#MeToo. Digital networking. Facebook groups. Social media continues to be positioned by social movement scholars as an exciting new tool that has propelled feminism into a dynamic fourth wave of the movement. But how does male power play out on social media, and what is the political significance of women using male-controlled and algorithmically curated platforms for feminism?
To answer these questions, Megarry foregrounds an analysis of the practices and ethics of the historical Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM), including the revolutionary characteristics of face-to-face organising and the development of an autonomous print culture. Centering discussions of time, space and surveillance, she utilises radical and lesbian feminist theory to expose the contradictions between the political project of women’s liberation and the dominant celebratory narratives of Web 2.0. This is the first book to seriously consider how social media perpetuates the enduring logic of patriarchy and howdigital activism shapes women’s oppression in the 21st century. Drawing on interviews with intergenerational feminist activists from the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, as well as archival and digital activist materials, Megarry boldly concludes that feminists should abandon social media and return to the transformative powers of older forms of women-centred political praxis. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Women’s and Gender Studies, Lesbian and Queer Studies, Social Movement Studies, Critical Internet Studies and Political Communication, as well as anyone with an interest in feminist activism and the history of the WLM.
Author(s): Jessica Megarry
Series: Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 324
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
Interviewee Biographies
1: A Fourth Wave or a Fool’s Errand?
The Women’s Liberation Movement
Revolution or Social Control? The Shifting Terrain of Social Media Scholarship
Politics, (Digital) Space and Women
Rejecting Network Thinking
Development of the Project
Interviewee Referencing System
Overview of Book
References
2: Unravelling the Web of Equals
Radical Feminist Theory
Radical Feminism, Race and Class
Transgenderism and Women’s Liberation
Feminism and Technology
Liberal Feminism
Postmodern/Queer Feminism
Radical Feminism
Radical Feminism and Digital Technology
A Fourth Wave?
Social Movement Studies and Women’s Liberation: Wider Problems
Conclusion
References
3: ‘By women, for women, about women’: The Women’s Liberation Movement as a Free Space
Women’s Liberation as a Spatial Phenomenon
The Political Imperative of Women-Only Organising
Communicating Women’s Liberation
Getting Away from Men
Space to Re-imagine Women: Feminist Cultural Creation
Prefiguring Women’s Liberation
Squatting/Co-housing
Political Lesbianism
Conclusion
References
4: ‘On the internet, there is no women-only space’: Male Power in Digital Networks
The Internet as a Male Space
Trolling
Men’s Rights Activism
Sexual Harassment and Technology
Revolutionising Access: Social Media as a Security Threat
Activist Self-Surveillance
Extending Heteropatriarchal Structures
Policing Patriarchal Dissent: Social Media, Transgenderism and Radical Feminism
Platform-Led Intervention
User-Led Intervention
Digitally Policing Women’s Physical Mobility
Attempting Autonomous Digital Organising
Closed/Private Facebook Groups
Anonymity and Pseudonyms
Moderating Content
Conclusion
References
5: ‘I don’t see any strategy really, I see more […] personal venting’: Consciousness-Raising, Theory-Building and Activism in Digital Space
The Politics of Time
The Feedback Loop of the WLM
Feminist Spiralling
Printing Women’s Liberation
Attempting Digital Consciousness-Raising
The Feminist Critique of Therapy
Social Media and Personal Narrative
Digital Expression and Empowerment
The Role of Collective Rage
Immateriality, Temporality and Theory-Building
Individualised Versus Collective Theory-Building
Archiving Digital Feminism
Problems for Feminist Action
Conclusion
References
6: ‘It doesn’t feel as transparent and accountable’: Social Media and Feminist Ethics
Feminist Utopia Is a Contested Vision
Sisterhood Is a Revolutionary Pursuit
Gyn/Affection and Digital Space: The Problem of Weak Ties
Worldlessness Is Politically Dangerous for Women
Trust and Accountability
Personal Life Change and Digital Space
From Physical Presentation to Digital (Re)Presentation
Feminist Ethics
From Prefigurative Forms to a Male Ethic of Engagement
Feminism, Leadership and Hierarchy
The Cult of the Star Blogger
Networked Microcelebrity Activism
Trashing and the ‘No Personal Attacks’ Policy of the WLM
Promoting Combative Behaviour
Surveilling Each Other
The Digital Pile-On
The Closed Facebook Group: From Free Spaces to Safe Spaces
The Facebook Moderator
Conflict Is Integral to Movement-Building
Conclusion
References
7: Female Performers on a Male Stage
Just Another Communication Tool?
Overarching Interviewee Perspectives
Political Lesbianism and Digital Space
A More Difficult Cultural and Political Moment
Rejecting Social Media
Space to Dream: Separatism as Creation
References
Index
