#WhiteWomanPrivilege Highlights Intersectionality #F #WhitePrivilege

This post originally appeared on January 15, 2014 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.

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Yesterday #WhiteWomanPrivilege trended around the online feminist community. According to Topsy, #WhiteWomanPrivilege was tweeted over 15K times, just on Tuesday.

It may surprise followers that the hashtag originated from a white woman, @Auragasmic who started the day tweeting about the privilege white men experience:

#WhiteMalePrivilege is saying that because you don’t personally experience something, that it doesn’t exist. #Sexism #Racism

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

After several tweets about #WhiteMalePrivilege, she flipped the script and began commenting on her own privilege, which launched the conversation.

Can we talk about the privilege we white women have now?

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is being the idealized as the epitome of femininity and beauty.

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is being able to express your sexuality/relationship without judgement from MSM (see: the way Beyoncé was judged)

— Auragasmic (@Auragasmic) January 14, 2014

The conversation that followed @Auragasmic‘s original tweet sparked further discussions from white feminists who spoke about recognizing their own privilege, and from feminists of color illuminating on their experiences, which differed from the stories from white women.

#whitewomanprivilege means never having the talk w/ ur sons about appearing non-threatening and law abiding when you’ve done nothing wrong.

— Tasha L. Harrison (@dirtyscribbler) January 14, 2014

Unlike the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen trend, #WhiteWomanPrivilege focused more on the experiences and realities of women of color (WOC) as parents, consumers, and as viewers.

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is not having to celebrate the few times a character on tv looks like you and DOESN’T play a maid or a drug lord.

— Iris Estrada (@Iris_Estrada) January 15, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege means that when you have 10 kids you don’t get called a welfare queen, you get a reality show (see Duggars fam)

— Lil Luna (@LunaGemme) January 14, 2014

Many of the tweets attached to #WhiteWomanPrivilege illustrated that white women are privileged because of things they don’t do while emphasizing issues WOC face daily.

1st grade: wanted to be a pilgrim in school play, teacher made me play an indian while white girls were able to choose #WhiteWomanPrivilege

— champagne mami (@nabeyakiqueen) January 14, 2014

Your race isn’t a Halloween costume. #WhiteWomanPrivilege

— Bougie Black Girl (@BougieBlackGurl) January 14, 2014

Several #WhiteWomanPrivilege tweets let pictures do the talking. Google Image searches of “beautiful women” and “smart women” turned up almost exclusively photos of white women.

#WhiteWomanPrivilege pic.twitter.com/D83WJBbpUG

— ् (@HabibahPerez) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege this!!! pic.twitter.com/zTM0e4vCTK

— Seghen Abraham (@SeghenAbraham) January 14, 2014

The conversation of #WhiteWomanPrivilege joins the ranks of the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomenand #NotYourAsianSidekick (and on the other side: #relcaimintersectionalityin2014 and #stopblamingwhitewomenweneedunity) debates.

Read more about #ReclaimingIntersectionality2014 and#stopblamingwhitewomenweneedunity

Though each hashtag has taken on a different tone and focus, the central message is clear: This generation of feminism has serious internal obstacles to overcome.

What these tweets have indicated about privilege in 140 characters or less, several skilled writers have expanded into well-articulated posts. Here is a round-up of the best pieces I’ve seen addressing #WhiteWomanPrivilege and how we as a feminist community can address it:

• Zerlina Maxwell, RH Reality Check: Dylan Byers and the Scourge of Privileged Defensiveness

• Gina Crosley-Corcoran, The Feminist Breeder: Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person…

• Cate Young, BattyMamzelle: This Is What I Mean When I Say “White Feminism”

• Mia McKenzie, Black Girl Dangerous: On Defending Beyoncé: Black Feminists, White Feminists, and the Line In the Sand

These articles express more fully what the conversations attached to the #WhiteWomanPrivilegehashtag were unable to express; that is, the deeper meaning and nuanced perspectives of privilege. We learn that defensiveness from white feminists is counterproductive to the feminist movement, and that expressions from WOC isn’t about blame or guilt, but rather, it’s about the need to address institutional privilege clearly, directly, and without apology.

