"Reclaiming Rhetorical Worth: Feminist Blogs as a Space for Equality, Cooperation, and Action"

About the Author

Amani Husain is a graduate student in the Department of Communication at University of Colorado Boulder concentrating in rhetoric and working toward earning certificates in ethnic studies and women and gender studies. She is also interested in environmental communication, specifically environmental justice. Influenced by critical cultural studies, she enjoys exploring the rhetorical narratives that create the worlds we live in, particularly narratives about race, class, gender, and nation.

Contents

    Introduction

    Method

    Findings

    Analysis

    Conclusion

    Works Cited

Analysis and Discussion

When I first theorized about the results of my research, I expected the blogs to be rife with political images, first and foremost. My rationale for this expectation was that, as a regular internet and social media participant, political “memes” and images are pervasive on almost every social media site. Because feminism is a political ideology as much as a critical lens in which to view social, economic, and gender-based issues, and because the blogs all represented viewpoints differing from mainstream feminism, I believed these blogs would rely heavily on satirical political images. However, as evident by my findings, political images were decidedly the least used. Instead, descriptive words/metaphors and inclusive language/collective pronouns were used most frequently. So what does this say about alternative feminist blogs and online discourses?

For The Crunk Feminist Collective, most of its intimate language and descriptive words/metaphors occurred on its “Mission Statement” page. The mission statement is articulate, refreshing, and powerful; it is also the longest of the three blogs at almost 600 words. Data coding allowed me to see exactly how the blog embodied its mission. The goals of raising awareness for women of color and bringing together seemingly disparate concepts and ideologies came through in the word choice, for example:

As part of a larger women-of-color feminist politic, crunkness, in its insistence on the primacy of the beat, contains a notion of our work together. Percussion by definition refers to ‘the sound, vibration or shock caused by the striking together of two bodies.’ Combining terms like Crunk and Feminism, and the cultural, gendered, and racial histories signified in each, is apercussive moment, one that signals the kind of productive dissonance that occurs as we work at the edges of disciplines, on the margins of social life, and in the vexed spaces between academic and non-academic communities. (“Mission Statement,” emphasis added).

As my results show, the descriptive words and metaphors extend out of the mission statement and become the most frequent rhetorical devices on the blog at large. Interestingly, this blog also boasts the highest number of readers and has the most writers and contributors (18). It is easy to see why the blog is so popular. Its use of descriptive and intimate language illustrates its commitment to unity and cooperation. The language and metaphors served to create a safe space, a place where individuals of diverse backgrounds and cultures could gather and learn from one another. The original posts and narratives added to the authenticity of the blog, suggesting that the writers truly valued personal experiences and opinions to spark conversations, intellectual exchanges, and critical interrogations. These driving forces bolstered the blog’s popularity as well as its feminist ambitions.

The Cuntmentality, though a smaller and more personal blog, also used an abundance of descriptive language/metaphors. Although its “About” section was shorter than the previous blog, its tone was also more aggressive and forthright. Subsequently, the descriptive words and metaphors indicate the writer’s attitude about themselves and the condition or collective identity of the writer’s personal and public community. For example:

The Cuntmentality is raw power, derived from a sea of unlimited thoughts, experiences, opinions, fears, dreams, goals, and so forth [ . . . ] It is an idea, an undying answer to those who are in need of a safe space, of acceptance and acknowledgment of your pain shared with others like you. It is the force that bashes back, that doesn’t give in, that raises a fist against every oppressive force trying to drive you back into the cultural rot so you can degrade in ignorance and in false messages that claim you’re unworthy or that who you are isn’t good enough. (“The Cuntmentality”)

Although its use of inclusive language and collective pronouns was limited, The Cuntmentality relied more on the inclusivity conveyed through its descriptive language and metaphors to create a comfortable space where sexuality, gender, appearance, race, etc. served as a source of inspiration rather than shame. This is important because, as Sundén (2001) said of gender, race, and class in feminist cyberspace, “the material body marked by gender, race and class not only forms the physical ground for the cyberspace traveler, but is also clearly introduced and reproduced in the new electronic spaces it inhabits” (p. 225). If such identity markers are indeed reproduced in cyberspace, it is important for spaces to exist that challenge these socially constructed forces.

Lastly, after coding Fuck Yeah, Feminists! I discovered the blog to be smaller and less popular. Its “About” section was succinct and playful: “A place to celebrate anything anti-oppression, anti-kyriarchy, anti-hate, and pro-equality. Run by two feminists who try to link to and reblog anything that is relevant to feminists today (almost anything)” (“Fuck Yeah, Feminists!”). With an arguably vague “About” section, this blog was more scattered in terms of its subject matter and content. Rather than post original text or narratives, the blog often acted as a funnel. pouring an amalgamation of articles, images, videos, and other digital material into the funnel to form a more shallow pool of relevant, pertinent discourses. Though the results showed that this strategy may not have been the most effective for engaging its readers or inducing cooperation, the “About” page did not necessarily claim these goals as the aim of the blog.