Fangirls, as we know, feminism is a pretty neat thing. And, it’s even cooler people stand up for it and act on it, and get shit done. Now, imagine a bunch of people doing that, online, for certain issues. That’s Networked Feminism. And it’s pretty darn cool. It’s also pretty darn common this day & age. In fact, I just watched it all happen before me eyes about one week ago.
Networked feminism is defined as online mobilization that coordinates feminists in response to sexist acts. It sounds fancy, I suppose, but its something that’s happening all the time. For example, the #YesAllWomen worldwide conversation that happened. That was an act of networked feminism. It was a bunch of feminists rallying together through the internet to globally talk about things that needed to be talked about. And it was awesome. It was also pretty effective in the way that people were really being heard and the topic was coming to light. It was fantastic and empowering to see how many people got involved and shared their thoughts, the tag spread like wild fire. It was a great example showing that networked feminism is not lead by one person or particular group, but that it’s a group effort, with many different people moving something forward.
That all brings me to a very recent event greatly involving networked feminism that blew me away, for many reasons. Sam Pepper, a YouTuber, often posts prank videos. These videos are also often targeted at women. Things like him tricking women into kissing him, and in the most recent debacle, touching women’s butts without permission. The video caused a humongous outrage, and things got very serious, very quickly. After an uproar about the video began, a few women also came forward and admitted to having been assaulted or nearly assaulted by Sam Pepper. For the most part, these women had kept it to themselves, but after so many people were speaking out against Sam, they felt that they would be supported. And they were/are. This networked feminism not only began a very important conversation, it brought about some actual change & consequences for Sam. With all of the talk about the things Sam has done, the companies that support him heard about it all too. He was dropped from future YouTube conventions and events, he lost a corporate sponsorship, and seems to be dropped from the YouTube Partner program. This was all because people in the internet community rallied and spoke out against Sam Pepper and sexual assault. I think that’s pretty fucking rad.
Networked feminism can bring about real change and progressive conversations. It makes the internet even more of a community, one that can really do things. Networked feminism is all around you in your news feeds, on your dashboards, and that delights me. Yay for social media, yay for feminism, and yay for the spectacular things that come out of combining the two.
So go tweet some feelings and kick some ass, Fangirls!
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