I also wrote a piece about #WhiteWomanPrivilege and feminist infighting on my blog yesterday. Check it out: (I want to emphasize I am not including this on the “best” pieces list, but I would appreciate your feedback!) 

• Kelly Ehrenreich, Femillennial: Miss Understandings and Feminist Infighting

What are your feelings about the #WhiteWomanPrivilege trend? How do you think WW and WOC can work together in the coming year to reach feminist goals? What are the goals? Tweet me @kellybycoffee or all of us @hashtagfeminism.

This New Year #IResolveToGain Rather Than Lose #F

This post originally appeared on December 31, 2013 written by Gretchen Edwards-Bodmer. This was Gretchen’s first post as a contributor to Hashtag Feminism.

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My New Year's resolution for 2014 is to become EVEN MORE FEMINIST.

— Kate Durbin (@Kate_Durbin) December 28, 2013

Happy New Year, everyone!

Brace yourself for the onslaught of weight loss guilt trips pushed by marketers playing on our insecurities just to make an easy buck. Whether it’s Special K’s 2011 “What Will You Gain When You Lose?” (a total rip off of feminist artist Marilyn Wann’s “Yay Scale”), or their latest “Shut Down Fat Talk” campaign (another co-optation of feminism), or Weight Watcher’s ads featuring Jennifer Hudson and Jessica Simpson (both of whom deserve to be valued for their badass vocal abilities alone), marketers seem to be using every trick in the book to sell weight loss.

The relationship between the increase of ad sales marketing weight loss plans this time of year and our collective anxiety around losing weight, especially after the holidays is evident. Our culture is fixated on women having “perfect” bodies because of beauty standards set by companies pushing weight loss products like diet pills and meal plans.

It’s time for the madness to stop.

You can’t convince me that corporations actually care about our health, happiness, or self-esteem. They want our money. Too much of our time and energy are wasted on achieving unobtainable weight loss goals. I say unobtainable because the images we see in the media that we’re encouraged to emulate are photoshopped. Your value as a person should not hinge upon how you look in a bikini.

you wonder why the world needs feminism? the world needs feminism cause women are fucking killing themselves to reach an ideal 'beauty'

— 雞塊 (@suicides3as0n) December 16, 2013

I’m a curvy girl and I’m comfortable with my body the way it is. I admit, however, that it takes constant effort to maintain a positive body image because of the unending pressure to be thin. I never see bodies that look like mine in the media even though I’m closer to the average size of the American woman than most models whose body types only reflect 5% of the U.S. population.

It’s super frustrating to hear my friends and colleagues obsess over getting rid of a so-called imperfection or losing just 10 more pounds. OK, but then what? When does the madness end?

#NotYourAsianSidekick b/c the stereotype that Asian women are/should be thin ignores the prevalence of eating disorders among Asian women.

— Ally Ang (@Allyy_Ang) December 16, 2013

When will we be OK with our bodies and pour our energies into ending violence against women, poverty, or world hunger? Rather than handing over our time and resources to the multibillion dollar weight loss industry, why not keep the money for ourselves and use it to change the world?

For this New Year’s, I propose the #IResolveToGain” hashtag conversation on Twitter.

Let’s shift our focus and think about gaining more for ourselves that has nothing to do with losing weight, but gaining happiness, self-esteem, and sense of worth. Because photoshopped models and plastic surgery-addicted celebrities featured in the hottest ads shouldn’t be where we find happiness.

Here are a few of my own resolutions to get you started:

• This year #IResolveToGain more confidence in my abilities.

• This year, #IResolveToGain more time for myself to do things that I love.

• This year, #IResolveToGain more accounts to follow on Twitter to increase my knowledge, empathy and compassion for the experience of others.

