Tweeting Feminists

April 3, 2010

Final feature: Tweeting feminists exploring feminism and social media

After three months of extensive research and interviews, this is the final installment of my Ryerson University School of Journalism final year project exploring feminism and social media.

By Ronak Ghorbani

The online estrogen revolution

Sitting in her backyard in Tampa, FL., Angie Jackson is filming a YouTube video on her laptop. Looking directly into her webcam, she says, “I am having an abortion – right now.” Already the mother of a four-year-old boy, Jackson’s first pregnancy was extremely difficult – she almost died during delivery. When Jackson, 27, found out she was pregnant in February, she automatically knew she wanted an abortion; her method of choice was an RU-486 pill which induces a miscarriage. An avid user of social media websites such as YouTube, Blogger and Twitter, which connect you with people virtually, it felt natural to want to share her abortion experience.

“I’m live Tweeting my abortion on Twitter. Not for some publicity stunt or attention or to justify this with myself, I am at peace with my decision,” continues Jackson. “I’m doing this to demystify abortion so that other women know, hey, it’s not nearly as terrifying as I had myself worked up thinking it was.” To date, the video has had over 149, 371 views on YouTube, a video-sharing website.

Jackson’s use of Twitter really caught mass attention, both positive and negative. Twitter is a website that lets you send 140-typed-character messages known as “Tweets” to people who subscribe to your profile. Jackson started the hashtag #livetweetingabortion which allows users to search and follow all messages mentioning the tag. Within two days of starting her live-Tweets, Jackson had 110 new followers and currently has 2,630. After posting messages such as “Cramping a bit. Feels more squirmy than painful if that makes sense. #livetweetingabortion #notsoscary” Jackson received numerous death threats from people who oppose abortion. She has also gotten an overwhelming amount of support and admiration. “I’ve had women e-mail who have never told anyone about having an abortion before and they literally had them 20 or 30 years ago. They’re not sorry it’s just not safe to talk about socially,” she says. For Jackson, knowing that her online abortion documentation is making positive effects on women makes it all worth while.

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Filed under // #livetweetingabortion angie jackson blog blogosphere facebook fem2 fem2pt0 feminism feminist fatale feministe feministing femisphere fourth wave judy rebick social media the feminist breeder tweeting feminists twitter

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April 3, 2010

Podcast: Tweeting Feminists Episode 5 featuring pioneer Canadian feminist/social justice activist Judy Rebick

By: Ronak Ghorbani

Judy Rebick is a pioneer Canadian feminist, author of Ten Thousands Roses (a history of Canadian feminism), former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and the current CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University in Toronto among other things. In this episode Judy talks about social media has changed feminism and how all political movements can learn from the No Prorogue Rallies organized through Facebook.

Music feature on this episode is Defiance Ohio with "Oh, Susquehanna" check them out at: defianceohio.terrorware.com

(Photo of Judy Rebick provided by transformingpower.ca)

Filed under // CAW National Action Committee on the Status of Women defiance ohio fem2 fem2pt0 feminism judy rebick no prorogue oh susquehanna ryerosn university social justice social media ten thousand roses transforming power

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April 3, 2010

Podcast: Tweeting Feminists Episode 4 featuring First Nations activist/feminist Jessica Yee

By Ronak Ghorbani

Tweeting Feminists is a podcast about feminism and social media.

Jessica Yee is the founder and executive director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network. Jessica also writes for Racalicious, a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture and the blog for Bitch Magazine, the feminist response to pop culture. On this episode Jessica talks about the problems with mainstream feminism and shares her opinions on feminism and the web.

Music featured on this episode is Best Friends Forever with "Circus Song" provided by If You Make It.

(Photo of Jessica provided by racalicious.com)

Filed under // activism best friends forever bitch magazine circus song feminism first nations if you make it jessica yee native youth sexual health network racaliciou

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April 3, 2010

Podcast: Tweeting Feminists Episode 3 featuring Gina Crosley-Corcoran The Feminist Breeder

By Ronak Ghorbani

Tweeting Feminists is a podcast about feminism and social media.

Gina Crosley-Corcoran is a law student, mother and feminist blogger. She runs The Feminist Breeder a blog dedicated to feminist moms. On this episode, Gina talks about feminism and motherhood and why she uses her blog to fight for the right to breastfeed in public and highlights the injustices of having forced C-sections.

Music featured on today's episode is Witches with their track "The Center" provided by If You Make It.

