VOLUME 8 #FEMFUTURE: ONLINE REVOLUTION

OTHER VOLUMES #FemFuture: Online Revolution IN THE SERIES Written by Courtney E. Martin & Vanessa Valenti

VOLUME 1 Infographics designed by Megan Jett Responding to Violence, Rethinking Security: Published by the Barnard Center for Research on Women Policy Alternatives for Building Human Security BCRW gratefully acknowledges support for this report from:

VOLUME 2 The Jacqueline & Gregory Zehner Foundation Women, Work, and the Academy: Strategies The Harnisch Foundation for Responding to ‘Post-Civil Rights Era’ Gender Discrimination The George Family Foundation Trio Foundation VOLUME 3 The Woodcock Foundation The Work-Family Dilemma: A Better Balance Abigail E. Disney VOLUME 4 Barbara Dobkin Toward a Vision of Sexual and Economic Louise Forrest Justice Dolly Gray-Bussard VOLUME 5 Helen Kornblum Valuing Domestic Work Ann W. Lovell

VOLUME 6 Lori Ordover Reproductive Justice in Action In BCRW’s 2007 webjournal The Scholar and Feminist Online issue on “Blogging VOLUME 7 Desiring Change Feminism: Websites of Resistance,” Rebecca Traister wrote of her introduction to the online feminist community, Online, I found women (and men) who thought about feminism as much as I did, and who knew far more than I about its history, its legal applications, and its cultural implications. They spoke of gender, sexuality, race, age, women’s health, reproductive rights, international human rights abuses, disabilities, physical and cultural difference, women in media, politics, and business. Their voices were, by turns, earnest and funny and academic and casual. They came from parts of the country I’d never visited, connected me to women I’d never have encountered otherwise. In the past decade, this refrain has increasingly been sounded—the Internet has transformed not just the lives of individual feminist activists, but of activist movements as a whole. But in the spring of 2012, Courtney Martin and Vanessa Valenti approached To download any report in the New Feminist BCRW with a message: this new and exciting environment was in crisis. As Solutions series, visit bcrw.barnard.edu/nfs or call feminist writers focused on online spaces they were increasingly alarmed by 212.854.2067 to request a free printed copy. the severity of burnout they saw among their fellow feminist bloggers and online activists. They wanted to make sure the landscape that could work more effectively and sustainably and what they had given them so much would still be around a generation wanted the future to look like. later. Martin and Valenti had a compelling vision to make the This report provides a synthesis of those conversations landscape of feminist writers and activists online stronger; supported with examples and recommendations from Martin to create a sustainable force that would build on existing and Valenti’s ongoing research. BCRW is excited to release alliances among feminist movements and between online this report as a compilation of a few of the conversations feminists and their institutional counterparts; and to develop happening worldwide, on and offline, about movement tactics an infrastructure of support for these important voices. and impact in the digital age. We look forward to continuing BCRW signed on to support a convening of 21 local online engagement in the years ahead. activists and writers who brainstormed ideas about how they

Online Revolution Convening 2012 Participants

Lori Adelman Shelby Knox Jennifer Pozner Feministing Change.org Women In Media & News

Brittney Cooper Jensine Larsen Marianne Schnall Crunk Feminist Collective World Pulse Feminist.com

Dana Edell Samhita Mukhopadhyay Dena Simmons SPARK Movement Feministing Feminist Educator & activist

Jill Filipovic Katie Orenstein Jamia Wilson Feministe The Op-Ed Project Feminist media activist

Victoria Fitzgerald Miriam Zoila Pérez Irene Xanthoudakis Hollaback! Radical Doula Feminist activist & fundraiser

Emily Jacobi Andrea Plaid Julie Zeilinger Digital Democracy Racialicious F-Bomb

Ileana Jiménez

Feminist Teacher

2 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS ONLINE REVOLUTION INTRODUCTION

by courtney e. martin At a recent fundraising meeting for the pioneering majority of potential voters, not to mention taking site Feminist.com, I stood back and watched a into consideration what is morally right. line-up of some incredible feminist leaders—Carol These enraging and mobilizing political Gilligan, Pat Mitchell, Kathy Najimy, Devaki Jain, developments have taken place alongside the birth Kathy LeMay—speak to the importance of the site, and maturation of online feminism. The explosion but more largely, to the feminist movement at this of feminist blogs, online organizing (including critical juncture. The wine was flowing. The women online petitions), and social media campaigns has were rowdy. The call was clear. transformed the ways in which the movement’s We are facing a moment of challenge and opportunity most scrappy young entrepreneurs, thought leaders, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Now is the time. and grassroots activists think about feminism and I kept rolling that phrase around in my mind: discuss the most critical issues of the day. Many now is the time. Was it really? Did they always say have called feminist blogs the 21st century version this? At 33-years-old, I’ve been “in the movement” of consciousness raising. Today, the online feminist long enough to know that plenty of patterns repeat world constitutes both a “communications arm” themselves, that we tend to have amnesia about our for the contemporary feminist movement and an good failures and hard-earned learning, and yet, it inexhaustible force continually radicalizing and seemed like these four words were being spoken with challenging its institutionalization. an uncommon confidence. I wanted to trust them. Online feminism also has the power to mobilize Standing near yet another one of my sheroes, people—young, old and everyone in between— Elizabeth Lesser, I turned and said, “Can I ask you to take political action at unprecedented scale at something, Elizabeth?” unprecedented speeds. So far this power has mostly “Of course.” been exercised in ad-hoc, reactive (as opposed to “Is now really the time? Have you all said that proactive), and unsustainable ways, but even so, it has before in rooms like this?” had remarkable effects. She smiled that subtle, beatific smile and said with Online feminism has transformed the way absolute confidence, “No, now is the time, Courtney. advocacy and action function within the feminist We may have said it before, but we never meant it movement. And yet, this amazing innovation in like we do now.” movement organizing is unsustainable. Bloggers and The much-discussed “war on women” has created online organizers largely suffer from a psychology the momentum among feminists of a range of ages of deprivation—a sense that their work will never to fight back. Sexism that might have been too subtle be rewarded as it deserves to be, that they are in to be targeted in a less volatile time is obvious in a direct competition with one another for the scraps climate where women’s health, economic security, that come from third-party ad companies or other and sex lives are all under attack by politicians inadequate attempts to bring in revenue. As a result, who clearly missed the memo that women are the they are vulnerable, less effective, and risk burn

3 #FemFuture: Online Revolution out. Under these conditions, online feminism isn’t of the feminist movement’s promise. We hope that being sufficiently linked to larger organizational and our peers will read this paper and find themselves movement efforts and/or leveraged for the greatest honored, but we also hope those advocating from impact at this critical moment. within feminist institutions or approaching this We must create more radical, intentional, and work from a philanthropic perspective will find that transformative relationships between all of the it sheds light on the strengths and challenges of stakeholders in the feminist movement—the the online feminist movement and sparks ideas for organizers, students, teachers, academics, activists, cross-sector collaboration. Historically, we haven’t all philanthropists, and online feminists. When we engage spoken the same language; this paper is our attempt one another in creative, dignifying, and reciprocal at translation. It’s been challenging to write for such ways, we will all be profoundly emboldened. a broad, diverse audience, and we’re sure individual Which is not to say that forging this gap will be easy. readers will find fault in our framing and phrasing. It’s boundary-crossing work—cross-generational, We welcome the dissent and how it further elucidates cross-class, cross-race, cross just about every line that the ways in which we can teach and challenge one still divides us both within and outside of the feminist another, and still find common ground. movement. It is our hope that this paper will serve to What Vanessa Valenti and I have proposed translate the experiences and ideas of online feminists, in the pages that follow is a broad and eclectic working in a variety of contexts and geographies, ecosystem—a way for feminists with a wide diversity to feminist organizers, writers, philanthropists of backgrounds, ideologies, and ways of working to and institutional leaders who have graciously and be of service to one another towards a larger shared generously asked, as of late: Who are you? What do you mission of gender justice. This is a feminist version need? How can we help? of what John Kania and Mark Kramer call “collective We brought these questions and many others to a impact” in their widely-distributed paper of the same core group of trailblazing feminists working online name, in which they argued that convening power on June 7, 2012 at the Barnard Center for Research and agenda setting are the key to large scale social on Women, our incredible partner in this work. What change. In the feminist context, these two elements transpired was no less than historic. Feminists who are so fundamental precisely because they create have often only interacted online, had the opportunity relationships, which facilitate the flow of ideas, to sit in a room for a full day and share their past resources, and—idealistic as it might sound—hope. experiences as online and on-the-ground organizers Kania and Kramer lay out five conditions and bloggers, the truth of their current struggles, and of collective success: common agenda, shared their visions for the future. measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, This paper largely draws on the wisdom that was continuous communication, and backbone support harvested that dynamic day. It’s also an attempt organization. All of these conditions—though to speak across the very demographic barriers that sometimes called by different names—surfaced we have identified as hampering the full realization organically as priorities for the leaders we engaged

4 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS with during our convening in June of 2012. What The five hundred mice have become millions, and also surfaced was the need for a new map of the unlike in Flo’s heyday, we’ve got tools to unleash feminist movement. This will build on the work them more strategically than ever before. Forging done in the Follow the Money paper, an unpublished partnerships between feminists—online and off, report from Women Moving Millions, which explores younger and older, poor and wealthy, organizing at women’s philanthropic giving, but will acknowledge the grassroots and strategizing at the treetops—will the work of online feminists1 and document the ways have far-reaching consequences. It will foster the in which people are most effectively mobilized in this formation of new connections between grassroots new landscape. advocacy and service organizations, educational It’s not a simple map. There is no one feminist institutions, coalitions, unions, convenings, movement. Instead, there are many intersectional conferences, legacy media, policy makers, movements operating in tandem with much to learn politicians, entrepreneurs, etc. Online feminism has from one another. This multiplicity is not only okay, the capacity to be like the nervous system of this but healthy and inevitable. The more radical versions modern day feminist body politic. of feminism will continue to push the feminist Just as Elizabeth Lesser knew the time is now center, the center will continue to push the margins with a sacred confidence, we, the authors of this to be more strategic, those of us who dance in paper, know this: if we can create infrastructure between will continue to be challenged and nurtured and initiatives that foster a flow of relationships, by it all. We will deploy diverse methodologies, resources, ideas, and action, it will change the world. mobilize diverse populations, and tell diverse stories. There is paradox here. While the times we are living in call for social justice movements to embrace decentralization, our technological tools allow coordination among a much broader, more motley collection of organizations and individuals than ever before. The challenge is to ensure that the mechanisms of coordination and agenda setting are supported. Pioneering feminist Florynce Kennedy, once said, “Unity in a movement situation is overrated. If you were the Establishment, which would you rather see coming in the door, five hundred mice or one lion?”

1. The Follow the Money paper only documented organizations with annual budgets of $300,000 or more. Only Momsrising and World Pulse, among the leading online feminist organizations, fit into this category.

5 #FemFuture: Online Revolution PART ONE: A NEW LANDSCAPE WHAT IS ONLINE FEMINISM?

