Gwendolyn Beetham and Jessica Valenti, "Introduction" (Page 4 of 4)

How is this issue different from previous editions of S&F Online?

Unlike previous issues, this edition is broken up into two parts: an academic section, featuring articles on feminism and blogging (described above), and a blog section, where some of today's most popular feminist bloggers have joined us to take part in a one-of-a-kind conversation. The bloggers will post on various critical issues, including: race, class and gender in the blogosphere; women blogging in male spaces; comments sections as political discourse; and feminist blogging and politics. We will also include each academic article in our blog section to offer the contributors, bloggers, and readers a chance to discuss the essays. For one week after the edition launches, the blog portion of the edition will be live, giving both the contributors and the readers a chance to discuss the issues online. Posts will be organized in chronological order and also by topic through a sidebar. We encourage you, the reader, to continue the conversation and interact with the contributors and other commentators.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone at the Barnard Center for Research on Women for their guidance in putting this issue together, and especially for their willingness to try something that has never been done before. Thanks also to our wonderful contributors and bloggers, who have shared their insights and ideas, and who inspire us daily both on and offline.

We hope you enjoy the issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together. See you in the comments section!

Endnotes

1. Desiree Lewis, "African Gender Research and Postcoloniality: Legacies and Challenges," Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, Gender Series, Volume 1 (November 2004), www.codesria.org/links/
conferences/gender/LEWIS.pdf. [Return to text]

2. Clinton's blog can be found at http://health.yahoo.com/
blog-for-hope/clinton/. [Return to text]

3. See the August 14, 2006 report on Ahmadinehad's blog at the BBC News Web site, http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/middle_east/4790005.stm. [Return to text]

4. Ryan Lizza, "The YouTube Election," The New York Times, August 20, 2006. [Return to text]

5. "Update: Blogs Force Cosgrove to Withdraw Disturbing Miscarriage Bill," posted to Feministing.com, January 11, 2005, http://feministing.com/
archives/002440.html. [Return to text]

6. V. Tobias, "Blog This! An Introduction to Blogs, Blogging, and the Feminist Blogosphere," Feminist Collections 26 (2005), nos. 2-3, http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/
WomensStudies/fc/fcblogs1.htm. [Return to text]

7. K. Cochrane, "The Third Wave - At a Computer Near You," The Guardian Unlimited, March 31, 2006, http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/
story/0,,1743734,00.html (accessed June 5, 2006); see our blogroll for a small sample of some of our favorites. [Return to text]

8. Pew Internet & American Life Project, "New Data on Blogs and Blogging," press release posted to pewinternet.org, May 2, 2005, http://www.pewinternet.org/
press_release.asp?r=104 (accessed June 7, 2006). [Return to text]

9. S. C. Herring et al., "Women and Children Last: The Discursive Construction of Weblogs, in Into the Blogoshpere, ed. L. Gurak et al. (University of Minnesota: 2004), http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/
women_and_children_pf.html (accessed June 5, 2006). [Return to text]

10. C. Ratliff, "Whose Voices Get Heard? Gender Politics in the Blogosphere," posted to CultureCat, March 25, 2004, http://culturecat.net/node/303. [Return to text]

11. L. Chaudhry, "Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics?," In These Times, February 6, 2006, http://www.inthesetimes.com/
site/main/article/2485/ (accessed June 5, 2006). [Return to text]

12. See Ervin's essay in this edition for her take on the differences between blogs run by women and feminist blogs. [Return to text]

13. J. Breitbart and A. Nogueira, "An Independent Media Center of One's Own: A Feminist Alternative to Corporate Media," in The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism, ed. Vivien Labaton and Dawn Lundy Martin (New York: Anchor Books, 2004), 19-41. [Return to text]

14. Susan Luckman, "(En)Gendering the Digital Body: Feminism and the Internet," Hectate 25 (1999): 36-46. Luckman is quoting Sadie Plant, the feminist theorist who coined the term "cyberfeminist." Importantly, she also notes that, "there exists no singular cyberfeminism per se." [Return to text]

15. Ibid. [Return to text]

16. Ibid. [Return to text]

17. See Joni Seager's The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World (New York: Penguin Books, 2003) for global and national statistics. [Return to text]