• This year, #IResolveToGain more experience boosting body image in girls and women.

• This year, #IResolveToGain more laughter in my life.

• What will you resolve to gain this year?

2013: The Year of the Feminist Hashtag #FeminismMeans #F

This post originally appeared on December 30, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.

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On December 23, 2013 Hashtag Feminism released a comprehensive analysis of this year’s top feminist hashtags. Among the most widely cited hashtags of 2013 include, #TwitterFeminism,#NotYourAsianSidekick, #fem2, #femfuture, #BeyonceThinkPieces, #MyFeminismLooksLike,#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and #FastTailedGirls. I explain more about the meanings and evolution of these hashtags HERE.

The list is in no way meant to represent a definitive statement about which feminist hashtags were considered “the best” of this year. Rather, the purpose of the analysis was to trace how the meaning of these hashtags evolved over time, along with celebrating the most widely used feminist hashtags that primarily functioned to gather information, share stories and wit, and talk back to the status quo.

Now that our stories are arguably more visible than before, I wonder, as does blogger and self-identified Generation Y-er, Jenn of @reappropriate wonders, how might hashtag-ing in this millennial moment impact broader social movements concerned with equality and justice?

#Feminism

It is often noted that the primary uses of hashtags are to build brands, campaigns, and follow trends. As we enter into a new(er) era of social activism and advocacy, what meta meanings do we attach to feminism by way of the hashtag?

When #BlackPowerAsianPeril debuted last week as a way to talk about “shared goals” and bridge-building between Black and Asian American communities, I wondered about how this hashtag, or rather critical conversations around the hashtag, might impact how we go about addressing racism (colonization and discrimination) poverty, and mental health issues (access and stigma) shared among both diverse communities.

I think #BlackPowerYellowPeril will REALLY scare the white supremacists tomorrow. I'm even reading up on historical divide.

— Suey (@suey_park) December 25, 2013

The archiving of feminist-leaning thought and practices didn’t begin in 2013, but this year marked a moment in history when nuanced critical conversations traveled outside of Twitter and into online and offline mainstream media contexts. That #NotYourAsianSidekick appeared in Time, Al Jazeera America, ABC, and BBC, and that #solidarityisforwhitewomen and #solidarityisforblackmenappeared on NPR, among other outlets, might indicate that broader audiences are paying more attention to our stories than ever before.

But this sort of online political and social activism isn’t without criticism. Often when we see critics come out against hashtags as a mark of new activism, we find arguments that set up what I believe to be a false binary between real vs. not-really-real change.

Kai Ma’s uninformed piece on #NotYourAsianSidekick in Time may be an example of a critique that presents a false binary without further exploration. Ma writes,

I’m all about not being your Asian sidekick — I support and applaud the platform — but can we please move from digital activism to social change?

I’m not sure what Ma mean’s when she asserts that we “move from digital activism to social change” Does she mean change as in legislative impact (see #StandWithWendy)? Community impact (see #RenishaMcBride)? Societal impact (see #Jan25, #Arabspring, #Egypt)?

Maureen O’Connor’s piece in NYMag.com asks can feminist hashtags dismantle the state? setting up a similarly polarizing argument. Sure enough, the Twitterverse responded:

#TheMediumIsTheMessage

Perhaps critics of the medium have a point about how meaning, particular associated with certain hashtags, gets lost in often contentious spaces of #Twitterfeminism. I’d argue, however, that heated exchanges about the lives and politics of individuals have always been contentious. If you sit two people in a room, face-to-face, with different life stories and political philosophies, chances are they’ll likely at some point disagree with one another. And if these same individuals enter into the room with their minds already set on how the other person thinks and experiences, then surely finding shared goals between the two will be difficult to accomplish. The absence of mediated channels doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of ego.

Twitter doesn’t make it more difficult for people to understand one another or build movements, people do.