Women in Media and News in order to create a space online feminism for feminist media analysis and increase women’s Harnessing the 2 power of online voices in public debate. media to discuss, Women were creating powerful spaces for themselves uplift, and activate online, helping to build the next frontier of the feminist gender equality and social justice. movement. These forums began as simple websites, and developed into communities of hundreds of thousands of people who needed a platform to express themselves. They found it on the Internet. This is why so many identify feminist blogs as “the WHAT IS ONLINE FEMINISM? consciousness-raising groups of the 21st century.” Online feminist work has become a new engine for The very functionality of blogs—the self-publishing contemporary feminism. No other form of activism in platforms and commenting community—allow people history has empowered one individual to prompt tens to connect with each other, creating an intentional of thousands to take action on a singular issue – within space to share personal opinions, experiences minutes. Its influence is colossal and its potential is of injustice, and ideas, all with a feminist lens. even greater. Feminists today, young and old, use Consciousness-raising groups were said to be the the Internet to share their stories and analysis, raise “backbone” of second wave feminism; now, instead of awareness and organize collective actions, and discuss a living room of 8-10 women, it’s an online network of difficult issues. thousands. The beginnings of online feminism were primarily in the form of online forums, newsgroups, journals and blogs developed in response to the need for a public platform where young women could voice their opinions about the state of the world around them. Many created websites and online zines early on; Heather Corinna began Scarlet Letters in the late 1990s, the first site online to specifically address and explore women’s sexuality, and soon after, Scarleteen. com, an online resource for teen and young adult sex education. Viva La Feminista’s Veronica Arreola took the feminist ideas discussed on the listserv of online organization Women Leaders Online to create a website at Geocities.com that discussed sports, pop culture and feminist politics. Later on, she developed 2. Corrected 4/12/13: Based on feedback, this paragraph has been the first pro-choice webring. Jennifer Pozner developed corrected to better reflect the understanding of the work by those mentioned.

6 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS A In NEW a study CHANNEL conducted in 2011, FOR the ACTIVISMPew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project crowned young women The typical image of feminist activism has been between the ages of 18 and 29 years old as “the power pretty clear historically: women marching down the users of social networking.”3 Eighty-nine percent of women street, or protesting at a rally. From suffrage through use social networks and 93 percent of young people the second wave, collective chants and painted between the ages of 18 and 29 are online. Over 584 million protest signs had been defining markers of feminist people login to Facebook alone on an average day. action. And today, offline organizing continues to In this rapidly shifting technological age, it shouldn’t be be a major tactic to galvanize the masses. Waves of a surprise that the next generation of social movement- protests across South Asia early this year following building in the United States is largely online. the death of a 23-year-old gang rape victim in Delhi are just one powerful reminder of the impact that a collective group of people can make on the ground. A The NEW marchers CHANNEL that filled FOR the ACTIVISMstreets of Delhi, The typical image of feminist activism has been pretty however, weren’t just using their feet; they were clear historically: women marching down the street, or also using their tweets. #Delhibraveheart—a protesting at a rally. From suffrage through the second hashtag, which essentially serves as a filter for a wave, collective chants and painted protest signs had been particular theme or meme—was added to millions defining markers of feminist action. And today, offline of impassioned laments for the victim. Government organizing continues to be a major tactic to galvanize the leaders, who initially had an anemic reaction, were masses. Waves of protests across South Asia early this year compelled to respond to the young people taking following the death of a 23-year-old gang rape victim in up space in the streets, but also those setting the Delhi are just one powerful reminder of the impact that a Internet on fire with their rage. This dual approach is collective group of people can make on the ground. just the latest of so many examples that demonstrates The marchers that filled the streets of Delhi, however, how feminist activism has expanded to the online Pew Internet and American Life Project weren’t just using their feet; they were also using their sphere. tweets. #Delhibraveheart—a hashtag, which essentially The rapid innovation and creativity that serves as a filter for a particular theme or meme—was As years went by, social technologies began to evolve characterize online activist work is a game-changer in added to millions of impassioned laments for the victim. into a robust, diverse field of web-based tools and the contemporary art of making change. Compared Government leaders, who initially had an anemic platforms. YouTube allowed for vlogging, or “video to the weeks or months of prep time it takes to reaction, were compelled to respond to the young people blogging”; Twitter and Tumblr, or “microblogging,” gather thousands of people in one place for a rally taking up space in the streets, but also those setting the allowed for easier and even more immediate sharing or march, online feminists can mobilize thousands Internet on fire with their rage. This dual approach is capabilities. Today, this evolution of online technologies within minutes. Whether you’re signing an online just the latest example that demonstrates how feminist has produced thousands of activists, writers, bloggers, petition, participating in a twitter campaign against and tweeters across the globe who live and breathe this harmful legislation, or blogging about a news article, movement, engaging their audience every day in the 3. Madden, Mary and Kathryn Zickuhr. “65% of Online Adults Use Socialtechnological Networking Sites,”tools Pewhave Internet made and it American infinitely Life Project,easier 2011, for name of equality. peoplehttp://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx invested in social justice to play their part.

7 #FemFuture: Online Revolution Another striking development in online organizing can take. This widespread, collective effort creates activism has expanded to the online sphere. online feminists can mobilize thousands within minutes. today is the role of citizen-produced media in the necessary consciousness and a broad range of The rapid innovation and creativity that characterize Whether you’re signing an online petition, participating online activist work. On feminist blogs, for example, content that organizations like Hollaback!, Color online activist work are game-changers in the in a twitter campaign against harmful legislation, or writers post commentary about the day’s news with of Change, Move On, UltraViolet, and the Applied contemporary art of making change. Compared to blogging about a news article, technological tools have a feminist lens, highlighting and amplifying social Research Center draw on as they share articles, the weeks or months of prep time it takes to gather made it infinitely easier for people invested in social justice work that is off the mainstream media’s radar, connect with others, sign petitions and pledges, and thousands of people in one place for a rally or march, justice to play their part. and often linking this analysis to action that readers use online tools to mobilize on-the-ground action.

8 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS Users Another can striking then be development instantly contacted in online toorganizing request todayaction leadersfor equality, are beginningof securing to our recognize rights rather how thanthe power defending of inis the the role future. of citizen-produced Media-making media essentially in online allows activist activists work. socialthem, hasmedia seemed and onlinefar beyond organizing our capacity is reanimating when there the is toOn become feminist experts blogs, for in example, the issues writers that wepost care commentary about, and feministso much movement.responsive action to take. makers—notabout the day’s just news advocates—of with a feminist the lens, change highlighting we want and to Yet when millions of women and men can tweet seeamplifying and be socialin the justice world. work that is off the mainstream their demand for accountability from corporations, media’s As decade-long radar, and oftenactivists, linking we this have analysis lived toand action that understandreaders can take. the Thispower widespread, of boots oncollective the ground. effort Thecreates feministthe necessary movement consciousness will continue and a broad to make range strides of content throughthat organizations lobbying, like on-the-ground Hollaback!, Color organizing, of Change and, Move creatingOn, UltraViolet meaningful, and the discourse Applied Researchthrough academia,Center draw buton as online they share feminism articles, now connect offers with a others,new entry sign pointpetitions for feministand pledges, activism. and use online tools to mobilize on-the-ground action. Users can then be instantly contacted to request action in the future. Media-making essentially allows activists to become experts in the issues that we care about, andA VIBRANT makers—not NEWjust advocates MOVEMENT—of­ the change we want to Wesee andare currentlybe in the world. living in the most hostile legislative environment As decade-long to reproductive activists, we haverights lived in the and last understand forty years.the power In 2011, of boots we onreached the ground. a record The number feminist of movement state governments, and media, we have an opportunity to shift restrictionswill continue on to abortion.make strides Contraception through lobbying, coverage on-the- is this paradigm. For over a decade, online feminist activists beingground attacked, organizing, access and tocreating basic healthmeaningful care servicesdiscourse haveONLINE been working FEMINISM, on feminist causes, but it has never through academia,providers butlike onlinePlanned feminism Parenthood now offers is a new beenA RADICALIZING so visible. Now, feminist FORCE organizations, media, and threatened,entry point for and feminist decisions activism. about one’s reproductive For years, online feminists have served as powerful corporate stakeholders, and national leaders are beginning health are increasingly criminalized. The feminist allies for feminist organizations. We liveblog at to recognize how the power of social media and online movement continues to push back against each hurdle conferences, tweet calls to action, and translate the organizing is reanimating the feminist movement. thrownA VIBRANT at us. The NEW days ofMOVEMENT proactive work and creating sometimes jargon-laden organizational press releases legislationWe are currently for equality, living inof the securing most hostileour rights legislative rather than into catchy hashtags, nudging people to look twice defendingenvironment them, to reproductive has seemed rightsfar beyond in this our country capacity before they skip over to a funny cat video. As we whenin the therelast forty is so years. much In reactionary2011, we reached action a to record take. mappedONLINE the FEMINISM, movement, and the role online feminism number Yet when of state millions restrictions of women on abortion.and men Contraceptioncan tweet functionsA RADICALIZING within it, at our FORCE convening, we were all theircoverage demand is being for attacked, accountability access fromto basic corporations, health care struckFor years, by onlinethe hours feminists and hourshave served of labor as powerfulmade visible. allies governments,services through and providers media, likewe havePlanned an opportunity Parenthood isto for The feminist good organizations. news is that Wemost liveblog major at women’s conferences, shiftthreatened, this paradigm. and decisions For over about a decade,one’s reproductive online feminist health organizationstweet calls to action, get it. and They translate recognize the sometimes that online jargon- media activistsare increasingly have been criminalized. working onThe feminist feminist causes, movement but it isladen a powerful organizational tool to press create releases change, into and catchy have hashtags, begun hascontinues never tobeen push so backvisible. against Now, each feminist hurdle organizations, thrown at tonudging leverage people online to look tools twice for theirbefore own they work. skip to For a funny mediaus. The and days corporate of proactive stakeholders, work and creating and national legislation example,cat video. AsThe we National mapped theDomestic movement Workers and the Alliance, role

