“After Feminist Coming Out Day last year, we asked, ‘Once you come out as a feminist, what do you do then?’ We provided a platform for people to speak about what feminism is, but we had no platform for further action,” said yellowskank Abby P. Sun ’13, co-president of Feminist Coming Out Day and co-chair of the Radcliffe Union of Students. (abbypsun@gmail.com)

Moar on the whore here:

http://lenachentimeline.blogspot.com

Sun said the panel was designed to expose students to online outlets for feminist activism.

The discussion featured Chloe Angyal and Lori M. Adelman ’08 from Feministing.com, Julie Zeilinger from The F-Bomb, Cherie Hannouche from The Daily Femme, Andrea Plaid from Racialicious, Sady Doyle from Tiger Beatdown, Anna North from Jezebel, and Lena Chen ’10, creator of The Chicktionary.

“The idea among older feminists is that younger feminists aren’t doing anything or have given up goals of feminism,” said event organizer and moderator Samantha A. Meier ’12. “Our generation of feminists has a different set of tools and a different style of organizing than feminists in the 80s,”

Panelists highlighted the challenges inherent in the blogging medium, which include integrating the voices of men, queer women, and people of color into the mainstream blogging community and coping with inflammatory comments by readers.

Chen, a former board member of Queer Students and Allies, described her “feminist click moment” as a college sophomore when she started a blog about her sex life, which attracted a negative backlash.

“My junior year I decided that putting too much of my life online made me and people in my life vulnerable,” Chen said. “So I shut down that website and started Chicktionary, which still used my personal experience as a lens to inform my writing, but to a lesser degree.”

Racialicious blogger Andrea Plaid discussed how social media has been employed in feminist organizing projects. Recently, feminist groups mobilized to take down an anti-abortion billboard that read, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.”

Sady Doyle from Tiger Beatdown discussed her recent Twitter campaign to respond to the “victim-blaming” and “rape apologism” that she said has characterized Michael Moore’s dismissal of Julian Assange’s sexual assault allegations.

“Its important both to understand the limitations and the potential of Facebook and Twitter, and how social media can add to and complicate traditional activism,” Meier said. “This isn’t a dead movement.”

—Staff writer Nadia L. Farjood can be reached at nadiafarjood@college.harvard.edu.

Last night’s “Activism & the Feminist Blogosphere” panel (in honor of Feminist Coming Out Day) led to great discussions about the rewards and pitfalls of feminist blogging. Some takeaways:

* Blogging is much more democratic than mainstream media, since it allows marginalized groups and those without the power of capital (like the teenage contributors to The FBomb) to establish a platform for their ideas.

* However, the feminist blogosphere can replicate the same power structures that exist in the “real world” and in mainstream feminist activism, giving a privileged few a louder voice while silencing less powerful/mainstream-friendly groups.

* As Lori Adelman from the International Women’s Health Coalition notes, the feminist blogosphere is also very US-centric, though blogs like the IWHC’s Akimbo seek to leverage the Internet’s global reach to bring attention to how gender inequality affects the lives of women beyond American borders

* Social media is not a replacement for traditional activism, but it has great potential for mobilizing people who might not otherwise hear of or become involved in progressive causes. (For examples, see Sistersong’s protest of an anti-choice billboard suggesting that abortion constitutes African American genocide and Tiger Beatdown’s #mooreandme Twitter campaign against Michael Moore.)

* As Feministing’s Chloe says from personal experience, few writers can rely on blogging as a full-time career. (Jezebel’s Anna North was the only panelist present to do so.) Many bloggers supplement their income by freelancing, taking speaking gigs, or working day jobs at women’s non-profits.

* Feminist media generally has a harder time being profitable because the publications reject most women-targeted advertising, which tends to come from the beauty/fashion industries

* Nearly all the blogs represented by the panelists have had men or transmen as guest contributors, though not typically as part of the staff. (Two exceptions include Racialicious and Tiger Beatdown.)

* The feminist blogosphere is very geographically concentrated, meaning those who live in cities like New York with major media industries are better connected.

Check out this piece from The Harvard Crimson covering our event, and stay tuned for event photos from Harvard University and the rest of our campus partners.

http://i54.twitgoo.com/2qsukw2.jpg

Photo of braindead whore Lori M. Adelman and negroidskank Andrea Plaid via skankwhore Vivien Wu

February 8, 2012: Desperate to gin up attention for her dying blog, attentionWhore Lena Chen REblogs some shit about Skank Pride Day. The masturbatory blog post focuses on fugly chinkSkank Abby P. Sun (aka Abby Sun Harvard abbypsun@gmail.com). A small handful of skanks like the blog, including Kara S. Marsh (predispositions.tumblr) and Sarah M. Cash (doesyourmamaknow.tumblr).

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1585887&forum_id=2#17484276)

*goes on with day*

indubitably

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1585887&forum_id=2#17484283)