Here’s an email I got today. My answers were tossed off pretty quickly, I’m afraid.
I am a Danish journalist writing an article about how feminist blogs’ popularity are now being called the new third wave feminism – and in order to document the thesis, I would like you to answer a few simple questions. I really hope you’ll take part in my little “opinion” poll,
Questionnaire – please answer and send back to me:
When did you start your blog?
May 2002. [Actually, I misrememberd. The first post on “Alas” was June 26, 2002 –Amp]
How many visits the site every month (if you don’t know, then your estimate)?
About 120,000.
How many has an account at your page?
That isn’t relevant to how my blog software works, because readers don’t need an account in order to leave comments. However, I can tell you that there are over 58,000 reader comments in my blog’s database, not including spam.
Do you know, how many feminists blogs are out there – how many do you know?
I don’t think anyone knows how many feminist blogs are out there.
Hundreds, at the least.
Why do you blog?
It’s a hobby. Some people knit, some people do crosswords, I blog.
Why do you think these blogs have become so popular?
I think that most people have some hunger to see their own views engaged with and discussed in media. Since the mainstream media almost completely cuts feminists out of so many discussions (at least in the USA, where I live, but I suspect elsewhere in the world as well), feminists turn to the internet to make up the lack.
Does “equal status” between the sexes exist?
On the whole, no, it doesn’t.
If no, is that why you blog?
Well, it’s one of the issues I’m passionate enough to write about
again and again. And again. And again.
Or is there a greater purpose to your blog?
A greater purpose than trying to fight inequality and sexist injustice
in my own fairly tiny way? No, not really.
Is this in your opinion the revival of the third wave? (Or is it really the fourth wave?)
I don’t think the so-called “third wave” needed any revival – before blogs, feminism was going strong in universities, in zines, in music, in online discussion boards, in some TV shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and in many other places. Blogs didn’t revive the third wave – if anything, the third wave made feminist blogs happen. But blogs have made explicit feminist discussion much easier for folks outside of universities to read and join, and that’s great.
How can this “wave” reach those not fortunate enough to own or have the chance to use a computer?
Well, that’s one reason I’d like to see more feminists and feminist thought on mainstream TV – to reach people who won’t or can’t engage in more direct ways. And it’s also one reason why talking about these things face-to-face, as well as on the internet, is so important.
But the internet is helpful, too. It’s given a way for feminists from many places over the world (although mostly the industrialized world, for the reasons you mentioned) a way to exchange and spread ideas and become part of each other’s lives. And although it can be criticized for not being perfect (what alternative is perfect?), that feminist blogs don’t reach everyone doesn’t mean they’re not providing substantial benefits for those folks they can reach.
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What newspaper/media was he or she from? I would like to read the resulting article.
I second that. Maybe we could translate it for you, or at least give you an abstract of what it says.
Hmmn. I have no idea, now that you mention it. The person’s name is “Lone Schaumann,” if that helps. I’ve emailed asking what publication the article will appear in.
The name doesn’t ring a bell, and a quick google search didn’t help much, except that I now know that she is a real journalist, and that she at her journalist school was described as a feminist. Hopefully, we’ll get to know more.
That’s pretty cool. I dunno, maybe third wave doesn’t need a revival as Amp said, but I’m sure blogs have helped toward more mainstream acceptance of third wave feminism. I cringe to think of what my perceptions of feminism were before being exposed to feminist blogs.
Exactly. I’d dismissed feminism as irrelevent– repeated exposure to solid thinking and proof quickly disabused me of the notion. Without blogs, I wouldn’t have gotten that exposure.
I had a “good” public school education in the 60s, and I’m convinced that the semi-explicit primary purpose of conventional education is to train students to endure boredom. Subject matter is much less important.
The goal of conventional schooling is to cut students off from their enthusiasm about everything, not just from demanding better treatment. The two issues are entangled– if people thought they were entitled to respect, they might pursue what they care about, and if they believe they’re allowed to care about what they love, they’d be more likely to try to get the resources to pursue it.
The rot goes all the way to the top. As far as I can tell, a lot of people with very expensive educations don’t understand what understanding is, or why understanding whether something makes sense is important.
I realize this is a sidetrack from how horrifyingly bad things are at the bottom.