Feminist

• Globalisation and the exploitation of women

  • global crime exploits the vulnerable
  • human trafficking
  • social objectification of women, Kilbourne we see 5000 adverts daily
• Fourth wave feminism (2000s)

  • focused on technology as a place for communication
  • new forms of digital communication used as tools that are allowed to build strong voices online
• Haraway (1985) - "A Cyborg Manifesto"

  • women should be included in all technological advances
  • cyborgs will allow people to go beyond gender restrictions in the internet
  • technological advances will allow women to create new forms of identity not bound by dominant patriarchal discourses about gender
• Hughes

  • digital media has intensified the harm women face from sexual exploitation, eg. increased access to porn normalises violence against women
  • greater communications across national borders allows for more sex trafficking
• Kilbourne

  • developments in new media mean that now we see more than 5,000 adverts a day
  • adverts often dehumanise women and justify violence against them
  • present unrealistic beauty standards, benefiting patriarchy and capitalism
• Cochrane

  the internet has allowed a 4th-wave of feminism to develop, allows women to call out patriarchy and reclaim the feminist identity, eg. by protesting about page 3 of The Sun newspaper
• Bates

  • online deviant sub-cultures caused as a result of digital forms of communications, called “incels”
  • “involuntary celibates” that blame women for their lack of success in romantic relationships, promoting misogyny
  • exacerbate misogynistic backlash towards women
• Bates - “everyday sexism project”

  • allows women to share experiences
  • highlights extent of gender inequality that still exists, so change can happen
• the feminist view of digital forms of communication (negative)

  • tech. companies are mainly owned by men although women use social media platforms most
  • social media narrows the social roles of women, eg. porn sites suggest that women’s bodies are more important than their achievements
  • women and children are exploited online, eg. the “dark net”
• Green and Singleton (2009)

  online communities that are most popular with women reinforce the patriarchal notion that women should perform the emotional work of maintaining family relationship, eg. Mumsnet and Facebook