feminist blogosphere
i'm not sure how i want to start this blog. but thanks to stumble upon, the surprisingly entertaining roam the internet toolbar, i have come across a website entirely dedicated to mitch hedberg. if you are not familiar with stumble upon or mitch hedberg, then do yourself a favor and spend less time in the real world. the internet is where you belong. and to the hope seekers, yogurt lovers or mitch aficionados, "i opened-up a yogurt, underneath the lid it said, 'please try again.' because they were having a contest that i was unaware of. i thought maybe i opened the yogurt wrong... or maybe yoplait was trying to inspire me... 'come on mitchell, don't give up!" an inspirational message from your friends at yoplait, fruit on the bottom, hope on the top."and that is how i decided to start my blog. thank you stumble upon and mitch hedberg. but now down to business:(1) please welcome a special guest reader to my blog, the professor from my women in literature course. please note that i do not capitalize in my blogs. something i'm thinking you might want to know for ghits and siggles.(2) this blog is going to be a bit different than my other blogs, redgage. i don't necessarily get to go off too far on a tangent (which is usually what i really like to do). i've been asked to write a "blogosphere response assignment" for part of my women in literature course. the assignment asks me to take a look at two blogs (feminist blogs) and then answer a few questions which, get this, GAUGE my response about those blogs. look at that redgage, a lil' drop of the ol' product/homework placement. (3) the questions that the assignment ask are as follows: (a) what do these blogs teach you about the current state of feminism(s) in the US? (b) what stood out to you and why? and finally (c) why do you think discussions of feminism and women's place in society are flourishing on the web? i think my favorite part about this assignment is that i get to write my response in a blog. just my luck, of course. i have to wait till the end of my time at college to get an assignment where i can actually blog my assignment. okay, back to business. the two blogs i decided to write about are bitchphd.blogspot.com/ and angryblackbitch.blogspot.com/. just happens to be a coincidence that they both mention bitch.let's start with Bitch Ph.D.bitch ph.d. is a blog that is ran by 4 different individuals, all of whom are supposed to be feminists and leftists. the blog is basically about addressing anything and everything in the lives of these four individuals. one blog, for example, focuses on the recent events of homeless people constantly riding the train in chicago. this particular post has nothing to do with feminist culture or anything about feminist movements. to be honest, it's basically about the shit nature of individuals who want to throw these people out into the cold and freeze to death. i think we can all agree, feminist or not, that freezing your ass off is not gender specific (although some asses are better than others...or so they say.) i guess this post about the homeless people helps me answer the first part of the blogosphere assignment. for starters, the current state of feminism(s) in the US is not really mentioned so much in these newer posts. yes, there is mention of hilary clinton, but i really couldn't care less who obama picks for his secretary of state. obama could pick ronald mcdonald for all i care, so long as he can make good on his promises to this country. in part, this website really focuses on just getting information out the readers. the current state of feminism, gathered from this blog, is not necessarily all about politics, but also about human life in general. as for the second part of the question (what stood out to me and why?) i would have to first comment on the picture for the banner of the blog. apparently the creator of the blog found the picture randomly one day and had no idea where she got it from. eventually a member of the blog asked where she got the picture and she eventually got her answer. the banner was taken from a picture of a man's two daughters which he had given to his sister to put up in a restaurant. this picture is hilarious for two reasons. one, the girl has the stubbiest bird flickin' finger i have ever seen. shit, she even has the oomf factor to go with the finger. she is already a pro at such an early age. secondly, the other sister's jaw dropped face really looks like she is in awe. i saw a lot of my bizarre wackiness from my siblings in my day, but i never jaw dropped like this for a flick of the finger. this expression from the other sister can only mean that she is utterly shocked at the flickin' of the finger. my second comment is on the blog for first time readers. there is a whole spiel about deleting comments if they make fun of other people, or if they call people idiots, or if they are idiots themselves, and i just found this request to be unnecessary. i think the best part about blogging is to see what kind of bologna people will put onto your blog sandwich. this is a turkey sandwich, bitch! i think protecting yourself in written banter is part of the allure of posting in the internet. i can understand if the conversation gets out of hand, but having idiots post on a blog is usually what you need. you never know when an idiot is going to say something just stupid enough to make sense. i'm all for continuing the conversation and having intellectual arguments, but sadly the world is not full of total intellectuals or savy communicators. you can't protect people from the kind of ignorance they may one day face in the outside world. however, you may be able to better prepare them how to deal with that ignorance. so let the idiots in. they can only hurt you if you let them. lastly, i think discussions of feminism and the women's place in society are flourishing on the web because of anonymity. while some of us are very open with our conversations, opinions or ideals, others may not be so open to discussing some powerful ideas they may have. there is a lot less risk in posting on a blog, or posting on a discussion board. women or men who are afraid of being hunted down for their ideas can find refuge in the cool confides of the blogosphere. i, for one, am thankful for the many avenues of discussion open for the general public. i'm glad to know that somewhere out there, somebody is at least writing down what they think is the right thing to blog about. whether they are right or wrong is not the issue. no, instead we have bloggers from all across the world. you can go to bed a lonely introvert and wake up a juggernaut of expression. next up is AngryBlackBitch.