9 #FemFuture: Online Revolution online feminism plays within it at our convening, we were Young feminists have been at the helm of online activism all struck by the hours and hours of labor made visible. for the last several years. “We can’t move too quickly over The good news is that most major women’s the important cultural (and deeply political) feminist work organizations get it. They recognize that online media that younger women are leading, largely online,” said Erin is a powerful tool to create change, and have begun to Matson, the former Action Vice President of the National leverage online tools in their work. For example, The Organization for Women, in an intergenerational dialogue National Domestic Workers Alliance, an organization that at In These Times. “All this work is rapidly building into a advocates for the rights and support of domestic workers, platform that has the power to force big policy changes, created a social media campaign, #bethehelp, around and that’s exciting.” the nomination of the Hollywood filmThe Help for an Ties between organizations and online feminists have Academy Award. As controversial as the film’s portrayal become stronger over the years and have sometimes of African American domestic workers was, The National provided resources for bloggers: organizations may Domestic Workers Alliance recognized that it was a rare contract bloggers to livetweet at their annual conference, moment within mainstream media where domestic pay for campaign ads on their blogs, or hire online workers were in the spotlight, and they didn’t shy away influencers as consultants to assist with communications from seizing the day for their own radical purposes. The strategy. #bethehelp campaign was helped along by individuals But critical gaps remain between institutional feminism joining in and popularizing the trend. and online feminism. As Jensine Larsen of World Pulse Traditional feminist organizations and online feminists pointed out at the convening, each has expertise that are becoming more and more symbiotic in this way. the other can benefit from; nonprofit organizations Meanwhile, independent online feminists continue often have the infrastructure (physical space, resources, to invent new methods of action and catalyze new womanpower) that online feminists crave, and online discussions that are pushing institutional feminism feminists often deploy the communications innovations forward. In 2012, when the Susan B. Komen Foundation that nonprofit organizations struggle to generate while threatened to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood already stretched thin trying to achieve their larger because they provide abortions along with many women’s missions. and reproductive health services, Planned Parenthood Thus far, we’ve been exchanging our resources in had to respond to the Komen Foundation through formal piecemeal, inadequate ways. It’s time to come up with a channels in a professionally appropriate tone. Individual sustainable strategy that serves all of us, and strengthens online activists were beholden to no such conventions. the movement in the process. More meaningful Digital strategist Deanna Zandt’s Tumblr, Planned collaborations between two of the most powerful sectors Parenthood Saved Me, featured hundreds of women from of the feminist movement could create huge impact. across the country sharing their stories of how Planned Parenthood’s health care has saved their lives. Those stories were a large force behind what compelled Komen CREATING A NEW PIPELINE OF to change direction. FEMINIST LEADERSHIP 10 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS ONLINE FEMINIST FACT Plannedadvocacy Parenthoodorganizations, Saved cultural Me, institutions, featured hundreds foundations, of womenetc.—develop across initiatives the country designed sharing to “engagetheir stories Millennials,” of how There were over 1.3 million Plannedthey often Parenthood’s overlook the younghealth women care has in saved their owntheir offices, life. tweets and $3 million donated Thoseunderutilized stories and were anxious a large to force start behind flexing what their compelledleadership to Planned Parenthood within Komenmuscles, tonot change to mention direction. the hundreds of thousands of the first week of the Komen young Young women feminists and havemen whobeen are at theengaging helm withof online feminism Foundation’s funding withdrawal activismonline every for singlethe last day. several These years. organizations “We can’t must move stop toooperating quickly on over the “ifthe we important build it, they cultural will come” (and deeply assumption, political)and start goingfeminist to meet work young that younger people where women they are are— leading, largelywhether online,” bored and said underutilized Erin Matson, in thetheir Action own offices Vice and/or an“When organization I measure thethat impact advocates of my work,for the it really rights comes and from Presidentchanneling of their the energyNational into Organization active online forspaces. Women, in supportwatching oneof domestic person’s action workers, or one created small group’s a social action media become an intergenerational dialogue at In These Times. “All campaign,contagious courage, #bethehelp, and to growaround into themovement nomination building. of That’s the this work is rapidly building into a platform that has the Hollywoodwhat really excites film meThe and Helpmakes for me an see Academythat our leadership Award. is powerMAKING to force THE big policy PERSONAL changes, and POLITICAL that’s exciting.” Asmoving controversial society close as to thea cultural film’s tipping portrayal point.” of–Jamia African Wilson The Ties capacity between for organizations storytelling and and relationship-building online feminists have American Leadership domestic development workers online was, can The provide National a means of onlinebecome allows stronger young over women the years — soand many have of sometimes them living in Domesticresisting the Workers hierarchical, Alliance insular, recognized monocultural that itstructure was smallprovided pockets resources of conservative for bloggers: middle organizations America — may to feel aof rare traditional moment institutions. within mainstream There has been media a lot where of debate lesscontract alone, bloggers to feel like to livetweet they’re part at their of a community.annual conference, This domesticabout whether workers the World were Widein the Web spotlight, itself can and provide they new ispay one for example campaign of theads hundredson their blogs, of emails or hire that online feminist didn’ttools for shy democracy, away from movement-building seizing the day for and their alternative own blogsinfluencers receive ason consultants a regular basis: to assist I just with wanted communications to say a quick radicalmodels ofpurposes. leadership. The The #bethehelp Internet is campaignnot inherently was “thankstrategy. you.” I have been reading this blog for about a year hugelyegalitarian; helped after by all, individual it was first influencers created by the joining military in andand and But a half,critical and gaps it has remain provided between me with institutional strength to live feminism through popularizingcan be used in the ways trend. that directly reinforce patriarchy and someand online situations feminism. that I know As Jensine I would Larsenhave never of World gotten Pulsefrom structural Traditional violence. feminist organizations and online feminists anyonepointed or out anything at the elseconvening, in my life. each You havehas expertise given me thathope that are But become you don’t more have and to more spend symbiotic years making in this copies, way. itthe might other get can better, benefit and I from;just wanted nonprofit to let you organizations know. Meanwhile,learning a special independent language, online or knowing feminist people continue who know often This have kind the of connectivityinfrastructure can (physical be life-saving. space, Soresources, many topeople invent to newbecome methods a leading of action voice andin online catalyze feminism; new youngwomanpower) women findthat onlinefeminism, feminists not in crave, their classroomsand online discussionsyou just have that to haveare pushing something institutional unique to feminism say and the orfeminists even controversial often have thenovels, communications but in online blogsinnovations like that forward.technological In 2012, skills when needed the to Susan amplify B. Komenthat story Foundation or idea F-Bombnonprofit, a organizationssite by and for struggle teen girls to aboutgenerate women’s while rights.already threatenedonline. This to landscape withdraw allows funding for fromdecentralized Planned movements Marinatedstretched thin in the trying voices to achieveand ideas their of younglarger missions.feminists Parenthoodof multiple voices, because communities, they provide and abortions identities. along with that Thus share far, their we’ve sensibility, been exchanging they are madeour resources to feel a partin many In fact, women’s many feminist and reproductive blogs were healthborn out services, of young Planned ofpiecemeal, something inadequate bigger than ways. themselves—even It’s time to come as thatup with a Parenthoodwomen’s frustration had to respondwith entry-level to the Komenjobs at nonprofits Foundation connectionsustainable isstrategy forged that through serves the all most of us, intimate and strengthens of stories. throughwhere the formal mission channels may have in beena professionally feminist, but appropriate the labor the In movement one of the inmost the popular process. posts More ever meaningful at the Crunk tone.distribution Individual made online them feelactivists invisible were and, beholden too often, to no such Feministcollaborations Collective between blog two, University of the most of Alabama powerful professor sectors conventions.exploited. While Digital more strategist traditional Deanna feminist Zandt’s institutions— Tumblr, andof the blogger feminist Dr. movement Robin Turner could wrote create in “Twentyhuge impact. things I

11 #FemFuture: Online Revolution Janet Mock’s #girlslikeus & National Black Justice Coalition’s #BlackTransProud In 2011, Janet Mock, then a staff editor of People.com, was the subject of a feature story in Marie Clare about her identity as the Crunkyoung Feministwomen inCollective their own serve offices, to mobilize underutilized young a transgender woman and her transition as andfeminists. anxious It’s notto start just aboutflexing organizing their leadership on local issuesmuscles, a teenager. Since then, Mock has become notor taking to mention action onthe federal hundreds policy; of it’sthousands also about of healing, young CREATINGa major advocate A NEW for raisingPIPELINE the visibility womenreclamation, and solidarity,men who beauty,are engaging and wisdom. with feminism OFof FEMINIST and support LEADERSHIPfor trans women, especially “When I measure the impact of my work, it really comes online every single day. These organizations must trans women of color, who experience a from watching one person’s action or one small group’s stop operating on the “if we build it, they will come” high rate of violence and discrimination. action become contagious courage, and to grow into assumption, and start going to meet young people Sparked by the dismissal of Jenna Talackova PROVIDING AN ENTRY POINT movement building. That’s what really excites me and where they are—whether bored and underutilized in from the Miss Universe beauty pageant Decades of stigmatization have resulted in a toxic makes me see that our leadership is moving society close to their own offices and/or channeling their energy into because she was transgender, Mock perception of what a feminist is. But that stigma is a cultural tipping point.” –Jamia Wilson active online spaces. began the Twitter hashtag #girlslikeus to beginning to dissipate among young people as they see Leadershipsignal boostcampaigns development online by and can for provide trans a means feminism in action online. Here, feminism is cool again. of resistingwomen. the The hierarchical, hashtag organically insular, monocultural grew on At the end of 2011, New York Magazine journalist structureTwitter, of traditionalsparking deeper institutions. conversations There has been a EmilyMAKING Nussbaum THE highlighted PERSONAL the ways POLITICAL that feminist The capacity for storytelling and relationship- lot ofabout debate transgender about whether women the of World color Wide and Web itself blogs use popular culture: building online allows young women—so many of can theprovide injustices new tools they forexperience. democracy, For movement- the Instead of viewing pop culture as toxic them living in small pockets of conservative middle buildingTransgender and alternative Day of modelsRemembrance of leadership. 2012, The propaganda, bloggers embraced it as a shared America—to feel less alone, to feel like they’re Internetthe National is not inherently Black Justice egalitarian; Coalition after took all, it language, a complex code to be solved together, part of a community. This is one example of the was afirst page created from Mock’s by the playbook,military and starting can be a used in and not coincidentally, something fun. In an age hundreds of emails that feminist blogs receive on a wayssocial that directlymedia campaign reinforce patriarchy#blacktransproud and structural of search engines, it was a powerful magnet: Again regular basis: violence.to raise awareness about the “intersection and again, bloggers described pop­culture posts I just wanted to say a quick “thank you.” I have Youof don’tracial have justice to spendand trans years equality.” making copies,Their to me as a “gateway drug” for young women— been reading this blog for about a year and a half, learningFacebook a special page language, for the campaign or knowing received people who an isolated teenager in rural Mississippi would and it has provided me with strength to live through knowover people 5,000 to fans.become a leading voice in online Google “Beyoncé” or “Real Housewives,” then get some situations that I know I would have never feminism; you just have to have something unique drawn into threads about abortion. gotten from anyone or anything else in my life. You to say and the technological skills needed to amplify Letting young women know that they can be a feministhave andgiven care me abouthope that pop it culturemight get gives better, them and I wantthat storyto say or to ideamy twentysomething online. This landscape self”: allows socialjust permission wanted to letto youcare know. about equality. Tavi for decentralizedYou are strong (your movements capacity of strengthmultiple is sovoices, much Gevinson This kind is ofone connectivity striking example; can be shelife-saving. began So communities,wider than youand think)… identities. many young women find feminism, not in their In fact, many feminist blogs were born out of blogging about fashion and feminism on her blog, but being a strongblackwoman is not a necessity classrooms or even controversial novels, but in young women’s frustration with entry-level jobs at Style Rookie, when she was 11-years-old. Five years or responsibility in your life. Your frailties and online blogs like F-Bomb, a site by and for teen girls nonprofits where the mission may have been feminist, later, she is the Editor-in-Chief of Rookie Magazine, vulnerabilities make you human, not weak. about women’s rights. Marinated in the voices and but the labor distribution made them feel invisible the premiere indie online magazine for teenage ideas of young feminists that share their sensibility, and,You too are often, a storyteller exploited. and peopleWhile will more need traditional your stories. girls. In Rookie, one piece is about how to create the they are made to feel a part of something bigger feministDon’t institutions—advocacy stop writing them down. organizations, cultural perfect Fourth of July manicure, the next is a guide than themselves—even as that connection is forged institutions, It is these kinds foundations of poetic etc.—developdescriptions that initiatives transcend to protecting your civil liberties. through the most intimate of stories. designedsome of the to more “engage tangible Millennials,” ways in which they online often spacesoverlook like Another weapon feminist bloggers and writers use