In a moment of 140-character thoughts and context-driven hashtags with lack of context clues, the medium actually requires more from us. We have to sit with Twitter just as we would with an epic poem, yet we marinate on these texts for different reasons. I’m not as quick to blame Twitter as I am more thoughtful about the way I use Twitter to think through personal and political issues with complete strangers. At times, for me, some things are better left untweeted, and instead quietly reflected upon.

We’re all trying to situate our selves in this moment, always trying to carve out a digital space, sometimes at the cost of our sanity. Twitter isn’t for everyone, nor should it be, and that’s OK.

Because Twitter asks more of me as I grapple with meaning, I tend towards an observational and reflexive stance. And because the hashtag exists, I can better parse through the myriad of constantly updated conversations related to how others grapple. Now that we have the ability to search and archive these conversations with tools like Topsy, Keyhole, and others, it makes for an even more enriching observational experience. For the very first time since I joined Twitter in 2008, I can temporarily leave Twitter to sit with the feminist media of Twitter.

Parsing, observing, and curating is how I grapple with #Twitterfeminism.

#FeminismMeans

I have a pretty good working definition of what #FeminismMeans to me, which is largely informed by my experiences,

1. growing up in a Midwestern working class interracial family, taking care of an aging parent.

2. fighting for fair and equal treatment as an elementary, middle school, high school, and college female athlete.

3. studying Chicana feminism, Black feminist thought, and feminist spiritualities at a Texas state graduate institution.

Though I’m not so sure about how my working definition of feminism fits in with the 1,847+ other working definitions of feminism, informed by the 1,847,000+ other life experiences out there in the ether.

I readily admit that I don’t exactly know what #FeminismMeans to others with which I share a digital and social community. I suspect that how we understand and do feminism varies according to how we grew up and came of age.

I also suspect that my “brand” of feminism isn’t shared by others, which is why, at this point in my life I try very hard to first relate my life experiences to another individual rather than falling prey to policing someone else’s “brand” of feminism. It’s not easy, and I’m not always right.

#FeminismMeans different things to different people at different moments in their lives. And because language changes and evolves #FeminismIs, at times, a moving epistemological and ontological target. #FeminismIsNot, especially in 2013, an homogenous concept. The genre of feminist hashtags is proof that conceptually, feminism consists of many different, and often fluctuating parts. #Feminism, at times, amounts to an abstraction, a “thing” that many of us continue to grapple with because “it” isn’t something easily reflected in mainstream contexts.

Maybe #twitterfeminism hasn't built part of mvmnt you participate in but Feminism is not so flat that you can make that general statement.

— Jessica W. Luther (@scATX) December 23, 2013

"Allowing only women you agree or identify with to have a voice is not feminism or sisterhood, but something else. It's spite" @TanyaGold1

— Stephanie (@ArtfullyAdored) December 27, 2013

#HashtagFeminismIs

This is why Hashtag Feminism exists, so that as a collective, we zoom out and then parse through the conversations, debates, and dialog to build a picture of what feminism might look like during an Obama and millennial era. Hashtag Feminism is for the futurist feminist archivist who, in 100 years looks back at this digital moment and understands why the hashtag marked an important meta political stance in 2013.

Though someone like Maureen O’Connor might view Hashtag Feminism, a website primarily dedicated to archiving and exploring critical conversations, as greeting card folly, I think otherwise.

[T]rend-chasing websites that arrange The Best Tweets From #WhateverHashtag into listicles only seem to amplify the giant-stack-of-greeting-cards perception of Twitter activism. Even the most profound of one-liners start to seem vapid when you’re reading Bartlett’s Quotes cover-to-cover like a novel.

Hashtag Feminism isn’t so much about listing for the sake of listing, or calling out people for the sport of it, it is (as @BattyMamzelle so poignantly tweeted) about ‘collecting receipts’. We are a space that allows for more time to observe and reflect upon a wide range of personal and political issues that emerge by way of Twitter and other social media spaces.

Hashtag Feminism is my little digital space carved out.

