NETWORKED PUBLICS, NETWORKED POLITICS: RESISTING GENDER-BASED VIOLENT SPEECH IN DIGITAL MEDIA VERONIKA ANATOLYEVNA NOVOSELOVA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN GENDER, FEMINIST AND WOMEN'S STUDIES YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO MAY 2016 © VERONIKA ANATOLYEVNA NOVOSELOVA 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a qualitative study of digital media that identifies and analyzes feminist responses to violent speech in networked environments across Canada and the United States between 2011 and 2015. Exploring how verbal violence is constitutive of and constituted by power relations in the feminist blogosphere, I ask the following set of research questions: How do feminist bloggers politicize and problematize instances of violent speech on digital media? In what ways are their networked interactions and self-representations reconfigured as a result of having to face hostile audiences? What modes of agency appear within feminist blogging cultures? This work engages with feminist theory (hooks, 2014; McRobbie, 2009; Stringer 2014), media studies (boyd, 2014; Lovink, 2011; Marwick 2013) and their intersections in the field of feminist media studies (Jane 2014; Keller, 2012). Drawing on interviews with the key players in the feminist blogosphere and providing a discursive reading of selected digital texts, I identify networked resistive strategies including digital archiving, public shaming, strategic silence and institutional transformations. I argue that feminist responses to violent speech are varied and reflect not only long-standing concerns with community building and women’s voices in public context, but also emerging anxieties around self-branding, professional identity and a control over one's digital presence. This research underscores the importance of transformative capacities of networked feminist politics and contextualizes agentic modes of participation in response to problematic communication. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Jen Jenson, for the helpful feedback on numerous drafts of this dissertation. Her guidance and patience with my intellectual growth helped me stay on track during all stages of my doctoral studies. I also thank my dissertation committee members, Naomi Adelson and Didi Khayatt, for their time and support of this project. Special thanks to examiners Megan Boler and Chloë Brushwood-Rose. Their questions and comments at the defense pushed me to rethink the future directions of this research. I extend my gratitude to friends and family, and especially my mother, Zinaida Kutuzova, who kept encouraging me on the road to the completion of this research. My partner Yegor provided invaluable everyday support that allowed me to concentrate on my work. Finally, I am immensely grateful to the research participants. Their writing is a source of inspiration for this research, and my thinking is in many ways shaped by their insights and critical conversations. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 1.1. Confronting the unspeakable: a rationale for research ............................................................1 1.2. Revisiting the concept of backlash ........................................................................................12 1.3. Entanglements of agency and victimization ..........................................................................18 1.4. Chapter outlines .....................................................................................................................21 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGIES AND METHODS ................................................................25 2.1. Designing a qualitative study of digital media ......................................................................25 2.2. Securing access through networked structures of belonging .................................................30 2.3. Publicness and confidentiality ...............................................................................................34 2.4. Skype interviewing as a method ............................................................................................35 2.5. Situating blogs as sites of cultural production ......................................................................40 2.6. Speech communities and networked publics .........................................................................50 CHAPTER 3: POLITICIZING VIOLENT SPEECH ....................................................................53 3.1. Bridging narratives across the blogosphere ...........................................................................53 3.2. “Isn't this just a joke?” Legitimizing experiences of verbal violence ..................................58 3.3. Popular representations of “trolls” .........................................................................................65 3.4. Catching fire on Twitter .........................................................................................................72 3.5. Performance, visibility and virality........................................................................................81 CHAPTER 4: MODES OF SPEECH AND SILENCE .................................................................85 4.1. The failures of cyberbullying and cybersafety discourses .....................................................85 4.2 Vitriol as “juvenile communication” .....................................................................................91 4.3. Reframing the problem of anonymity ...................................................................................95 4.4. Prescribing disengagement ..................................................................................................102 4.5. Feminist blogging as a site of creative labour .....................................................................105 4.6. De-virtualization: doxing, outing and public shaming ........................................................120 4.7. Oppositional silence as resistance ........................................................................................124 CHAPTER 5: MANAGING PARTICIPATION .........................................................................129 5.1. Relations of trust on social media ........................................................................................129 5.2. “Turbofeminist” Emma Woolley .........................................................................................135 5.3. Growing ideas with Jaspreet ................................................................................................143 5.4. Moderating comments on Gender Focus .............................................................................147 iv 5.5. Well-received bloggers: Julie Zeilinger and Caity Goerke ...............................................152 5.6. Jessica: to never be silent again ...........................................................................................154 CHAPTER 6: NETWORKED PRACTICES OF EXCLUSION ................................................159 6.1. Mapping the myths of shared power ....................................................................................159 6.2. The F-Word Collective and the limits of journalistic objectivity ........................................162 6.3. Radical feminism and the legacy of feminist “sex wars” ....................................................168 6.4. Public vulnerability of an imperfect feminist ......................................................................175 6.5. Calling in and calling out .....................................................................................................178 6.6. A crisis of acknowledgement ...............................................................................................183 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................191 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................201 APPENDIX A: SAMPLE CALL FOR RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS .....................................233 APPENDIX B: LIST OF RESEARCH INTERVIEWS .............................................................234 APPENDIX C: SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .............................................................235 APPENDIX D: INFORMED CONSENT FORM .......................................................................236 v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Confronting the unspeakable: a rationale for research The goal of this dissertation is to explore the possibilities and limits of creative political subjectivities in the face of sexist and misogynist backlash. More specifically, I identify, contextualize, and analyze instances of gender-based1 verbal violence and feminist responses to such violence2 on digital media platforms across Canada and the United States from 2011 to 2015.