12 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS is humor,In one ofcountering the most the popular long held, posts wildly ever inaccurate at Crunk Inbloggers a way, embraced using pop it asculture a shared to deconstruct language, a complex Feministstereotype Collective,that feminists University have no funny of Alabama bones. professor oppressivecode to be solvedstructures together, in society and not is culturecoincidentally, and Convincing blogger Dr.the publicRobin that Turner, feminism wrote can in actually “Twenty be fun jamming.something We fun. are, In inan many age of ways, search creating engines, a it was a thingsthrough I humorouswant to say quips to myon blogtwentysomething posts has evolved self”: into distortionpowerful magnet: in the smoothly Again and packaged again, bloggers ideas being described savvy You online are campaignsstrong (your that capacity catch like of strengthwildfire. is soOne much recent soldpop­culture to us. Popposts culture to me asis abouta “gateway selling drug” lifestyles, for young examplewider was than the you Tumblr think)… blog BWinders Full of Women, sellingwomen—an ideas; isolatedit normalizes teenager certain in rural elements Mississippi of created after Mitt Romney’s controversial remarks in ourwould culture Google and “Beyoncé” erases others. or “Real Why Housewives,” do so many then but being a strongblackwoman is not a necessity the 2012 presidential debate about getting binders full peopleget drawn have into the threads idea that about we abortion.are all vaguely or responsibility in your life. Your frailties and of women for possible hires when he was Massachusetts Lettingmiddle young class? womenBecause know that’s that what’s they represented can be a vulnerabilities make you human, not weak. Governor. The Tumblr included snapshots of women feministin our and media care environment. about pop culture gives them social dressed You upare as a bindersstoryteller full and of women people forwill Halloween, need your stories. permission “Culture tojamming” care about has equality. historically Tavi Gevinsonbeen used is as one a screenshotsDon’t stop with writing witty captions, them down. mock campaign ads, etc. strikingtool to shapeexample; advertisements she began blogging and consumer about fashion culture DemonstratingIt is these kinds theof poeticserious descriptions side of cultural that andinto feminismpublic critiques. on her blog, Online Style activists Rookie, and when bloggers she entrepreneurshiptranscend some of like the this,more the tangible creator ways of the in whichTumblr, wasuse media11-years-old. like memes Five yearsto transform later, she popular is the Editor-in- culture Veronicaonline spaces De Souza,like Crunk wrote Feminist in her last Collective post on serve the site: Chiefinto a oftool Rookie for social Magazine change., the Thepremiere result? indie Young online to mobilizeNow that young the election feminists. is over, It’s Inot think just this about whole magazinepeople online for teenage are transformed girls; one piecefrom ispassive about pophow to organizingthing is ondone. local I never issues thought or taking it would action get on this federal createculture the consumers perfect Fourth to engagers of July andmanicure, makers. the next is a policy;big, it’s or thatalso anyoneabout healing,would ask reclamation, me to talk aboutsolidarity, guide Humor, to protecting pop culture, your fashion, civil liberties. and the punchy, sassy beauty,memes and on wisdom. CNN or that this would help me find writing, Another tweeting, weapon andfeminist memes bloggers that online and writers feminists use a job. I am so thankful for everything. isdeploy humor, have countering become thethe mostlong held,effective wildly way inaccurate to engage What De Souza and her peers are doing is stereotypeyoung people that about feminists the seriousnesshave no funny of injustice,bones. using essentiallyPROVIDING “culture AN jamming”—disrupting ENTRY POINT Convincingnew Internet the culture public to that speak feminism back to can pop actually culture. mainstreamDecades of stigmatization political and have cultural resulted narratives in a toxic using be fun through humorous quips on blog posts has crowdsourcedperception of what creativity a feminist and is. playfulness. But that stigma Latoya is evolved into savvy online campaigns that catch like Petersonbeginning ofto Racialiciousdissipate among spoke young to this people in a as 2011 they see wildfire.RECLAIMING One recent THE example FRAME was the Tumblr blog feminism in action online. Here, feminism is cool again. interview with Persephone Magazine: Working“Binders withinFull of a Women”, media landscape created afterdrenched Mitt Romney’sin reality At the end of 2011, New York Magazine journalist showscontroversial and rape remarks jokes isabout no easy getting feat “bindersfor any feminist. of Emily Nussbaum highlighted the ways that feminist Withwomen” women for possiblecomprising hires only when 22% he4 of was thought Massachusetts leadership blogs use popular culture: ONLINE FEMINIST inGovernor most mainstream in the 2012 media presidential forums and debate. only The3% ofTumblr Instead of viewing pop culture as toxic propaganda, FACT cloutincluded positions snapshots5, it’s noof womensurprise dressed that pop up culture as “binders and legacyfull of women”news can for be Halloween,such sexist, racist,screenshots and homophobic with witty NineteenPercent’s feminist critique environments.captions, mock In campaign this context, ads onlineetc. feminism of Beyonce’s “Run the World”

garnered over 800,000 views on 4. http://in.gov/icw/files/benchmark_wom_leadership.pdf YouTube. 5. http://annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Information_ And_Society/20010314_Progress_and_Women/20010321_Progress_ women_report.pdf

13 #FemFuture: Online Revolution continues Demonstrating to constitute the serious both an side alternative of cultural space, where issues with friend and fellow Princeton Professor Yolanda entrepreneurshipfeminist values are likesuffused this, thein every creator point of andthe Tumblr,click,and Pierce. Veronicato influence De legacy Souza, media.wrote in her last post on the site: Online feminism is not only bringing attention to the “Now The immediacy that the election and viral is nature over, Iof think blogs this and wholeTwitter media gender gap through online activism, but also thinghave fundamentally is done. I never changed thought how it we would consume get thisthe news.big, beginning to fill that space with a new generation of media orWherein that anyone the past would relationship ask me between to talk the about media memes and on influencers. Zerlina Maxwell, law student and contributor CNNthe public or that consisted this would of a top-down help me flow find of a information, job. I am so to Feministing and TheGrio, was, for example, recently thankfulthe Internet for has everything.” allowed the public to participate in and featured in The New York Times as a political voice on influence What De the Souza larger and public her conversation. peers are doing is Twitter to follow during election season. She strategically essentially This has resulted “culture in jamming”—disruptinga lateral relationship between used Twitter to get noticed by mainstream outlets: mainstreamthe public and political news media, and culturalto the point narratives where online using I picked a handful of folks [on Twitter] I admire that I crowdsourcedengagement influences creativity the and news playfulness. of the day. LatoyaCase in point: looked up to and followed everyone they followed. Some Petersonwhen a 31-year-old of Racialicious woman spoke died in to an the Irish power hospital of after of those producers, editors and thought leaders followed “culturedoctors refused jamming” to perform in a 2011 a termination interview of with her pregnancy, me back. Then I started tweeting at media folks if I Persephonedespite the factMagazine that she: was already experiencing a miscarriage, In a way, feminist using pop blogs culture were instrumentalto deconstruct in oppressive spreading the story.structures RH Realityin society Check is culture covered jamming. the story We on are, in “Twitter shrinks the world and Novembermany ways, 13, 2012, creating and aby distortion the next dayin the Jill smoothlyFilipovic of makes everyone accessible.” Feministepackaged wrote ideas about being it for sold the to Guardian us. Pop culture, with a isnumber about of otherselling outlets lifestyles, following. selling ideas; it normalizes certain Theseelements days, offeminist our culture blogs and and erases Twitter others. accounts Why can do sooften Zerlina Maxwell be a manysource people of both have breaking the idea developments that we are andall vaguely overlooked storiesmiddle for mainstream class? Because media that’s outlets. what’s “Paying represented attention in our to feministmedia environment.media through Twitter is essential,” said Jamil “CultureSmith, segment jamming” and digital has historically producer at been MSNBC’s used asThe a agreed or disagreed. Figured if they saw my name they toolMelissa to Harris-Perryshape advertisements Show. and consumer culture wouldn’t forget it, and that’s exactly what happened… intoI public originally critiques. started using Online the service activists as an and RSS bloggers Twitter shrinks the world and makes everyone use feedmedia of sorts, like andmemes that’s to how transform some of the popular first voices culture accessible. intoI a discovered—Jennifer tool for social change. Pozner, The Jessica result? Valenti, Young Jill people Zerlina is now a blogger for The New York Daily News, a onlineFilipovic, are transformed and many more—opened from passive up popa new culture source columnist for Ebony Magazine, and a regular commentator consumersof political to perspective, engagers analysis,and makers. and leadership in the on Fox News & Friends, providing a feminist analysis that Humor,media for pop me. culture, Personally fashion, and professionally, and the punchy, I owe them sassy was largely absent in these spaces. And her story—one of writing,all an tweeting enormous anddebt. memes that online feminists a law student from New Jersey turned mainstream media deploy Melissa have Harris-Perry become theherself most rose effective to prominence way to in engage part commentator—speaks to one of the most remarkable youngbecause people of her longtimeabout the online seriousness presence, of including injustice, her using things about online activism: it’s bringing feminist analysis newblog, InternetThe Kitchen culture Table, to where speak she back discussed to pop aculture. variety of and voices into the mainstream. “Mainstreaming the

