Mary Cagle
Feministe
In 2001, Lauren Bruce founded Feministe as her personal blog to use in exploring feminist theory. Since then, Feminste has grown into a network of about five main authors and many guest bloggers. Feministe features a broad range of topics in order to “foster a dynamic, robust, progressive and inclusive feminist community,” according to the mission statement. This blog reaches a large audience; the twitter account @feministe has 23.7K followers, but they did not gain a following by taking the easy way. Many Feministe posts thoroughly examine events and people and the way they affect women around the world, and they are not always nice. Even their tagline, “In defense of the sanctimonious women’s studies set,” is a sarcastic response to a male blogger dismissing feminism. Along with the regular posts, Feministe has threads engaging their audience like, “shameless self-promotion Sunday” where the blog followers can post their own stories, “signal-bosting” threads where bloggers can post links and share other articles, and “spillover” threads for more discussion on a certain topic in the comments section.
The latest post, a response to the report on Rolling Stone’s handling of the University of Virginia rape story, was very eye opening and provided a different perspective. In November, Rolling Stone released a story about a rape on the UVA campus. The victim, called Jackie, wished to remain anonymous and also did not release the name of her rapist. However, she did name the fraternity of her accused rapist, the faculty members she spoke to, and three friends she confided in the night of the rape. The article was later retracted, which was the beginning of a social media and press storm. After the official report on the magazine’s handling of the story, the feministe response used critical facts to present a clear argument and form an essay that also disproves the stereotype that blogs are merely unsubstantiated opinions. Rolling Stone’s editors and the author of the article, Sabrina Erdely, claimed their main fault “was to be too accommodating of Jackie.” When I first read this I disagreed because I thought their main fault was a complete lack of investigative journalism, but I didn’t realize the impact this article could have until reading feministe’s response. Erdely wouldn’t re-traumatize Jackie by talking to her three friends or colleagues at the aquatic center where she and her alleged rapist were both lifeguards; any competent journalist would’ve reached out to them. Also, Erdely uncovered other cases of rape and even interviewed a student who successfully pursued a claim through the school’s administration but did not mention these in the article. She never sought out key witnesses and purposely withheld past cases because they didn’t fit into her dramatic story and shed a positive light on the UVA administration. Erdely rushed to publish her almost fictional article and not one editor or staff member at Rolling Stone stopped her. This article, however, will be much more than a prime example of journalistic failure; it will now provide a convenient excuse to question victims. In Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti named a few common victim-blaming techniques like questioning if she was impaired, has a sexual history, or wore a provocative outfit. If a rape accusation can be called into question simply because a woman wore a short skirt or had a drink, the last thing she needs is a reason for someone to believe she would just be lying. Even though the rate of false rape accusations is estimated to be between 2 and 8%...what about that Rolling Stone thing?
In another post, the author outlined and examined a Seasalt & Co. advertisement involving lynching. Seasalt & Company, a design and photo shop, posted the black and white photo of a noose hanging from a tree to advertise a new photoshop action pack. The advertisement was obviously a desperate attempt at the wow factor, and the blowback might have been exactly what they intended. Their “apology” made it obvious that they were clinging to their civil rights and freedoms of the “art” rather than making any effort to listen to their consumers. This position is what gained them a few followers and supporters. This is the most convenient excuse, because obviously they do have the right to post that picture and that fact cannot be denied. As a business, however, they depend on customers for revenue so Seasalt & Co. is open to public scrutiny when their ads feature a noose. No one is trying to take away their American rights; their consumers are simply appalled that any company would use such hateful messages. In Black Girl Dangerous, Mia McKenzie listed eight ways not to be an ally, or “white people who claim to be anti-racist, non-disabled folks who claim to be invested in challenging ableist norms.” This situation is a perfect example of number two, “make everything about your feelings,” because Seasalt & Co. was more worried about defending themselves once someone called them out on their racism, they didn’t even listen to the other side of the argument. They barely ever fully denied the obvious racial symbolism, but decided to continue arguing civil rights violations. To use such a symbolically discriminating image as an advertisement posted on facebook, advertising something completely unrelated to everything the image stands for, is simply demeaning to the victims and African Americans. As McKenzie sarcastically put it, “slavery was over 140 years ago! Get over it!” In the end the ad was just a tool to get the wow factor and probably didn’t represent the company’s message in any way.
These are just a couple examples of the broad range of topics Feministe covers. Along with the variety of material, Feministe is almost paradoxical throughout the informal, yet intelligent articles. They most likely reach a large audience because of their humorous, conversational tone in posts that discuss violence, oppression, race, and many other unfortunate topics. The tone, however, does not take away from the authors’ intelligence. Every article provides factual evidence to support a clear argument, and uses the tone to relate to the audience and present the argument in a way that isn’t scary. Also, the authors connect with readers through their self-promotion and discussion threads to listen to their readers’ opinions on the topics. Feministe is more than a blog, it is a growing network of feminists discussing and bringing awareness to important issues.

Works Cited
Caperton. “Seasalt & Co. advertises Photoshop tools using lynching imagery and it only gets more offensive from there.” Feministe. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

Caperton. “The report is out on Rolling Stone’s handling of the UVA rape case is out, and it’s understandably awful.” Feministe. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

McKenzie, Mia. Black Girl Dangerous: On Race, Queerness, Class and Gender. N.p.: Black Girl Dangerous, 2014. Print.

Valenti, Jessica. Full Frontal Feminism. Berkeley: Seal Press, 2014. Print.