"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

Conclusion

In sum, the findings were in contrast with my hypothesis and revealed that alternative feminist blogs (at least in this set of texts) primarily use descriptive language/metaphors and inclusive language/collective pronouns to cultivate solidarity, to foster support, and to offer an online space where feminists of color and other communities could reclaim rhetorical worth. The absence of overtly political images was unexpected because of the recent election. However, this absence illustrates the shifting priorities of contemporary feminists: the personal is becoming increasingly political, and the intimate details of womens’ lives are under no less scrutiny in our current society than in the past. For this reason, feminist blogs are particularly focusing on engaging women through the use of the most intimate tool: language. However, some research such as Kuntsman (2008) has studied feminist blogs from a more overt political standpoint. In Kuntman (2008), the author examines a blog of Russian-speaking queer immigrants from Israel through a critical race lens, exploring sexuality, immigration, and nationalism. Although such research is scarce, it is significant and adds to a larger body of work focusing on feminist cybercultures. Thus, although my findings reveal less explicit political tropes, there is much feminist research that shows otherwise.

According to Harp and Tremayne (2006), there has been a 58% rise in blog readership in 2004 alone and 27% of American adults—32 million people—reported that they read blogs regularly. Blogs are obviously increasingly becoming a burgeoning social media outlet with poignant implications for feminism and the academy. I believe that this research is relevant and significant not only because it may further our discipline’s understanding of alternative feminist blogs, but also contributes further feminist research about contemporary online discourses. Ultimately, this type of research is important because women, minority groups, and other marginalized communities are lacking representation in academia; their under/misrepresentation creates dangerous gaps in academic research in which oppressive forces may go unnoticed and unscrutinized. Consequently, neglecting the oppression that these groups and individuals face serves to mask the systemic oppressive forces that work to silence marginalized voices and maintain the status quo—to achieve true intellectual progress, these groups and communities must be included in our scholastic interrogations.

That feminist blogs are rhetorically significant should be evident: the results of the study show that their strategic yet honest use of rhetorical devices create spaces for equality, cooperation, and action in an oppressive world.