14 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS voices of feminist media, particularly at national outlets andmedia overlooked and individuals stories in fortheir mainstream efforts to create media better like MSNBC, is essential given the demands of our news outlets.public representation “Paying attention of undocumented to feminist immigrantmedia through consumers,” says Jamil Smith. “As a more technologically Twittercommunities. is essential,” (And still said sends Jamil letters Smith, to The segment New York and sophisticatedRECLAIMING populace THE devours FRAME its daily news diet from a digitalTimes in producer response toat theirMSNBC’s continued The use Melissa of the Harris- word.) Workingnumber of within different a media sources, landscape we not only drenched need to inprovide Perry Feminists Show can. “I mobilizeoriginally online started in response using theto politician service realityspaces forshows women and and rape men jokes in the is feministno easy movementfeat for to asand an corporate RSS feed actions of sorts, as well. and When that’s the hownews somebroke ofthat the anycontribute feminist. to the With dialogue women and comprising analysis we presentonly 21% on our firstRepresentative voices I Todddiscovered Akin told -- KTVI-TVJennifer Pozner, that pregnancy Jessica ofair—but thought if we leadership fail to do so, in we’llmost be mainstream the ones left mediabehind.” Valenti,from rape Jill is rare Filipovic, because and “if it’s many a legitimate more --rape, opened the forums and only 3% of clout positions, it’s no upfemale a new body source has ways of topolitical try to shut perspective, that whole analysis,thing down,” surprise that pop culture and legacy news can be andfeminists leadership responded in theimmediately. media for “Todd me. Akin”Personally quickly and suchHOLDING sexist, racist, POWERBROKERS and transphobic environments. In professionally,became a trending I owetopic them on Twitter. all an Tumblrs, enormous social debt.” media thisACCOUNTABLE context, online feminism continues to constitute campaigns Melissa andHarris-Perry Internet memes herself followed rose tosuit, prominence calling Akin both an alternative space, where feminist values are inunelectable. part because Thousands of her took longtime to Akin’s online Facebook presence, page The new lateral relationship between the online public suffused in every point and clickand to influence includingurging him “Theto withdraw Kitchen from Table,” the race. a Whileblog where he didn’t she take and the media has also created possibilities for a legacy media. discussedhis constituents’ a variety and colleagues’ of issues withadvice, friend social andmedia fellow no stronger culture of accountability. Sexism, transphobia, The immediacy and viral nature of blogs and Princetondoubt played Professor a role in his Yolanda loss on Pierce.Election Day. and nationalism in mainstream media are far too Twitter have fundamentally changed how we Akin’sOnline story feminism was covered is not all only over bringing the country, attention but stories commonplace, but online responses to these biases are consume the news. Wherein the past relationship toof movementthe media towardgender accountability gap through areonline happening activism, in helping to push media stakeholders to be more accurate between the media and the public consisted of a top- butdifferent also beginningpockets of theto fillonline that community space with on a a newregular and less harmful. Online activism has convinced The New down flow of information, the Internet has allowed generationbasis, demonstrating of media the influencers. need for positive Zerlina and pro-activeMaxwell, York Times, for example, to publicly acknowledge victim- the public to participate in and influence the larger lawcommunication. student and In contributor June 2011, Vanessato Feministing Valenti wrote and a blaming content in their articles and reexamine their public conversation. TheGrio,blog post critiquing was, for example,New York Senatorrecently Kirsten featured Gillibrand in coverage of transgender people. This has resulted in a lateral relationship between thefor sayingNew York that Times the women’s as a political movement voice was on “stalled,” Twitter to Another powerful example: in the summer of the public and news media, to the point where followbecause during too many election women season. were “not She engaged” strategically and “don’tused 2012, The Applied Research Center and Colorlines online engagement influences the news of the day. Twitterwant their to voices get noticed to be heard” by mainstream on MSNBC’s outlets: Morning launched a campaign, “Drop the I-Word,” calling on Case in point: When a 31 year old woman died in Joe . SheI picked was ona handful discussing of folksher new [on initiative,Twitter] I “Off admire the that news publications to stop referring to undocumented an Irish hospital after doctors refused to perform a Sidelines.”I looked As up a veryto and engaged followed participant everyone in they the followed.women’s immigrants as “illegals,” “illegal alien” and “illegal termination of her pregnancy, despite the fact that movementSome of and those co-founder producers, of editorsa blog whoseand thought success leaders has immigrant.” After a multi-media action strategy, she was already experiencing a miscarriage, feminist beenfollowed built on me the back. hundreds Then ofI startedthousands tweeting of voices at media seeking including an online pledge and toolkit, a Twitter blogs were instrumental in spreading the story. RH to befolks heard, if I Vanessa agreed feltor disagreed. a responsibility Figured to disagree:if they saw my campaign and widespread blog coverage, mainstream Reality Check covered the story on November 13, I’mname not they saying wouldn’t there’s anythingforget it, wrongand that’s with tryingexactly to what media picked up the initiative. Announcements followed 2012, and by the next day Jill Filipovic of Feministe mobilizehappened…Twitter women who aren’tshrinks politically the world active, and because makes by those renouncing the usage of the term “illegal wrote about it for the Guardian, with a number of ofeveryone course there accessible. are folks out there who aren’t. But how immigrant,” like The Miami Herald, Fox News Latino, other outlets following. Zerlinacan youis now say theya blogger don’t want for theirThe voicesNew York heard Daily when ABC News and The Huffington Post, as well as those who These days, feminist blogs and Twitter accounts Newsyou’re, a columnist the one speaking for Ebony for them? Magazine Because, andthat isa regular continue to use it, including The New York Times. Today, can often be a source of both breaking developments commentatorone of the biggest on Fox lessons News we &here Friends at Feministing, providing have a the Drop The I-Word campaign continues to influence

15 #FemFuture: Online Revolution 16 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS feministlearned analysis — young that women was dolargely want theirabsent voices in heard,these One powerful example of this dialogue is the wave of spaces.they Andjust need her astory—one platform to doof it.a We’relaw studenthere, we’re from online conversations among women of color online that Newengaged, Jersey andturned we sure mainstream as hell don’t media have a commentator stalled emerged from the increased attention to “SlutWalk” —speaksmovement. to one Our of hundreds the most of thousandsremarkable of readers things about marches in the mainstream media. “SlutWalks” began onlineevery activism: month at it’s this bringing blog alone feministis proof of analysisthat. and in Toronto following a police officer’s statement that voices The next into morning, the mainstream. the Senator “Mainstreaming called her personally the to women should avoid acting like “sluts” as an act of rape voicesdiscuss ofher feminist remarks. media,It was a particularlypowerful moment at national for her, prevention. Women around the world protested the idea outletsand an honor like MSNBC, that Senator is essentialGillibrand given had, in the fact, demands heard that women’s safety should be tied to their appearance, ofand our valued news a youngconsumers,” woman’s says voice. Jamil The Smith.Senator’s “As staff a and but the choice by some to reclaim the word “slut” as moreVanessa technologically now speak regularly sophisticated about issues populace facing women devours a rallying cry was not universally embraced. Many felt itsand daily various news strategies diet from for engaging a number and of empowering different them. that the word held a different valence for women of sources, we not only need to provide spaces for color than for white women and that the experiences of women and men in the feminist movement to women of color were not being included or respected by contributeCREATING to the SPACE dialogue FOR and RADICALanalysis we present protest organizers. This was amplified when a picture was onLEARNING our air­—but if we fail to do so, we’ll be the ones shared of an offensive protest sign that a white woman left behind.” was holding at New York City’s SlutWalk, quoting John The feminist movement isn’t without its complicated Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song, “Woman is the N-----r of history. Combating racism, homophobia, classism, and the World.” The incident sparked emboldened, necessary other forms of oppression within feminist communities conversations about racism within the feminist movement, is a decades-old struggle that is far from over. But and the women of color who felt that the movement didn’t the Internet has allowed for a more open space of identify with many of their lived experiences. The author accountabilityHOLDING and POWERBROKERS learning, helping to push mainstream of the QueerBlackFeminist blog wrote: feminismACCOUNTABLE to be less monolithic. The new lateral relationship between the online I don’t think the intent of the organizers of Slutwalk Professor and theorist Kimberle Crenshaw coined public and the media has also created possibilities has ever been to trivialize rape, I firmly believe that. the term “intersectionality” in 1989 as a recognition of for a stronger culture of accountability. Sexism, Nonetheless, intent is of dire importance at this time. the intersecting and overlapping identities that women racism and transphobia in mainstream media are Or the ignorance of the real differences and experience hold, contributing to varied experiences of oppression. far too commonplace, but online responses to these of “womanhood,” and the intersections of race, class, Intersectionality is today a well-known and often-discussed biases are helping to push media stakeholders to be gender, sex, sexuality and violence that structure the theory of practice within the online feminist world. more accurate and less harmful. Online activism lives of women of color will continue to be a dividing A lot of feminist dialogue online has focused on has convinced The New York Times, for example, line in feminist movement. recognizing the complex ways that privilege shapes our to publicly acknowledge victim-blaming content approach to work and community. Andrea Plaid of I am hopeful that we will keep these conversations, in their articles and reexamine their coverage of Racialicious spoke at the convening of the unaccounted these critiques, open. transgender people. for labor of constantly educating people with white As people continue to hold one another accountable, Another powerful example: in the summer of privilege about racial justice issues. She said: “What we as open and honest dialogue persists, as blogs written by 2012, The Applied Research Center and Colorlines need is more white allies [to challenge racism online]… diverse voices establish wider and wider audiences, the way launched a campaign “Drop the I-Word,” calling on continue to come get your people, without excuse.” we approach feminist activism and leadership is changing.

17 #FemFuture: Online Revolution PART II: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES THE URGENCY OF NOW

NONPROFIT ORGANIZING IN THE Many online feminist organizations aren’t MARGINS structured as independent nonprofits, but instead Online organizing is a relatively new field of work, have fiscal sponsors: nonprofit organizations that and as such, we are still struggling to establish will provide legal and tax-exempt status to entities sustainable infrastructure. For nonprofits like through serving as an umbrella organization. This Ultraviolet, Hollaback!, and SPARK Movement, who arrangement comes at a double financial burden. manage to raise some operating support, funding “We’ve been paying 6-7% of every donation to our isn’t coming fast enough (or enough, period). “We’ve fiscal sponsor. With such a small income stream, had to hustle really hard for every dollar, in part it really matters,” says Jaclyn Friedman, Executive because most foundations just don’t have a portfolio Director of Women, Action & the Media (WAM!). that we can fit into,” says Hollaback! co-founder and Friedman manages to pay solely herself a few hours Executive Director Emily May. Although Hollaback! per day to work from her dining room table. has 250 leaders organizing online and on land across the world, the organization has only two full-time members of staff to support their organizers. Currently, no women’s foundations have initiatives specifically dedicated to online feminist work. There are those who have portfolios committed to funding “nontraditional feminist work,” like the incredible FRIDA, a fund that supports young feminists in youth-led organizing. But no major foundation or women’s fund has intentionally and explicitly developed a portfolio for online feminist organizations and initiatives. This is despite a rapidly growing women’s philanthropic movement; in 2009, there was $1.5 billion in philanthropic spending on women’s rights and health issues. That number may sound huge, particularly to those in the online feminist space who have been so starved for funding, but keep in mind that there is an even larger layer of concern here. The AARP, alone, spends $1.2 billion in funding every year— almost equal to the entire domestic women’s funding space. The Salvation Army, alone, has a spending budget of $3 billion—literally doubling the numbers going to girls and women’s issues.6 6. Unpublished Follow the Money report from Women Moving Millions.

18 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS THE BAND-AID BUSINESS readers’ emails to third-party companies. Even one of STRUCTURE the biggest success stories of an online social justice Feminist blogs and for-profit online organizations organization, Change.org, recently changed its policy each have our own story of struggle behind why to accept right-wing and conservative petitions for we haven’t been able to develop a sustainable the sake of sustaining and expanding the company. infrastructure, but there’s one problem that’s common: most of us have what we call “the band- aid business structure”; we operate as LLCs or sole CROWDFUNDING proprietorships, relying on third party advertising or Since one of the most powerful things about online random fundraising drives to pay for server costs and feminism is its community, online activists often other technical fees. Otherwise, many of us work full- reach out to their constituencies for funding, whether time elsewhere, or rely on social media consulting it be to help pay for their website server costs or a or speaking engagements as temporary sources of specific project they’re trying to jump start. This income to supplement our free labor. strategy has been termed “crowdfunding,” where Feminist blogs are the least sustained entities money is raised online in a collaborative effort for an within online feminism. Daily website and editorial organization, individual, or project. maintenance generally requires at least one person Feminist video blogger Anita Sarkeesian started to be behind a highly active blog every day, as a campaign on the popular crowdfunding website well as general management of media inquiries, Kickstarter to raise $6,000 to create videos about organizational partnerships, and advertisements. But depictions of women in video games for her Feminist ad revenue, even earned by the highest trafficked Frequency series. After being attacked by misogynist blogs, can’t begin to cover this work. Feministing, trolls who vandalized her Wikipedia page, hacked which has a readership of over half a million every her website, and sent her death and rape threats, her month, made just $30,000 in 2011, so imagine the online fans rallied to support her and her project, number of readers needed to support a movement ultimately raising nearly $160,000. with this model. Queer Nigerian Afrofeminist writer and media activist Unfortunately, many of the more lucrative revenue Spectra raised over $10,000 for her social media and models that organizations have adopted elsewhere communications training for African women’s and LGBT 7 online come at a cost, and raise difficult ethical organizations. Miriam Zoila Perez raised over $4,000 for questions for feminist blogs. While large sites like her self-authored “The Radical Doula Guide,” a booklet Jezebel make money on amassing lucrative page inspired by her blog Radical Doula that addresses the views, the mission of feminist blogs is to send political context of supporting people during pregnancy people away from our sites to take action, not and childbirth. These examples, and so many more, trap them there. Many of us don’t want corporate demonstrate that crowdfunding can be an effective way sponsorship from companies that are antithetical 7. Corrected 04/12/13: Spectra was originally incorrectly referred to as an to our mission, and don’t want to sell our devoted “online activist”

