up new venues for discussion and outlets for FLT, of course. I also combine accessible forms of media, i.e. online newspapers, magazine articles, as sources with more intellectually based, FLT focused sources.

The weaknesses are as follows: I am not sure if it is too much of stretch to say that Crenshaw wants feminism to be unified under cohesive, more inclusive terms, or if intersectionality is indicative of third-wave thought that all individuals can maintain separate goals, with just one common goal of feminism. I am also aware of my shaky legal analysis. I have found that it’s difficult to relate a new area of thought to the traditional legal world/processes. Plus, I am not an A+ legal writer!

There’s always more work to be done…

I need to expand on the violence against women on the blogs, and tie that into some of the DV literature we reviewed in class. I’d also like to expand upon the Feminist Blogger’s Manifesta at the end of my paper. I may also discuss Angela Harris’s notion of essentialism in FLT and feminist blogging. And of course, I need to FINISH it!

Feminist scholars, take note of my paper!

This paper is important to FLT because the internet is impacting all aspects of our culture, for better or worse, and feminists need to embrace this new form of activism. One of the goals of the Baumgardner/Richards Third-Wave Manifesta is:

“12. To acknowledge that, although feminists may have disparate values, we share the same goal of equality, and of supporting one another in our efforts to gain the power to make our own choices.” Feminist blogging allows those differing values and choice to take center stage in the latest stage of this exciting movement.

Just as Kristina Sheryl Wong has proven through BigBadChineseMama, the internet is a powerful place to practice FLT. As a new FLT method, theorist should take note of the ways in which this phenomenon is changing the way we feminists DO the law!