About this Issue
As blogging has more widespread interest, especially vis-á-vis
electoral politics, feminist activity on the internet has remained
marginal to the mainstream. Thus, we were thrilled when Gwendolyn
Beetham and Jessica Valenti proposed "Blogging Feminism: (Web)sites of
Resistance" as a Scholar and Feminist Online journal topic, as well as a
theme for a Barnard Center for Research on Women panel discussion. As
Beetham and Valenti point out in their introduction, all too much
feminist activity exists in the blogosphere invisibly. This theme runs
through many of this journal's contributions, and is taken up directly
by Clancy Ratliff and Tedra Osell in the section entitled "Women and
Politics in the Blogosphere."
Another central aim of "Blogging Feminism" is bringing to the fore
the innovative work developed by feminist bloggers, especially in the
political realm. Marie Varghese's piece, for example, insightfully
points to the spaces available online for movement-making that are
scarce or entirely absent in mainstream media, as she analyzes media
representations of the horrific murder of Rashawn Brazell, a black gay
teen. Mary Matthews, on the other hand, points to vlogs (video blogs)
as another ripe site for feminist creativity. This issue of Scholar and
Feminist Online aims to bring together feminist bloggers, vloggers,
scholars and activists who create and analyze our virtual world.
Since the Internet is one of the main sites where young feminists
articulate their vision, our web journal has often focused on topics
that are particularly important to the lives of young feminists. Such
issues include "Young Feminists Take on the Family" (Issue 2.3),
"Feminist Television Studies: The Case of HBO" (Issue 3.1) and "Jewish
Women Changing America: Cross-Generational Conversations" (Issue 5.1).
"Blogging Feminism" continues to explore the wide range of activity to
which young feminists devote themselves. Focal points for the works
included in this issue include gender, cyber-activism, sexuality, race,
class and globalization in the blogosphere and beyond.
We are particularly interested in how technological innovations help
to transform the world by adding multiple voices to discussions and
multiple forms of representations. As a result, this issue includes
technological innovations for S&F Online. Taking full advantage of
the interactive nature of the Internet, "Blogging Feminism" includes a
new blog section where readers can post comments during the week
following the journal's launch (May 1-8, 2007). Prominent feminist
bloggers, the issue's contributors and our readership have been invited
to participate. Additionally, this issue includes the video and
transcript of the November 2006 panel discussion on blogging and
feminism, featuring Lauren Spees, Michelle Riblett '05 (Hollaback),
Alice Marwick (Tiara) and Liza Sabater (Culture Kitchen), and
moderated by Gwendolyn Beetham and Jessica Valenti. The video of the
2006 panel has also been posted on YouTube as an additional way to
expand our audience and the conversation. We hope you will join the
conversation.
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