19 #FemFuture: Online Revolution for individuals, collectives, or institutions to raise money A variation on membership is the subscription while circumventing the need for nonprofit status, model common to content producers. A number of which many online feminists don’t have. media outlets provide enhanced online access for an It’s far from a systemic or sustainable solution, annual fee, such as Bitch Magazine. however. Chances are that none of the activists But many online platforms balk at the idea of mentioned above will be going to their communities sequestering their content and providing it only to for support again anytime soon, assuming they’ve paying customers. And anyone relying on ongoing essentially “tapped” their networks. donations runs a risk that those donations could Crowdfunding is great for discrete projects—a video disappear at any time. Because most membership series, a training, a book—but doesn’t lend itself well models are built on a monthly or yearly system, long to creating the infrastructure needed to sustain online term planning can be extremely difficult. organizations. Additionally, the larger a project is, the harder it is to reach the fundraising goal: Only 38% of $10,000 projects on Kickstarter, the most popular WHAT’S AT STAKE crowdfunding site, reach their goal, and that rate Online feminism may continue to grow and evolve, drops drastically as the goal gets higher.8 but whether it will reach the potential it needs to sustain itself—and make the real, transformative impact the world needs—is yet to be seen. An MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTION unfunded online feminist movement isn’t merely MODEL a threat to the livelihood of these hard-working In counter-point to the foundation and crowd-funding activists, but a threat to the larger feminist movement strategies to raise funds, a membership model allows itself. Without greater support, the online feminist supporters to give funds to online activists that are movement faces a number of risks. not project directed. This allows these organizations the freedom to be flexible in their activities with the We will remain reactive and myopic. stability of a constant income stream. “[Online feminists] kind of are aware of what each other is MoveOn, one of the most well known progressive doing and maybe they will sometimes check in with each other. online nonprofits, follows this membership model; But there’s no strategic planning, the way there would be in a the average donation to MoveOn.org Political Action, communications division of an organization or of a corporation according to their site, is less than $20. Women, or of a traditional institution. There’s no team-building [around Action, & the Media (WAM!) is also funded through feminist blogging], which I think is playing a really critical this system, offering discounts and benefits in role that’s never really been done before, in my experience. exchange for a $45 fee. There’s no retreats. There’s no sense of shared mission outside of anything that’s completely voluntary. And there’s no supporting of each other, in an institutionalized sense.” 8. Mitroff, Sarah. “4 Keys to a Winning Kickstarter Campaign.”Wired Magazine, 2012. www.wired.com/business/2012/07/kickstarter/ –Lori Adelman, Feministing

20 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS DEBATING THE NONPROFIT MODEL For some online feminists, becoming a 501c3 nonprofit isn’t just a logistical hurdle, but an ethical dilemma. Those gathered at our June 7th meeting spent time discussing the history of the traditional nonprofit structure and its widely acknowledged structural failings. INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence’s anthology, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond The Nonprofit Industrial Complex, makes an argument for the many ways in which the nonprofit/NGO model has done a disservice to social justice movements. While the reasons are numerous, one major premise is that the nonprofit/foundation dynamic stifles real organizing power. The nonprofit lens of career- based modes of organizing instead of mass-based organizing, can create a culture of dependency where organizations spend more time applying for grants and proving “funding worthiness” to foundations rather than working to build a broad, populist base and create systemic change. “We as activists are no longer accountable to our constituents or members because we don’t depend on them for our existence,” says Adjoa Florência Jones de Almeida of Sista II Sista in her essay. “Instead, we’ve become primarily accountable to public and private foundations as we try to prove to them that we are still relevant and efficient and thus worthy of continued funding.” This dynamic is particularly pernicious for small, grassroots organizations led by, and working in, historically marginalized communities. These organizers have to work especially hard to create productive philanthropic relationships because those with financial resources aren’t organically part of their communities. Learning how to fundraise can be like visiting a foreign country, where everything from the language to the rituals to the expectations are new. The codes of power must be learned and this takes time away from the mission of the organizations, not to mention a psychic toll. Others argued that getting paid for our labor is a fundamental feminist value, that we shouldn’t respond to long histories in which labor has been extracted from various groups of people for little or no remuneration by continuing to provide that labor without pay. Another facet of this debate, recently re-popularized by fundraiser Dan Pallotta’s TED talk (as of this writing, viewed over a million times), is the lack of funding available to strengthen nonprofit organizations’ general infrastructure. Pallotta argues that the current assumption that charities, unlike for-profit entities, should operate on as small an operating budget as possible, is precisely what is preventing the sector from having the impact it should be having. He writes, “We have to re-train people - especially leaders and program officers at foundations (who have rightly grown weary of charity dependence on them.) They believe philanthropy is not sustainable or scalable in and of itself. It is, and it’s likely to generate far more massive revenues than any other scheme, if enough money is invested in fundraising staff and resources to promote it.” Any model that we take up will have its limits and can, over time become as much a part of the problem as of the solution. But that also can’t be a deterrent from attempting to forge generative relationships across boundaries, sharing resources, knowledge, and passion at a moment where our alienation from one another only perpetuates inequality that harms all of us. There is no pure strategy in pursuit of social justice in such a complex world; there is, instead, a need for awareness, transparency about the cultural and economic complexities, and a commitment to forge ahead, anyway.

21 #FemFuture: Online Revolution There will be an incredibly high burnout rate. In April 2012, one of the largest global feminist blogs online, Gender Across Borders, ceased operating. After three years of collaboration with international organizations and companies, offering over 30,000 readers feminist analysis and global activism opportunities every month, founder Emily Fillingham and the team of editors decided it was just too difficult to maintain. “Unfortunately, none of us could afford to keep it up. We made a lot of progress in just a few years, but it still wasn’t enough to earn us any funding,” said editor Colleen Hodgetts. And they’re not the first; dozens of underpaid, overworked and exhausted online activists have left the movement, their voices lost and the mix—as a result—much less rich.

An unfunded movement further privileges the privileged. “You’re not just doing intellectual labor. You’re also doing emotional labor when you come out with these…vulnerable posts about… how we like the world to look. As women of color specifically, a lot of that gets internalized and it creates other kinds of issues. Health challenges. Internalized stress. Not being validated.” In spite of the powerful successes of online feminists, –Brittney Cooper, Crunk Feminist Collective our stories of impact have a disappointing common If we don’t support this work, the most privileged trend: they’re almost all reactive and short-term. The in the online movement—those who already have lack of infrastructure and sustainability for the online the resources and time to blog every day, and do feminist movement makes it nearly impossible to organizing work for free—will have the most amplified think about more meaningful, long-term strategizing. voices. Women of color and other groups are already More than ever, we need to create effective overlooked for adequate media attention and already proactive campaigns and policies to prevent sexist struggle disproportionately in this culture of scarcity. If encroachments in the first place, rather than being in a feminist movements don’t create supportive spaces, the perpetual state of pushback. leadership pipeline will grow smaller and more insular, and fewer voices will get promoted.

22 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS Anti-feminists will leverage the Internet. and eventual burnout. We believe this is a huge part Misogyny, both blatant and covert, is rampant of what’s been holding the movement back from online. Online harassment and threats are a creating the real policy and structural change it daily experience for online activists, and young needs. We pass this model down to the young women women and girls are increasingly bombarded with and girls who look up to us: that it’s necessary to vitriolic and harmful messaging on the very same work for free, and to risk our physical and mental forums we use for activism. Radically anti-feminist health, and our relationships in order to make commentator Ann Coulter has over 300,000 change. We convince them that these martyr-like followers on Twitter —four times the number of sacrifices are “heroic” and “inspiring,” when, in followers as Planned Parenthood. Pinterest­—the fact, we know they’ve only been harmful to our social networking site of 17 million visits per well-being, and to the movement. We must create a day9—has become immersed in diet tips and images new culture of work, a vibrant and valued feminist of Victoria Secret models10. Anti-feminist video economy that could resolve an issue that’s existed bloggers outnumber feminists in search results for for waves before us—and create a more hopeful “feminist” on YouTube. Not only is it up to us to legacy for the generations to come. build our influence and challenge the sexism and bigotry that exists online, but also to continue to provide safe spaces for young people to engage with WHAT’S NEEDED NOW? one another in healthy and empowering ways. To avoid these pitfalls and embrace the opportunities ahead, the online community will We’ll repeat the same mistakes. have to be strategic and partner with a range of “If the gender identities were different, it would be a their feminist allies—advocacy and nonprofit different conversation. How do we combat all of the things organizations, philanthropists and entrepreneurs, in our socialization that teach us that we don’t deserve corporate leadership with a feminist sensibility, sustainability? We have to embrace the entitlement of educators, community organizers, artists, and saying -- ‘No, I deserve these things, and I need them and youth—among so many others. It is time to I’m not going to wait for someone to hand them to me.’” strengthen the connective tissue between those –Miriam Zoila Perez, Radical Doula who are most savvy and connected online, and The “psychology of deprivation” we speak of is those pushing feminist agendas in our courtrooms, not a new phenomenon for feminist activists. We classrooms, boardrooms, and beyond. The results acknowledge that historically, the feminist movement could be profound. has not valued its own labor. It has largely depended on unpaid work, slowly evolving into exhaustion Making a movement visible The Internet has become a laboratory for movement

9. http://mbaonline.com/a-day-in-the-internet/ leadership. Young people, poor people, women 10. http://buzzfeed.com/amyodell/how-pinterest-is-killing-feminism with disabilities, queer women of color, those who