angryblackbitch is a blog ran by...well, one angry black bitch. as the blog subtitle says, it is about practicing the fine art of bitchitude. right off the bat, the picture of the little dog saying 'fuck you' to the big dog is hilarious. i think adding captions to open ended humorous pictures is also a surprising fad of the internet. this blog is basically about taking suggestions for topics to write about, things that are bothering the blogger, and basically a place to make some money for being truthful and downright bitchy. the one thing i do not see is a definition for bitchy or what a bitch is to this angry black bitch. in fact, i could see this angry black bitch being an aunt of mine, or maybe a friend of mine. this woman writes like she doesn't give a hell if people call her a bitch for her comments. shit, that is the purpose of the blog, you could say. most of the blogs, like most blogs today, focus on the political side of conversations. some days, like april 28th, 2005 is about giving up smoking. each blog i think mentions, 'a bitch does this' or a 'bitch said that' or really anything that implies that the opinions expressed are the opinions of an angry black bitch. i wasn't expecting to find this blog on the approved blog list for the assignment, but to my surprise here i am writing about an angry black bitch. to answer the first part of the assignment, i think this blog represents feminism in the empowering sense. as we were talking about in our class discussion about the waves of feminism (sorry redgager's, you missed out on this discussion) i find that this blogger focuses on the strong movement away from 2nd wave feminism into a very pro-active 3rd wave feminism. what i mean by that is that she definitely wants to get away from the stereotypical feminist viewpoint of 2nd wave feminism (white feminism and social constraints) and move into this empowering 3rd wave feminism (minority feminism and a strong women's voice). the point in this blog is not to be a joke, however; at least not entirely. there is a sense of getting to the bottom line of issues and what really makes her mad and why her opinion is one that should be taken seriously. i think the angry black bitch part is just the general term individuals would try and place on the opinions of this blogger. can't you hear it now, "why should we listen to this angry black bitch? she is just angry, black, and a bitch!" but that's not what she is. she is going above this stereotype of her responses and moving towards sound arguments. now don't get me wrong, i'm not saying every post is on a higher level of thinking, but they do make notice of humanitarianism and ethical boundaries. i think the parts that stood out to me the most about this blog is the way she really incorporates the theme of the blog into every blog posting. she doesn't go off on tangents in every blog. she doesn't start the blogs with mitch hedberg quotes (her loss) and she doesn't have to worry about offending people. she will offend people. that's part of the allure of this website. i think even feminists would get offended by this type of proclamation of feminist thoughts. and as i mentioned before, i think discussions of feminism and the women's place in society are flourishing because of this ability to take on stereotypical roles or limitless situations. the web allows you take a different identity and not be considered schizophrenic in the outside world. if you talk to yourself in the blog, then that is part of your blog personality. this ability to take on a character who knows exactly what they want to say is empowering to anybody who may not be used to that type of life in the outside world. you don't have to be a rich millionaire to make your voice heard on the web. shit, you can just be an angry black bitch and people will read what you have to say. well, professor, that concludes the response assignment. thank you for checking into my blog. i can't say that all my other blogs will be as promising to your eyes, but they are nonetheless more of my outspoken voice. i wanted to thank you for assigning this type of assignment. maybe one day you'll be assigning another assignment that focuses on blogs about the evil nature of bhaer from little women. (an inside joke from the class redgage. again, sorry you missed it.)-until next time.
