Small Acts of Social Media Feminism

Act 1: Anger

I'd never thought of anger as a feminist topic, but as the Guilty Feminist co-hosts and their guest discussed their experiences being angry while female (Episode 14, see my previous post), I understood.  It was impossible to listen to Deborah Francis-White's moving monologue expressing her anger following the Brexit vote without being inspired to execute my own feminist anger proclamation.

After spending weeks fuming about the misogyny erupting everywhere in response to the new Ghostbusters movie, I decided to go there and make a public statement about my anger.  I almost qualified my Facebook post to say I was "sad" or "disappointed," but no.  I was angry and I said so:

 

Act 2: The Mansplainer

A few weeks later, the ladies over at The Guilty Feminist were discussing Speech (Episode 18).  Their experiences with mansplaining and society's complete disregard for female perspectives was damning.  That episode was quickly followed by their Internet episode (Episode 19) in which Deborah Francis-White politely but firmly engaged with an online troll.

Then this little gem popped into my Facebook feed:

Witnessing this display of male privilege, motivated by my latent Ghostbusters anger, and inspired by the ladies at The Guilty Feminist, I felt compelled to challenge his statement with some speech of my own (politely of course).   I went with an innocuous question expressing concern, to which he responded:

As you can see, I thought his argument was absurd and I politely made my perspective clear.  While he didn't respond, his fiancee later commented:

Female speech accomplished!

Act 3: Victory

Undeterred by my compelling feats of social media feminism, the entitled mansplainer struck again a few days later:

This made me so angry.  What did she ever do to him?  Act in a popular TV show that wasn't made for him?!  I had to say something but couldn't find the right angle.  Eventually I remembered a great article by the blog FiveThirtyEight demonstrating that while women don't generally write negative reviews for media aimed at men (Sportscenter, Halo: Nightfall), many men seem compelled to write negative reviews for media aimed at women (Sex and the City, anything on the CW).  The title says it all so I thought I'd share:

I was so proud of myself I was practically prancing around the house in all my feminist glory.  Then he wrote back and I sorta panicked.  When I finally summoned the courage to read his reply, I saw:

VICTORY!!!!!!

Why You Should Follow the National Women's History Museum

Somehow or other I came to follow the National Women's History Museum on Facebook.  I think it is one of the best social media decisions I have ever made.

The National Women's History Museum, which currently only exists online--- they are raising funds and support in order to build a physical space--- posts regularly about numerous and diverse women throughout (mostly) American history.  I love stumbling upon these fascinating people as I scroll through my news feed.  Sometimes the women they feature come from the recent past (1970s and onward), or even from current news and events, and other times they post about women from the early years of this country.  The women come from all walks of life, races, classes, and ages.  They recently featured an 11 year-old (Samantha Reed Smith)!

Through the NWHM I have learned about women like:

• Amanda Theodosia James - who lived in the 1800s, patented several canning techniques, and owned and ran her own canning and preserving business--- that only hired women!
• Dr. Kazue Togasaki - a Japanese American doctor and one of the few physicians allowed to practice medicine during the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII
• Nannie Helen Burroughs - an African-American activist who in 1909 founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. to provide schooling for black students in the segregated south