23 #FemFuture: Online Revolution identify as transgender, and a wide variety of others has worked hard to highlight other feminist voices, often left out of mainstream media narratives have a especially those of women of color, she is consistently chance to tell their own stories and link these stories pointed to by mainstream media sources as “the face” to larger cultural and political realities online. of so-called “second wave” feminism. A frustrated When writing for collective blogs or organizing Steinem once responded to a variation on the above online petitions and ancillary “on land” actions, question—who do you think is the next Gloria they can learn—trial by fire—how to strategize and Steinem?—from The New York Times with “I don’t think operationalize action with a team, how to mobilize there should have been a first one.” masses or manage a membership/readership base, It’s a shallow and archaic framing for a fascinating how to plan events, how to come up with a media and necessary conversation. In a decentralized strategy, including messaging, how to fundraise, how movement (or even multiple movements), how to manage organizational finances, how to handle can we push our stories out into the world without conflict, criticism, failure, and disappointment, how limiting them? to be resilient, how to provide peer support, etc. It’s also no coincidence that Steinem is white, It’s tempting to try to identify specific individuals cisgender, upper-middle class, able-bodied and who embody today’s leadership. High-profile writers headquarted in an American urban center, as are get a lot of attention in the mainstream media most of the visible symbols of feminist activism in because symbolic leadership is effective—it’s a the mainstream. However complex and diverse our simple story. An identifiable leader can become part approaches to leadership might be, these women are of the public consciousness in a way that a collective accessible to mainstream media, in part, because movement struggles to. This kind of “sticky” story— they don’t challenge the status quo. Meanwhile, clean, clear, codified—gives the movement and our entire movement is about disrupting and its ideologies and goals a chance to travel beyond transforming the status quo. the echo chamber. The public—particularly the There could be no more obvious demonstration of uninitiated—have a much easer time latching on to this dynamic than the Occupy Wall Street movement, the emotional story of one individual than they do a in which the mainstream media continually begged complex movement. organizers to anoint a spokesperson. It would have But, symbolic leadership is dangerous. It not only made their jobs easier. The Occupy movement’s puts the weight of a movement on one person’s refusal, and their creative thinking around shoulders, making everyone more vulnerable, but it alternatives to symbolic leadership—namely the almost inevitably colludes with the very forces that use of language (“the 99%”), corresponding social the movement is trying to fight. media campaigns, and other kinds of symbolic acts— Feminists are well aware of this problem. After all, should serve as inspiration for the contemporary there has been far too much ink spilled and time spent feminist movement’s continued effort to prioritize on the question, “Who is the next Gloria Steinem?” collective leadership. Despite the fact that writer and activist Gloria Steinem

24 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS Turning visibility and voice into influence It’s hard to imagine a more accurate summary A recent report11 by The MacArthur Research of the political climate we’ve found ourselves in Network on Youth and Participatory Politics points these last few years. The feminist movement has, to some significant nuances when it comes to the in some ways, never been more diverse in either its leadership potential of online feminism. The report participants or its methodologies nor had as many details new forms of participatory politics and an different kinds of outlets for feminist voices, and yet “expanded set of participatory practices” that youth we find our priorities at the bottom of the “to do are using, most notably online tools. Importantly, list.” Why? the researchers find that young people of a wide According to the logic of this cutting-edge study, range of demographic backgrounds are using the perhaps our problem partly lies in the disconnection Internet to build what they call “digital social between voice and influence in the contemporary capital,” and in fact, with engagement highest among feminist movement. The Internet provides black youth. endless opportunities for people, the young and But lest we suggest that online feminism is the marginalized especially, to begin to find, exercise, leadership utopia we’ve all been waiting for, it’s and strengthen their voices. But it does not offer critical to consider exactly how well-linked the the kinds of support necessary for this cacophonous personal and the political really are. The report chorus of individual voices to come together into an reads: influential feminist force. That kind of effectiveness There is a risk that proponents of participatory would require more connections among media and politics, including youth themselves, will fail between online and on-the-ground activists, as well to focus on the distinction between voice and as the institutional resources to foster and build the influence. We should be clear: we do not want to connections. undervalue the significance of voice, especially This is not to suggest, importantly, that exercising for youth who are in the process of developing one’s voice alone, testifying to one’s experiences, their political identities. At the same time, we amplifying one’s ideas, are not valid in and of recognize that the promise of a democratic themselves. Mainstream cultures have historically society is predicated on the belief that political and routinely marginalized diverse voices to undercut actors have more than voice. They must also effectiveness, and bringing them to new audiences have influence. As Henry Milner has argued, is no small success. But, we can also attend to the ‘Generations that turn their backs on politics in possibility that there is both an opportunity for using favor of individual expression will continue to our voices to individually “take up space” and also find their priorities at the top of society’s wish coordinate our expression in such a way that we list—and at the bottom of the ‘to do’ list.’ dismantle the oppressive structures that made it so hard to do so in the first place.

11. http://ypp.dmlcentral.net/sites/all/files/publications/YPP_Survey_ Report_FULL.pdf

25 #FemFuture: Online Revolution Creating digital infrastructure funding movement has an exciting opportunity to It follows that the marginalized young leaders who invest in basic operating support for the variety have found their voices online—while juggling of places where online feminists already spend multiple jobs, poverty, and a variety of other time—blogs, online petitions popularized through stressors—might be more likely to find their Facebook and Twitter, apps like Hollaback! and influence in the world if the movement intentionally Circle of Six. With support, these spaces and the invested in them and gave them the space and time leaders that built and sustain them will be able to necessary to organize. make more strategic decisions about their content, This means that what has sometimes been cast their campaigns, and the ways in which they as a personal failing on the part of young feminists coordinate with the wider movement. by writers analyzing the generational rifts within With the time and space afforded by institutional feminism, is actually a problem of inadequate support, financial security, and connections to each infrastructure. While the third and even the fourth other and to existing institutions these activists will waves of feminism have been characterized as be able to have a broader impact—reaching wider self-focused, mistaking identity politics for real and deeper to introduce young people to the ways politics, we have been given very little support to gender impacts their lives as well as the lives of link what we are experiencing everyday and writing people all over the world. Armed with the variety about online with larger movement agendas. The of new online tools that exist, action will follow MacArthur report points to exciting alternatives: consciousness. Intermediary organizations may benefit from considering ways that new kinds of digital Building capacity and sustainability infrastructure may support desired practices While online feminism has organically become ranging from enabling dialog across difference, a powerful pipeline for young leaders within the assessments of the credibility of information, media feminist movement, it isn’t adequate in and of production, and mobilizing others…Promoting itself. Those who have come of age online do gain broad and equitable access to the support, innumerable, valuable skills, as outlined above, training, and infrastructure needed to move from but there are some areas of expertise that don’t voice to influence will be important in order for organically come with online participation. It is participatory politics to reach its full potential. time that we focused more on what these missing Online feminism can be an entry point for deeper capacities are and create dynamic opportunities for feminist engagement, but our maximum impact will leadership development. be achieved by thinking creatively and ambitiously One of the most obvious missing capacities of about the infrastructure needed to link voice and this generation of online leaders is organizational influence. For example, rather than spend precious know-how. Young women involved in online activism philanthropic dollars on new initiatives aimed at have mostly eschewed learning about organizational speaking to the “next generation,” the women’s structure (nonprofit, for profit, new hybrid models),

26 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS A New Digital Age for Education The Internet’s role in participatory politics among youth is also being increasingly nurtured in our classrooms. Online feminist discourse has broadened the scope of what constitutes feminist curricula. Feminist blogs are being integrated into course syllabi and many online feminist influencers come speak to women’s studies programs and even teach students. Cutting-edge academic research on the intersections of feminism, technology, and engagement have exploded in the last decade. But it’s not just college-level educators that are influencing and being influenced by online feminism. Ileana Jiménez is a New York City high school teacher and feminist blogger who has brought education and online activism together in innovative ways through her classroom. Her students developed a class blog, F to the Third Power, after being given the space, education, online resources, and real world experiences of feminist activism. They’ve contributed posts over the course of the last two years, sharing their individual visions for feminism and their reflections on their first forays into intersectional activism. In the meantime, Ileana works online and off to bring attention to the gap that exists between K-12 education and feminist discourse. Ileana is joined by many educators and students exploring ways to use digital tools to incorporate feminist materials in their educational experiences. Another convening member, Dena Simmons, pointed to the importance of “collective impact”—building a culture that encourages bridging conversations inside and outside of schools, and finding more spaces for educators and activists to work together to figure out how to create a two-way dialogue between the classroom and online discussions. Many high-school aged youth are leading the way, in formal programs or through their own discovery. The Black Youth Project, a blog hosted by the University of Chicago, provides a platform where “black youth can speak for themselves about the issues that concern them,” including prominent posts about gender and sexuality. In Seattle, non-profit Reel Grrls provides media arts training to girls with a focus on developing feminist videos that can be shared online, and in Los Angeles, grassroots summer program ImMEDIAiate Justice empowers young women to share their experience of reproductive justice through films, which then become online resources. The proliferation of curriculum and extracurricular online feminist experiences for teen girls isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon either. Kat Banyard, the founder of a British group serving teen feminists called UK Feminista, described school as “the new front line of feminism” recently in The Guardian. British teens have recently declared victory after successfully pressuring Lego to drop its association with The Sun, a publication known for featuring objectifying photographs of women. But while the impact of thought leadership and feminist pedagogy has clearly made a mark, the lack of resources and support leaves too many educators struggling to fill the gap. As a member of the convening, Ileana said, “Educators are finding the blog. I’ve received emails from Israel, South Africa, England, and even emails from educators down the block. They’re writing to me. They’re asking for advice. They’re asking for help.”

27 #FemFuture: Online Revolution financial systems, and revenue development, and of Feministing.com, explains, “Blogging has instead focused their energies entirely on doing become the third shift. You do your activist the work—creating content, relationships, and work, then you have a job to make money and community. then you blog on top of that. It’s completely This is the right instinct expressed in the wrong unsupported.” way. It’s noble that young feminists have so whole Other missing capacities for so many young heartedly embraced their mission to create feminist feminists are strategic planning and coalition building. analysis and advocacy online; it’s tragic that we Too often online feminists work within silos, lacking have done so without the support necessary to also the time, support, skills, and vehicles necessary to shore up sustainable, even if lean, new feminist reach across various borders and work strategically organizations. It should be noted that gender together for long-term gains. Having a big picture differences clearly play out online, as they do on land, plan and pulling in allies from various sectors to when it comes to sustainability; male bloggers in collaborate on it feels like a luxury when you are just comparable spaces have tended to spend much more trying to get content up that day, or make sure there energy on ramping up revenue generation and/or is enough money in the bank account to buy the teen fundraising in order to make their work sustainable. girl bloggers pizza at a training. There are beautiful Women, with very few exceptions, have not. As friendships that have grown out of the online feminist Courtney Martin outlined in The Nation in 2012: world, but they are rarely leveraged for the next level Many feminists innovated remarkably early on of broad base-building. in the Internet’s existence, founding blogs and We need to create more spaces and times where online communities, but we’ve largely stalled strategy and collaboration are prioritized, supported, in progress over the last few years because and expected, and where feminists of all ages—but we are under-resourced and overwhelmed. especially the young and online—have a chance to do Samhita Mukhopadhyay, the executive editor the profound work of dreaming together.