(Photo provided by thefeministbreeder.com)

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April 3, 2010

Podcast: Tweeting Feminists Episode 2 featuring Melanie Klein the Feminist Fatale

By Ronak Ghorbani

Tweeting Feminists is a podcast about feminism and social media.

With a flare for pop culture and an academic background, Melanie Klein started her blog Feminist Fatale. The women’s studies professor from Santa Monica College loves Twitter and social media. In today’s episode Melanie talks about her blog and how the web is changing feminism.

Music featured on today's episode is Noun with her song "Holy Hell" provided by If You Make It.

(Photo of Melanie provided by feministfatale.com)

Filed under // blogosphere feminism feminist fatale podcast tweeting feminists

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April 3, 2010

Podcast: Tweeting Feminists Episode 1 Girl Driving with Nona Willi Aronowitz

By Ronak Ghorbani

Tweeting Feminists is a podcast about feminism and social media.

On this episode I chat with Nona Willis Aronowitz, co-author of Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism. In the book, Nona and co-author Emma Bee Bernstein profile over 127 women and ask how they think and feel about feminism. The end result is over 200 pages of dinstictly different voices trying to grapple with what feminism is. In this podcast, Nona talks about girl-drive.com, the importance of including every day women in the feminist-blogosphere dialogue and shares her views on feminism and social media.

Music featured on this episode is the Screaming Females with their track “Bell” provided by the Free Music Archive

(Photo of Nona provided by girl-drive.com)

Filed under // bells blog blogosphere feminism feminists free music archive girl drive nona willis aronowitz podcast screaming females tweeting feminists twitter

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April 3, 2010

Multimedia: Toronto's International Women's Day rally and video chat with Emily Heroy of Gender Across Borders

By Ronak Ghorbani

Gender Across Borders is a global feminist blogs with contributors from across the world. Their focus is on international politics and critically discuss things like gender, race, sexuality, and class. In this video chat, GAB Executive Editor Emily Heroy and I talk about the impact of social media on feminism.

IWD coverage

International Women's Day is a chance to celebrate women's achievements and recognize the struggles locally and globally that still continue. IWD has a long history and internationalwomensday.com has a great timeline of its beginning till now.

Toronto's IWD festivities took place on March 6. Here are some photos and clips from the live stream I did.

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Filed under // IWD fem2 fem2pt0 feminism international women's day rally

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April 3, 2010

Multimedia: The Fabulous Future of Feminism

By Ronak Ghorbani

Inspired by Tyra Banks and Maury-like talk shows, on March 11, Jessica Yee, a First Nations rights activist/feminist hosted, "The Fabulous Future of Feminism" at Ryerson University with a panel of community-feminist workers. Members of the Miss G_ Project (which is working on getting women's and gender studies into Ontario high schools) and the YWCA Girls's Council were part of the panel.

As part of my project on feminism and social media, I live-streamed the event and took the chance to ask the panel about their views of feminist blogs. Here is a brief transcript of their answers but if you would like to hear it for yourself, fast forward the video to 01:07:03

Ronak:

In light of my research about social media and feminism I’m going to take this chance to ask the panelists: I just want to know what are your opinions about feminist blogs? Do you read them are they inclusive enough?

Jessica Yee (Executive Director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network):

I think that blogging is problematic because I still think that it only speaks to one audience, the same audience. But the good thing about blogging I think not a lot of people talk about is that often people who read blogs or write blogs are people who do have privilege to do something. I know that the stuff I’m writing about particularly in my community people may in my own community may not read it ever. But if people who are reading are those who have the power and the privilege to do something about it and also are, they can decide if they are going to do I think that’s a huge benefit to it

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Filed under // YWCA fem2 fem2pt0 feminism future jessica yee miss g_ project

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April 3, 2010

Multimedia: Interview with social media columnist Rea Mcnamara

By Ronak Ghorbani

To get a better general understanding of social media, I met up with Rea Mcnamara on March 7 at Espresso Mi Vida, a cafe in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood. In this interview clip Rea talks about Chatroulette and cyberactivism. Be sure to check out her column Socialite on Metro.

(Photo by Ronak Ghorbani)

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April 3, 2010

Multimedia: 5th annual rally for missing/murdered indigenous women

By: Ronak Ghorbani

On February 14, several hundred people gathered together at Toronto's police headquarters for the 5th annual rally for the over 500 missing/murdered indigenous women in Canada.

Here are some photos and a video from the event. The sillhoutte cut outs represent the missing/murdered women.