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Everyday Feminism in the Digital Era: Gender, the Fourth Wave, and Social Media Affordances

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Everyday Feminism in the Digital Era: Gender, the Fourth Wave, and Social Media Affordances EVERYDAY FEMINISM IN THE DIGITAL ERA: GENDER, THE FOURTH WAVE, AND SOCIAL MEDIA AFFORDANCES A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Urszula M. Pruchniewska May 2019 Examining Committee Members: Carolyn Kitch, Advisory Chair, Media and Communication Fabienne Darling-Wolf, Media and Communication Adrienne Shaw, Media and Communication Rebecca Alpert, Religion ABSTRACT The last decade has seen a pronounced increase in feminist activism and sentiment in the public sphere, which scholars, activists, and journalists have dubbed the “fourth wave” of feminism. A key feature of the fourth wave is the use of digital technologies and the internet for feminist activism and discussion. This dissertation aims to broadly understand what is “new” about fourth wave feminism and specifically to understand how social media intersect with everyday feminist practices in the digital era. This project is made up of three case studies –Bumble the “feminist” dating app, private Facebook groups for women professionals, and the #MeToo movement on Twitter— and uses an affordance theory lens, examining the possibilities for (and constraints of) use embedded in the materiality of each digital platform. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups with users, alongside a structural discourse analysis of each platform, the findings show how social media are used strategically as tools for feminist purposes during mundane online activities such as dating and connecting with colleagues. Overall, this research highlights the feminist potential of everyday social media use, while considering the limits of digital technologies for everyday feminism. This work also reasserts the continued need for feminist activism in the fourth wave, by showing that the material realities of gender inequality persist, often obscured by an illusion of empowerment. ii For Riley, my favorite girl iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the time commitment and thoughtful contributions of my interview participants. I am forever indebted to the amazing women who co-produced this knowledge with me. I am profoundly grateful to my advisor, Carolyn Kitch, the members of my committee, Fabienne Darling-Wolf and Adrienne Shaw, and my external reader, Rebecca Alpert. Carolyn, you have been guiding me and advocating for me for seven years now – through tears, laughter, difficulties, and triumphs. You have my eternal gratitude for your unwavering supportive presence by my side throughout this journey, for the endless encouragement, the constructive feedback, and thought-provoking discussions. Fab, thank you for your warm support, kindness, and intellectual mentoring, particularly on feminist theory, over the years. Adrienne, your advice on digital methods informed so much of this dissertation, and our chats on grad school life (and beyond) kept me sane throughout the process – thank you. Rebecca, thank you for the helpful conversations about academia and the valuable insights on my work. Thank you for always rooting for me and checking in: Brian Creech, Andy Mendelson, David Mindich, and Edward Trayes. Appreciation also to Tony Liao for sparking my lifelong (no doubt) interest in affordances. Thank you to my family: my mom, Hanna Pruchniewska, and brother, Andrew Pruchniewski, for supporting and loving me through the best of times and the worst of iv times; my Dziadek Jurek Kozlowski for instilling in me a thirst for knowledge and a love of books; and my father, Damian Pruchniewski, for the insatiable drive to succeed. To my dear friends, there are no words. Can you believe it’s over? Thank you for everything. Shannon McLaughlin Rooney, my cohort #traj best bud, you know I couldn’t have done this without you (and Crooney). Nevertheless, we persisted! So much love, my brilliant friend. Thank you also to (in alphabetical order): Michael Buozis, for sharing the ups and downs of academic life with me, always with a healthy dose of cynical humor; Colby Chase, for being my favorite fellow malcontent; Lynn Detwiler, for appreciating the beauty of photography with me; Brooke Erin Duffy, for loving animals as much as I do and for being there, weird, hilarious, and wildly smart, particularly in the wee hours of winter mornings; Dana Fiero, for calm, yoga, tea, and cat stories; Elizaveta Friesem, for the endlessly sympathetic ear and sound advice; Rosemary Guiser, for keeping me young and fun, and for adopting me on all major holidays; Laura Kilday, for cakes, wine, Broadway, and travels down south; Sam Seifman, for the years of giggles, bedlam, and pig emoji; Emil Steiner, for always keeping things interesting (na zdrowie!); Meghnaa Tallapragada, for helping me learn to self-love and sharing the tribulations of being “international”; Nicole Westrick and Angelo Trivelli, for the relentless love and support, for always sharing the most sumptuous treats (cocktails! bread!), and for being the best godparents Riley could have ever asked for; and, Michele Zipkin and Vanessa Williams, for the happiest happy hours and all the cheese. v To my oldest (Kiwi) friends: Debbie-Lee Bell, I love seeing your beautiful face! Thank you for being such a wonderful friend. Niall Duncan, thanks for always listening to me and for sharing all the gossip. Janet Burt, your steadfast support from the other side of the world, for all these years, means so much to me. I love you so much, crispy chip. Maree Martinussen, my best beastie and longest feminist ally, this is our year! I am so grateful for having you in my life (10 years now!) and look forward to one day living on the same continent, in the sunshine, with zonkeys, goats, kittens, puppies, bears, sloths, and everything in between! I love you, BB. Michael Keys, you arrived at the tail end of the tumult, but your bottomless well of kindness, wicked sense of humor, handsome beard, refined taste in TV shows, and amazing cooking skills helped me over the finish line. I’m so looking forward to our cat- tastic future. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 The Rise of the Fourth Wave ...................................................................................3 Vernacular Affordances of Digital Media Technologies .........................................5 Using a Feminist and Cultural Studies Approach ....................................................7 The Three Case Studies .........................................................................................10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................15 Defining Feminism ................................................................................................15 The Waves of Feminism ........................................................................................23 Everyday Feminism on Social Media ....................................................................32 The Essential Newness of Fourth Wave Feminism ...............................................35 An Affordance Approach to Everyday Politics .....................................................43 3. METHODS ..................................................................................................................56 Research Design......................................................................................................56 A Feminist Methodology ........................................................................................66 4. EXAMINING EMPOWERMENT ON BUMBLE ......................................................70 vii Introduction ............................................................................................................70 Technical WalkThrough ........................................................................................71 Bumble as a Series of Harm-Prevention Tools ......................................................78 Harassment on Bumble ..........................................................................................98 Troubling Bumble as a Feminist App ..................................................................105 Gendered Labor on Bumble .................................................................................108 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................112 5. FEMINIST AFFORDANCES OF PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUPS FOR PROFESSIONALS ....................................................................................................115 Introduction ..........................................................................................................115 Facebook Groups as Professional Resource Spaces ............................................119 Facebook Groups as Safe Spaces .........................................................................132
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