The New Wave of Feminism Emerging Through Blogs
With phone addictions rising, the internet has become the best way to reach a large audience. Through the creation of feminist blogs, the movement has expanded across the nation, gathering more followers now than ever. While spending a week following the blogs Human Rights Campaign, a site dedicated to achieving basic human rights for all, and Jezebel, a feminist and over-all liberal leaning news site, I found overarching themes coming from both blogs. With discourse of intersectionality and abortion, it is clear that feminism is slowly turning to its next wave of inclusive ideas, which can create for a more intersectional movement.
A compelling article by Violet Lhant from the Human Rights Campaign news site covers the death of London Price, a 26-year-old transgender woman who was shot on October 23, 2023. This article covers statistics which show that this was the second killing of a transgender person in Florida that week, the 5threported in October, and 25th this year. The site also has articles which slander the name of Ron DeSantis, the republican governor of Florida who has taken it upon himself to strip transgender and queer people of rights. Other articles of this site cover similar ideas of intersectionality in violence against women. What this is showing is a manner of inclusion that reveals a diverse staff of writers for the site. With a rise in trans genocide and the continuing of violence against Black Americans, it is important that feminists look at the intersectionality of their movement and this site represents a step in that direction.
On the site Jezebel, there is a wide variety of media, but the most recent articles have dealt with abortion rights and resources. One of the articles, written by journalist Susan Rinkunas, spoke about the government in Ohio cancelling almost 27,000 registrations of inactive voters, which therefore would move to silence people on their rights to vote on abortion. The deadline to vote for this is, of course, on November 7th, therefore leaving those voters with no way to get another registration in time. Other articles with information on contraceptives have also been published as a way to spread awareness and give resources to women. As an expansion on this theme, this site has many news articles published slandering republican politicians. One sarcastic article, by a journalist named Kylie Cheung, was even titled, “Jesus finally told Mike Pence to drop out.” Some other themes I found on this site had to do with pop culture moments, particularly in women’s music, such as Beyonce and Britney Spears. The pop culture articles almost bedazzle the website, creating a place where women can enjoy both themselves and find articles on both setbacks and improvements in the world of feminism.
When looking at these two sites side by side, there are new themes that are becoming apparent in the recent years of feminism. Abortion has been the number one issue on many feminists’ minds since the overturn of Roe V. Wade, which stripped women of rights across the nation. It is also notable that transgender rights are consistently being debated throughout the nation and, especially in Florida, are always being taken away. And, with constant rises in the genocide of African Americans, the movements of LGBTQ+, anti-racism, and feminism have been crossing over now more than ever.
As America loses large amounts of the progress transgender, queer, black, and female citizens have long fought for--such as reproductive rights and safety in school--it is important that this next wave of feminism bands together with other movements to create intersectionality. This intersectional movement can be used to amplify the voices fighting for human rights. Doing this would result in a movement where we can educate each other, which makes for a well-rounded means to progress. Taking the blogs, for example, it would be much better if blogs covered widespread ideas of both abortion rights and intersectionality as well as other aspects of feminism, instead of having separate blogs for both. In my personal life, now that I have done research on feminist blogs, I now know to have a well-rounded media diet and explore other blogs rather than simply follow one. The rest of society, especially those in charge of passing bills for human rights, can take this advice as well, with the hopes that one day everyone will be viewed as equal.
Honoring London Price, A Black Trans Women Who would “Give you the Shirt Off Her Back,” Violet Lhant, Human Rights Campaign, https://www.hrc.org/our-work, October 2023
"Ohio Quietly Purges 27,000 Voters From Rolls Ahead of Abortion Vote,” Susan Rinkunas, Jezebel, G/O Media https://jezebel.com, October 2023
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