As most Tumblr users can attest to, social justice bloggers and their ideas have a strongly felt presence in the Tumblr community. It is very difficult to surf through content without finding something pertaining to feminism, LBGT* rights, privilege, racism, etc… if you do not explicitly attempt to block it from your feed. I would argue, that the presence of this content is extremely beneficial to the community as a whole, as it forces awareness and engagement with the ideas to the general Tumblr public. That being said, I would by lying if I did not confess to occasional frustration. In the words of a friend: “Sometimes you want to use your Tumblr relax and look at GIF sets. Maybe I don’t wanna know about the latest injustice inflicted upon all of gay and womankind!” However, this occasional frustration has rarely ever manifested itself in an attack on social justice as a whole.
I’ve recently become acquainted with four blogs that identify as antifeminism/social justice: http://youdontneedfeminism.tumblr.com, http://dontneedfeminism.tumblr.com and http://why-we-dont-need-feminism.tumblr.com and http://ughsocialjustice.tumblr.com. These blogs discomfort me as a self-identifying “feminist/social justice pursuer”, but I think taking a brief look at these blogs and applying my theories of “constructive Internet usage for change” and the “six theory of change pitfalls” can prove useful to pro-feminist and pro-social justice communities. I consider these four blogs important examples of what strategies to avoid when using blogs to foster change.
- http://youdontneedfeminism.tumblr.com
This blog describes itself as a response to the blog/movement “Who Needs Feminism”. The content of the blog consist of comments sent in by others, to which the blogger responds. The tone of the responses is generally aggressive and inflammatory.
If we apply the six pitfalls of change theory to this blog, it becomes very clear that this blog is not effective at creating the change it is aiming to make. The blog defines its goal vaguely, at best. It is not clear whether or not the author is against the idea of feminism, critical of the behavior of self-described feminists or something else entirely. The invective language is not conducive to creating a constructive dialogue. The only dialogue I can find on this blog consists of short and aggressive “comment wars” and brief “I like what you are doing, aren’t other people stupid” comments. This blog to me is the antithesis of a functional blog as a whole. There is no clear goal to be achieved, the behavior engaged by the blogger is repellant to audiences, discourages engagement and is unlikely to convince anyone to join their argument. As a self-described social justice pursuer and feminist, it is somewhat of a relief to see that blogs against what I am hoping to promote utilizing less-than-effective measures to combat effective pro-feminist/social justice blogs.
2. http://dontneedfeminism.tumblr.com
Like the previous blog, there seems be little in terms of as “mission statement” beyond discrediting and criticizing feminism. However, this blog is more apt to use articles and calmer rhetoric when engaging with followers. Although I strongly disagree with the content of the blog, I would say this is a more well thought out and more successfully constructed blog. The author has certainly amassed research to lend credibility to what they say and uses it to “prove” their point, although most would consider it a malproductive goal. I notice a trend that self-described anti-feminist blog(gers) making the claim that they are responding to aggression from feminists. I wonder why these blogs take it upon themselves to try and discredit the entirety of the philosophy, rather than just refrain from involvement or criticize these “offensive” feminists. Especially considering how many of these bloggers claim to support “egalitarianism” and equality amongst people. It seems like a great deal of effort is being spent on a fruitless criticism.
3. http://why-we-dont-need-feminism.tumblr.com
This is the evil-twin of Who Needs Feminism. The blog consists of comments posted by followers/audience about “Why I Don’t Need Feminism”. An interesting thing to note, is that lack of human faces and identities attached to the comments. Unlike Who Needs Feminism, the blog does not require an individual’s full identity to be committed to their words, which I think is a severe detriment to the lasting-power of the comments. The comments as a whole are generally regressive, support victim blaming and fail to account for the greater inequalities that typically face women and gender/sexual minorities. The blogs content is overtly negative and rife with unsubstantiated criticisms, which is completely unproductive. If there is anything to learn from this blog, it’s that creating a platform for people to anonymously insult anything is unlikely to produce dialogue. Much less anything constructive and informative.
4. http://ughsocialjustice.tumblr.com
This blog is critical of the entire spectrum of what the author describes as SJWs (Social Justice Warriors). Although the term is not defined clearly on the blog, the implied meaning is “people who are so concerned with Social Justice/Political Correctness that they and their behavior are annoying”. As I previously stated about dontneedfeminism and whywedontneedfeminism, there is no real “goal” to be accomplished. The blog serves to give a platform for people to complain about the behavior of SJWs. I find the existence of these blogs extremely confusing, as there is no real function to the blog beyond complaining about other people’s behavior. Rather than attempting to work with others and change behavior, anonymous contributors merely criticize the philosophy that supported behaviors that they dislike. Rather than criticizing behavior that turned them off to the point SJWs were attempting to make, they are trying to undermine an entire social movement. Given the amount of effort that goes into maintaining these blogs and the level of engagement the author must go through, this seems like a great deal of wasted time and energy. Like the three previous blogs, the tone of the blog is highly aggressive and does not promote any kind of dialogue.
To summarize what I have learned from these blogs: Creating a space for people to anonymously complain will not change anyone’s behavior. If you are looking to create change, you need to encourage people to actively participate, not aggress them to the point of frustration. If your goal is merely to criticize something without proposing corrective behaviors, people will only become agitated with what you communicate.
How This Helps:
First and foremost, having a guide of “What-Not-to-Do” is always a useful resource. By analyzing ineffective blogging tactics, we can help better define constructive tactics. I would like to end this list with a list of suggested ideas to keep in mind when blogging:
- Have a clear goal/point to your blogging. If you are interested in promoting something, define it. If you are criticizing something, specify.
- Keep the tone constructive. If you expect an audience to engage with your material, you need to help them feel included. Aggressive rhetoric and language will only alienate possible new members. Keep aggression minimal and criticism constructive, it will only help your goal.
- If someone disagrees with you, be willing to engage them in a constructive manner. Dialogue is necessary for any debate. If you refuse to engage with people who do not share your views, your audience will become myopic and you will be unlikely to encourage growth outside of the established community.
If you have any suggestions for additional things to add to this checklist, please let me know! I would also appreciate blogs (both constructive and non-constructive) to help find strategies to this checklist. I hope you keep these things in mind when working on your own blogs/social media website of choice!