'Filling the Gaps' - the 'calling out' culture and feminist blogs
You have a right to be respected in feminist spaces, but you do not have the right to constant and full validation. It is not the job of any blogger to cater fully and comprehensively to your particular interests and perspectives. It is not their job to represent Feminism exactly as you want it represented; it is not their job to do Feminism exactly as you want it done.
This post up at Feministe today sums up a lot of what I've been feeling in recent months and, I think, has a lot of important stuff to say/food for thought about the way we blog and 'do' activism.
Jill starts off by talking about how feminist blogging has changed since 2003, when she started doing it. She goes on to say:
But in other ways, online feminism is worse for wear. Part of that is what Florence is talking about above - blogs, and especially the “big blogs,” are perceived as institutions rather than collectives of people writing about something they’re interested in when they have time, in order to facilitate a conversation among like-minded people. With the perception of institutionalization comes expectations - that a blog will not only cover about what you think it should cover, but will also cover it in the way you think is most appropriate, using the words you think are the best. Which isn’t totally unfair, but which segues from potentially productive into poisonous when the method of conveying those expectations is Calling Out.
I’m as guilty as anyone else when it comes to partaking in feminist Call-Out Culture. Calling Out, I think, is part of any activist’s growing pains. We all want to do right. We all feel like we’re doing more right than some other people who we perceive as having more power (or influence or airtime) than we have. We all want to be a good _____: feminist, ally, woman, activist. Part of that, if you love an idea (and I think most of us do love the idea of feminism, even if we don’t always love how it plays out in real life), is saying something when you see someone else Doing It Wrong. There should be space for that. We should keep each other in check; we should all want to be better.
But in the feminist blogosphere, “calling out” has increasingly turned into cannibalism. It’s increasingly turned into a stand-in for actual activism. We have increasingly focused on shutting down voices rather than raising each other up. Pointing at the gap has replaced doing the hard, often thankless work of filling it.
Jill discusses the way writers on 'big' blogs are given a hard time, the way that the culture of call-outs, feuds and obsession with privilege shuts people out and puts them off participating.
This is not particularly effective activism. I’m not suggesting that we don’t hold each other accountable, or that we never critique other feminists. But I do think it’s high past time we stopped thinking of call-outs and privilege-owning as the best way to do activism online. That enables lots of individual back-patting, which is fine, but it’s also a recipe for a totally useless and ultimately self-defeating movement.
What are your thoughts?
This post up at Feministe today sums up a lot of what I've been feeling in recent months and, I think, has a lot of important stuff to say/food for thought about the way we blog and 'do' activism.
Jill starts off by talking about how feminist blogging has changed since 2003, when she started doing it. She goes on to say:
But in other ways, online feminism is worse for wear. Part of that is what Florence is talking about above - blogs, and especially the “big blogs,” are perceived as institutions rather than collectives of people writing about something they’re interested in when they have time, in order to facilitate a conversation among like-minded people. With the perception of institutionalization comes expectations - that a blog will not only cover about what you think it should cover, but will also cover it in the way you think is most appropriate, using the words you think are the best. Which isn’t totally unfair, but which segues from potentially productive into poisonous when the method of conveying those expectations is Calling Out.
I’m as guilty as anyone else when it comes to partaking in feminist Call-Out Culture. Calling Out, I think, is part of any activist’s growing pains. We all want to do right. We all feel like we’re doing more right than some other people who we perceive as having more power (or influence or airtime) than we have. We all want to be a good _____: feminist, ally, woman, activist. Part of that, if you love an idea (and I think most of us do love the idea of feminism, even if we don’t always love how it plays out in real life), is saying something when you see someone else Doing It Wrong. There should be space for that. We should keep each other in check; we should all want to be better.
But in the feminist blogosphere, “calling out” has increasingly turned into cannibalism. It’s increasingly turned into a stand-in for actual activism. We have increasingly focused on shutting down voices rather than raising each other up. Pointing at the gap has replaced doing the hard, often thankless work of filling it.
Jill discusses the way writers on 'big' blogs are given a hard time, the way that the culture of call-outs, feuds and obsession with privilege shuts people out and puts them off participating.
This is not particularly effective activism. I’m not suggesting that we don’t hold each other accountable, or that we never critique other feminists. But I do think it’s high past time we stopped thinking of call-outs and privilege-owning as the best way to do activism online. That enables lots of individual back-patting, which is fine, but it’s also a recipe for a totally useless and ultimately self-defeating movement.
What are your thoughts?