“Reclaiming Rhetorical Worth: Feminist Blogs as a Space for Equality, Cooperation, and Action”

by Amani Husain | Xchanges 9.2

Introduction

Wikipedia defines a “feminist blog” as presenting “the issues of feminism through a blog. Feminist blogs serve the purpose of spreading ideas, sparking debates, raising awareness, discussing opinions, sharing stories, and virtually spreading the notion of feminism throughout the Internet” (“Feminist Blog” 1). As the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet, and the sixth most visited website in the world (“Wikipedia” 1), Wikipedia’s infamous omniscience should be taken seriously by anyone conducting field research in cyberspace. Wikipedia also notes that “This type of blog differs from the traditional blog because it combines politics with individual testimony” (“Feminist Blog” 1). Wikipedia also happens to be right.

Feminist blogs come in all forms, colors, and sizes and range from moderate to radical in ideology. Generally, the feminist “blogosphere” is rife with pop culture references, satirical perspectives on social issues, and political critiques. I became interested in analyzing feminist blogs when I realized that much research focused on online discourses was outdated, unfeminist, and modernist in approach. By unfeminist I mean that the focus on female writers in cyberspace was minimal, as was the representation of women of color. Stuart Blythe (2007) discussed the differences between modernist, traditional approaches and postmodern positions by referencing Sullivan and Porter (1997). He argued that a modernist approach allows the researcher to assume an authoritarian position as a liberator of a universal truth while a postmodern approach acknowledges that theorizing should not be seen as “Law,” rather, theorizing is local and situational (p. 205).

Furthermore, while conducting this analysis I was aware of the interdisciplinary nature of this study. Combing media studies, women and gender studies, and rhetoric, among other disciplines, seemed to widen the possibilities for both the present study and future studies. As Berryman-Fink et al. (2009) argued:

feminist interdisciplinarity doesn’t just mean collaborating with others who are like-minded . . . . it can also be about critiquing what is happening in other disciplines where scholars are talking about your subject, but do not share your assumptions, your commitments, your definition of what’s a problem or your idea of what would constitute an effective or just solution. In language and gender studies at the moment there is arguably a pressing need for that kind of ‘critical’ interdisciplinarity. (Berryman-Fink et al., 2009, p. 5)

Crossing disciplinary boundaries is important for this study and for other critical work that aims to explore the intersections of race, class, gender, and nation.

Moreover, the outdated and limited scope of online discourse analyses, particularly in their relation to women of color and marginalized communities, led me to pursue research about feminist blogs. I wanted to learn how these misrepresented/underrepresented feminist communities use blogs to induce cooperation and empower women and other oppressed, minority, or marginalized groups. More specifically, I wanted to explore whether a lexicon of women’s empowerment online exists, how it exists (what rhetorical devices, strategies, or other structures it employs to create empowerment), and what it accomplishes socially and politically.