Blogging and vulnerability

I read with interest the post "“The Vulnerable Video Blogger: Promoting Social Change through Intimacy,” which is a brilliant use of video activism. I picked up on the word "vulnerability" and in particular Rox's decision to wear a bikini on her video whilst discussing serious issues. The point I want to raise here is the "risk" and "vulnerability" element when we as bloggers (using, text, audio or video) expose our intimate selves particularly those of us who do not blog anonymously (admittedly at least in my case,a choice I freely made). I recently chose to write a piece on violence against women (VAW) on my blog. Initially I wanted to simply link to another blog that was created solely to highlight VAW called VAW: Do Something. Somehow or other (I am not sure how) I ended up drawn into revealing my own experience of domestic and sexual violence. I believed it was important as the blog VAW: Do Something, challenged us all to speak out. I could not ask or expect others to speak out unless I too spoke out. But in doing so I felt extremely vulnerable. Somewhere deep inside a series of very disturbing unpleasant feelings of having exposed myself to the point of stripping naked in front of the whole world. In short I almost feel as if I violated myself in revealing my own experiences and worse because these experiences have not been acknowledged.

So how far do we as blogging feminists and activists go? How much of a tight rope do we walk before we fall off and when we land who is there but ourselves to pick up the emotional pieces. Blogging is very much a solo activity - we may have partners, family, friends who support us in our daily non blogging or even blogging lives. But it in cases like this - it is really only the blogging community that can really understand landing on your head and ending up with an almighty headache that wont go away very easily.

On the other hand the point of the post was to speak out against the silence and normalisation that exists around VAW - but the point is if we as women are going to do this then we need to have the support of the community of feminists - women and men behind us because otherwise we end up in a place of self made violation which is not where any of us want to be.

Women's voices are louder online

In the final article of the section, “Blogging Was Just the Beginning: Women's Voices are Louder Online,” Chris Nolan argues that instead of becoming fixated on the "where are the women" discussions, women should look forward, focusing on how women's voices can contribute to public discourse by taking advantage of new technology. Nolan issues a call to action for "women who really care about politics and public discourse" to support Web sites and other online efforts that speak to women's needs better than mainstream, male-dominated media outlets.

Pseudonymity and the where are the women debate

In the second article in Part II, “Where are the Women?: Pseudonymity and the Public Sphere, Then and Now,”
Tedra Osell uses survey findings to explore the differences between men and women’s choices to blog pseudonymously. Osell traces the historic roots of women and pseudonymous writing, asking whether the contemporary perception that men dominate the blogosphere might stem from "…this question of pseudonymity… perhaps part of the gap between reality and perception comes from women hiding in plain sight."

Where are the women?

Today we will be posting from Part II of Blogging Feminism: (Web)Sites of Resistance, Women and Politics in the Blogosphere, which focus on an important and ongoing discussion on women’s participation in the blogosphere, popularly known as the “where are the women?” conversations.

Clancy Ratliff, in “Attracting Readers: Sex and Audience in the Blogosphere,” examines both the ways that female bloggers choose (or not) to make their gender known and how some women bloggers choose to use elements of femininity in performative ways via the blogosphere. Ultimately, Ratliff argues that “bloggers’ fixation on the element of sex in the ‘Where are the women?’ discussions shows that gender is a difference that cannot be set aside,” but one which “affects weblog conversations before they even begin.”

Stay tuned for excerpts from two more articles in Part II, Women and Politics in the Blogosphere...

Welcome!