Month: April 2015

In “Hashtag Feminism, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and the other #FemFuture,” Susana Loza describes feminisms on social media by exploring #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, #NotYourAsianSidekick, and #FemFuture. Loza focuses on critiques of mainstream feminism expressed by WOC feminists on Twitter and backlash from white feminists who call their tweets “toxic” and “bullying.” Her article argues against silencing WOC feminists with accusations of bullying. Loza’s goal is to improve the feminist movement by calling out white feminists. Loza is probably writing the article for other feminists, because her article tries to shape how we talk about each other’s feminisms.

One thing I enjoyed about Loza’s article was that it referenced and cited a lot of other works. I liked that because I can see it being really useful for feminists who want to learn more about intersectionality, and I know that there are a few books mentioned in the article that I want to learn more about because of reading it. I also liked that the citations showed how Loza was being extremely careful about explaining where different thoughts referenced in her piece came from, especially because the failure to do that was one thing she criticized about the #FemFuture report.

Loza’s article connected to my own experience by reminding me of other ways that mainstream feminism leaves out discussion of racism or is otherwise missing intersectionality. One example that I always think of is Meghan Trainor’s music, especially the song “All About That Bass,” because of how it gets body positivity wrong and is problematic in other ways as well.

While reading Loza’s article, I wondered whether mainstream and intersectional feminisms are really as divided as she envisions. From my point of view, they don’t seem to be, because the Women’s Studies classes I’ve taken have taught intersectionality and the feminist media I consume is intersectional (although a lot of it is coming from tumblr, which has a strong intersectional community), and some mainstream figures like Nicki Minaj include intersectional feminist messages in their work. Is mainstream feminism getting more intersectional?

In the article, Hashtag Feminism #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen and the Other #FemFuture, Susana Loza writes about how these hashtags brought to light, the arguments over feminism and how it has largely been a terrain for white women. This article was published after Mikki Kendall’s #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag broke out during Hugo Schwyzer’s scandal  in which he confessed putting down women of color and defending white feminism. The audience of this article can range from any proponents of feminism to those interested in twitter activism and race issues. I would say it is mainly directed toward feminists because Loza is trying to bring the issue that women of color are largely ignored when it comes to feminism and social media has allowed them to speak out and to each other. There are serious problems, and if we continue to stay divided, they will never truly be solved.

The main idea of the text is that women of color feel left out of feminism and now they have a platform to express their views and concerns, but that places a division between white and colored feminists. It amplifies how colored feminists have challenged white feminists and that has caused a lot of controversy and backlash. For example, white women can be portrayed as racist, which causes more arguments. The hashtags do allow us to see what is largely ignored and that feminism needs to become unified in order to work.

Susana Loza’s goal was to inform us of the problems of this Twitter activism and how it affects us. She wants us to see how colored women and also women of other races feel in terms of feminism. White people may not have noticed the issue, but colored women feel underrepresented and want a voice. But is their activism on twitter, where they state that white feminists ignore them, right? Loza shows us that it places more of a divide in feminism because colored feminists have their own community via Twitter. She wants to inform us that feminism has many sides to it and it needs to be addressed. Feminism cannot truly be successful if feminists are divided based on race, that just allows patriarchy to win. She hopes to achieve a sense of understanding in the world of feminism.

I thought that this article was articulated very well in its detailed accounts of these hashtags. I enjoyed that she mentioned other hashtags as well, such as #NotYourAsianSidekick to show that the issue is not merely about colored feminists. I think it was important to note that many races feel divided when it comes to feminism, and that is what needs to change. This connects to my own experience because a lot of the celebrities I follow are feminists, but the ones I hear about on the news, such as Taylor Swift and Emma Watson, are white. Feminism is a movement to end patriarchy and I learned that many voices are left out in this fight. A question I would ask is how would we go about unifying everyone into one feminist movement when race is such a touchy subject? Mikki Kendall has gotten a lot of backlash, as well as Suey Park. After colored women use twitter and this hashtag to show that they matter in feminism, will they ever truly be unified with white feminists? Because of the way the world works, people will alway see the differences they have between one another, whether that be race or not. If we continue to allow issues of race to interfere with the real goal of feminism, how will it ever be successful?

This article was developed in order to get the attention of individuals who are interested in the hashtag, #CancelColbert, which Suey Park developed. Park had a strong opinion on the racist slurs, regarding Asians, which Colbert referred to in his show. This led her to develop the hashtag, so that this topic could gain attention.

The article explains that Park received many negative responses regarding her opinions and the hashtag, because it simply shows her not being able to take a joke. It focuses on bringing light to the fact that people were hating on Park for no reason. The article also talks about how journalists who were involved in saying bad things about Park did it more for the power. Most of them believe that someone like Park doesn’t deserve to gain the attention on her opinions as much as she did, especially since she is a colored women. The author of the article, Julia Wong, believes that most journalists had the mindset of;  why does a nobody like Park get attention?

Wong also believes that the hate towards Park is unnecessary, since Park is just portraying her opinion. She hopes to reach journalists and other individuals who have posted negative comments, to let them know that they’re in the wrong. I believe that Wong is right, in the fact that people should be entitled to their opinions without having death threats thrown their way. It’s okay to disagree with someones opinions, but it’s not okay to threaten them and hate on them for the wrong reasons.

I have seen people say negative things towards others for no reason whatsoever. I don’t think it’s okay to do so, and feel that the people that hate on others don’t do it for the right reasons. They are most likely insecure in their own ways. I appreciate the fact that Wong posted her opinion on the hate towards Park and didn’t worry about what others would say to her. My question regards whether or not the people who post negative comments towards Park have any reasons other than the fact that they feel she can’t take a joke.