28 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS PART III: RECOMMENDATIONS OUR HIGHER IMPACT FUTURE

RE-IMAGINING OUR FUTURE decides, versus an honest conversation about where money So how do we make the powerful new tools, really should go and how it should be used.” unprecedented interconnectivity, and inspired –Emily Jacobi, Digital Democracy leadership sustainable? How do we coordinate and If we are going to leverage the unprecedented power strategize such a decentralized movement? How do of online feminism for the greatest impact, we have we seize this exciting moment and have the most to take the time and find the space to strategize cross impact possible? generation, organization, and sector. These are complex questions and we won’t pretend Importantly, we are not calling for another women’s to have simple answers. There is no one-size-fits-all- conference. TEDxWomen, Women in the World, solution to the challenges that face the contemporary BlogHer, the Omega Women & Power Conference, feminist movement, but there are a variety of viable WAM!, and so many more, are fantastic opportunities innovations and interventions that we will outline, in to honor leaders, spark inspiration, and amplify ideas, hopes that charismatic leaders will adopt and adapt but they are often not effective spaces to dream, plan, them. Many programs currently exist that can provide and coordinate among the activists working within the powerful models when applied to online feminists, movement. while in other cases we may need to create entirely We call for an annual #FemFuture meeting new structures to support this unique movement. of 100 online and on-the-ground organizers, One thing is clear: it’s time that online innovators philanthropists, educators, and public intellectuals ask for what they need. We’ve proven that these tools interested in feminism online to strengthen work, and that our spontaneous, culturally-attuned collaborative relationships and learn from one way of deploying them makes a difference, and it’s another’s experiences. This gathering could allow time to stand confidently in that knowledge and ask feminists to look at the year ahead and brainstorm for the resources and skills and collaborations that issues, actions, and benchmarks that we can will create fundamental change. put our collective resources toward focusing on. This would also be a chance for organizations to eradicate redundancies and forge partnerships, CREATING NEW SPACES FOR funders to prioritize and respond in an agile way to STRATEGIC PLANNING on-the-ground needs, and online feminists to plot “What do we need most? I think, frankly, and this is complementary communications and cultural change less about Digital Democracy and more about the world strategies. that I want to live in—I think, open and honest dialogue For example, the convening could hold a Feminist and conversations. Of course, we need funding—but that Theory of Change Exchange involving moderated I want to come from open and honest conversations with conversations about how to enact change, working to funders about what we actually do with the money, rather build empathy and perspective, embrace productive than trying to fit into frameworks that somebody else dissent, and emerge with a deeper foundation for our decides. And coming from a place of wealth and privilege work together. Another might be Feminist Solutions

29 #FemFuture: Online Revolution and get feedback, and figure out how to best support one another. By putting a diverse group of people together who share the common passion of gender equality, we are confident that spontaneous and organic collaborations will take root.

Sharing resources and people power “I have a problem doing anything on a white dude model, because my reality is so far from that. When they coalition build, they look like they’re collaborating, but they’re actually consolidating power and money. It’s not just about money. How do we skill share? Bartering is the thing we do when the revolution comes. Hell, this is the revolution.” –Brittney Cooper, Crunk Feminist Collective When each online feminist has to purchase her own domain name, figure out the design for his own blog, recruit advertisers or copyeditors, and find her own space to work, it takes up a lot of time and energy. Luckily, one of the things the web has enabled is Working Sessions where institutional leaders and large-scale sharing. Companies like Zip Car operate on- and offline organizers discuss new organizing on the assumption that if you can have access to tactics, draw from case studies of successful social something when you need it, you don’t really need to movements, and develop measurable, pro-active own it. Similarly, when feminists can share resources, solutions for the coming year. Other sessions and they all benefit. Many have already begun to create forums could be developed based on what the most partnerships for content-sharing, combining projects, pressing issues are that year, whether it’s cultivating sharing of work spaces, and joint hiring of staff. new leadership development or creating new The next step is to make sharing even easier. strategies for cross-movement building. Using simple online tools, feminists could embed We may be Internet evangelists, but the convening opportunities through FemSource to offer a skill on June 7th was a striking reminder of just how or request a skill in exchange for expertise another critical face-to-face dialogue and collaboration is party has. Several websites exist for bartering between feminist activists. This annual occurrence skills and objects, but feminists could all focus on would not function to try to institutionalize online creating mutually beneficial exchanges within our feminists, or designate who the “real” leaders are. But communities. For example, one feminist video website it could serve as a space for us to make plans, give may need someone to write descriptions for their

30 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS videos, while a feminist blogger would like someone and development. So not surprisingly, many of those to create a video series—a perfect opportunity to swap who gathered at our convening expressed a desire skills, where each person is compensated for their to develop their business acumen through training labor without requiring money. This could also be an opportunities. This kind of large-scale capacity opportunity for feminist activists all over the globe to building can happen through the creation of short- connect around best practices, sharing intelligence and term intensive workshops, actively matching online tactics, and build international solidarity. feminists with existing training opportunities, and building long-term online networks for mentoring Developing capacity and support. As has long been recognized, business and technology Two potential programs could increase the financial are two areas where women are often woefully literacy and business skills for online feminists. underrepresented; less than 20 percent of the A Feminist Business Bootcamp would be a bachelor’s degrees in computer science in the U.S. weeklong opportunity for bloggers and organizers go to women, and women CEOs make up for only to come together to learn about business and 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies12. But the silver financial structures from leading experts, examine lining is that women-owned businesses are on the social business case studies, such as Change.org and rise, and now make up nearly 30% of businesses13 in Purpose, and get preliminary training in fundraising the U.S. The number of women-owned companies and development. If one feminist blog of hundreds with 100 or more employees has increased at nearly of thousands of readers could be given the skills and twice the growth rate of all other companies. The time resources needed to grow their business and capital, couldn’t be better to create a new feminist innovation just think about how many more people could be economy. Thinking creatively about using business to reached, and how much more impact made. develop innovative technology in the name of gender The second, #FemFuture Innovation equity could be a game-changer not only for the Accelerator, would provide longer-term support, feminist movement, but could change the landscape where blogs and online organizers could apply to for the tech gender gap, where women are largely be part of a four to 12 month program in which creating the business and the technology. they would get an initial start-up budget, business Building skills and literacies in business is critical training, probono strategy and planning support, for feminists working online. Thus far, most online mentorship, and introductions to potential investors feminist organizations haven’t successfully generated and supporters. One of the most well-known start- enough revenue to support themselves, largely up accelerators, Y Combinator, until recently had because of a lack of expertise and time for research given only 4 percent14 of their grants to startups with a female founder. While many women leave or

12. http://huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/fortune-500-female- ceos_n_1495734.html 13. http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2012/10/03/women-owned- 14. http://foundersatwork.com/1/post/2011/1/what-stops-female-founders. small-businesses-on-the-rise-but-obstacles-remain html

31 #FemFuture: Online Revolution opt out of technology careers because of a working catalyze change; many have expressed a great interest culture that’s non-supportive of women, creating in mobilizing younger generations. Online feminists are a pro-women start-up culture of innovation and looking for sources of support, feminists with financial social change could make a lasting impact in both resources are interested in innovation and cultural technology and gender justice work. change. With this powerful congruence in mind, we suggest the following: Creating new structures for sustainability  Online feminist portfolios: every “We sometimes sector ourselves up into tiny little silos and foundation—whether community-based, don’t do coalition building or real partnership work. We need corporate giving, or privately held—has an to figure out ways to get more strategic in working together opportunity to develop a pipeline of funding without compromising our fundamental intersectional specifically geared to support online feminist politics.” work. These portfolios must be structured with –Jennifer Pozner, Women in Media & News the pace and fluidity of online feminism in Online feminist organizations must become more mind—not sticking to artificial grant cycles, but financially sustainable if they are to continue doing good instead looking to support the general operating work, and certainly if they are going to make their work costs of online feminist organizing, allowing truly transformative. This also means that we need to these innovators to do what they do best: forge deep and genuine partnerships. respond in the moment with creativity and an This kind of sustainability can be realized via nonprofit eye for motivating action. models—where support is most likely coming from  Grant making & matchmaking for collective foundations, members, or individual philanthropists, impact: philanthropic entities could connect through for-profit models—where revenue is most likely online feminists—masters at communication coming from advertising, products like e-books and and digital dissemination—with on-the-ground trainings, or some combination of the two. organizations that are doing fundamental One option in the for-profit model is impact investing. feminist work. These links, with the right kind In order to get some of these revenue-generating ideas of support, could lead to dynamic campaigns, off the ground, venture capitalists could invest in the fostering both public awareness and citizen creation of tools that would have feminist benefits and engagement on gender-related issues. could also make a profit. For example, an innovative  Fund for Online Feminist Innovation: run by iPhone app that increases health and safety might a rotating collective of online feminist veterans, contain a framework for new forms of advertising. Such the fund’s leadership would evaluate proposals products could result in a triple bottom line for online and distribute resources in line with their own feminist organizations. wealth of experience and of knowledge. This In the philanthropic world, pioneers in the women’s collective could also serve to set the agenda, as funding movement are looking to enliven and diversify they would determine which issues and types of when it comes to whom they invest in and how they online campaigns are most critical and viable

32 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS in light of upcoming legislative battles, cultural We know that in order to develop the capacity to conversations and activist efforts. create lasting systemic change, we need to boldly  Corporate Partnerships: Online feminists embrace the tools that are at our fingertips. One need to recognize that our skills are useful, not individual who did this was President Barack Obama just to each other, but also to corporations who in the 2012 presidential election; just two months after have the financial resources to pay for this unique the Komen Foundation story and other battles over expertise. We need to establish and foster these women’s rights went viral, the Obama campaign made a cross-sector partnerships where corporations deliberate decision to target reproductive health issues, hire us to help them create blogging platforms, like Planned Parenthood funding and contraception, in video, photo-sharing and other digital media that order to maintain their support among women. And on we have mastered. We understand that not every Election Day, women were not only the majority of the corporation’s mission and operations would fit electorate, but the country held an 18 percent gender within the ethical and political framework that gap—a historic record for the U.S.15 many online feminists demand of our partners, but But President Obama had the financial support there is still potential here for mutual benefit as and people power necessary to strategize in the most evidenced by organizations like Purpose. effective way. If online activism affected the outcome of  Self-care & Solidarity Retreats: If we could the presidential election, think about what it could do ritualize coming together and creating time for to change the tidal wave of state legislation that is slowly reflection, healing, and community building and painfully removing Americans’ right to choose. among young feminist, our stamina for the Think about what it might do to change a culture movement will be greatly increased. Partnering that currently shames young women. Think about with organizations that specialize in this kind of what it might do to release men from the expectations holistic leadership development will help online associated with toxic masculinity to be whole human feminists disconnect from the rabid atmosphere beings. Think about what it might do to get the federal of online organizing, in order to reconnect with and workplace policies in place that would allow anyone renewed purpose and clarity. to be both present parents and passionate workers. Think about how it might connect the growing feminist From capacity to impact movements all over the world in order to act in concert, The opportunities for collaboration are infinite, as are coordinated at last. the possibilities for impact. All that remains is for us to connect the dots—between voice and influence, between Our interdependent future the broad base and the tools, between the online As feminists, we spend a lot of time focusing on organizers and the philanthropic innovators, between pervasive injustices that keep girls and boys, women the policy goals and the savviest civic engagement and men, from living their safest, most productive, and strategies, between our present and our more feminist future. 15. http://thenation.com/article/171279/feminists-win

33 #FemFuture: Online Revolution pleasurable lives. What we sometimes forget is that we are power—both in numbers and, increasingly, in the formal living in a time of unprecedented social change. leadership of many sectors. We are creating a cost for injustice. We are rewriting the To truly seize this moment, to really make the kind story. We are mobilizing fundamental change. of change that will be irreversible, irrefutable, and There are tools at our disposal like never before. breathtakingly beautiful, we must work together. We must We’ve got the Internet to spread the word faster and share resources—cultural, financial, and otherwise—in father, to spark people to action. We’ve got reader order to make ourselves the strategic, sustainable movement and philanthropic fuel to spread the spark. We’ve got that we are just now, becoming capable of being.

34 NEW FEMINIST SOLUTIONS