If 2013 is the year of the feminist hashtag; the year that we grappled and reckoned with the Other’s lived experiences, then let 2014 be the year when #FeminismMeans actively and deliberately transforming so we can be better to ourselves and for our shared communities.

Top Feminist Hashtags of 2013 (Explained) #F

This post originally appeared on December 29, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.

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In case you need a quick reference guide about what some of your favorite feminist hasthags of 2013 mean and how they evolved over time, here ya go!

#TwitterFeminism – First appeared three years ago but it’s meaning has since evolved into an umbrella term that, depending on who you ask encompasses all that is right, or all that is wrong with feminist discourse on Twitter.

The #twitterfeminism backlash isn’t really about social media vs. “real feminism.” It’s a few white cis ladypundits fearful it’s working.

— Melissa Gira Grant (@melissagira) December 19, 2013

#NotYourAsianSidekick – First appeared on December 14, 2013 and was created by @suey_park as a way to engage in a critical conversation about Asian American feminism. To date,#NotYourAsianSidekick is one of the fastest growing feminist hashtags to spread globally.

I will never apologize for being angry about your racism. #NotYourAsianSidekick

— Alyssa Wong (@crashwong) December 16, 2013

#fem2 – First appeared on December 15, 2008 when @blogdiva responded to a tweet about what to call feminism on Twitter. Ever since, the hashtag has grown and continues to be the longest running, widely used, and consistently referenced feminist hashtag on Twitter.

Justice Sotomayor will trigger ball drop on #NYE! Love that an amazing woman will help ring in 2014. #Fem2 #NYE2014 http://t.co/ho0HGucdza

— Jaclyn Munson (@OnwardnFword) December 30, 2013

#femfuture – First appeared on December 18, 2009 when @shelbyknox tweeted a request for a hashtag that describes the work of young feminist activists. The hashtag is now widely associated with Femfuture.com.

Launch of something like femfuture once again reminds me how centered most of feminism is in a single location, even when talking online.

— Jessica W. Luther (@scATX) April 8, 2013

#BeyonceThinkPieces – First appeared on December 18, 2013 and was created by @adriananova_in response to the flood of articles, blog posts, and analyses published about Beyonce and her latest album. The hashtag is perhaps one of the most humorous and witty feminist-leaning hashtags to come out of 2013.

I Woke Up Like This: How Beyonce Is Erasing The Voice Of Women Who Wrap Their Hair At Night #beyoncethinkpieces

— Brokey McPoverty (@brokeymcpoverty) December 18, 2013

#MyFeminismLooksLike – First appeared on December 14, 2013 and was created by @prisonculture, again inspired by Beyonce’s record-breaking album. The hashtag celebrates the various ways feminism looks according self-identified feminists.

This evening, #myfeminismlookslike (I don't do photos so…) pic.twitter.com/dSsAwJDi9b

— Prison Culture (@prisonculture) December 15, 2013

#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen – First appeared on August 12, 2013 and was created by @Karnythiain response to status quo feminism and Hugo Swytzher. The hashtag continues to evolve.

.@anidifranco holding a retreat on a plantation exemplifies #solidarityisforwhitewomen in the worst way possible.

— mj (@munachao) December 28, 2013

#FastTailedGirls – First appeared in 2010 but it’s meaning has since transformed from a commonly used pejorative to demean Black girls, to now cited as one of the fastest growing hashtags that explores the lifestories of Black women’s sexuality, thanks in large part to its primary purveyor @Karnythia.

At it's core, #FastTailedGirls is blaming children for the actions of grown men. Don't wear this, don 't move like this…just don't exist.

— Reagan Gomez (@ReaganGomez) November 30, 2013

Top Feminist Hashtags of 2013 #F

This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley. It was the first post of its kind to rank top feminist hashtags of the era.

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Yesterday I posted about the life stories of our favorite feminist hashtags. Today I breakdown the top feminist hashtags of 2013, including: 

#TwitterFeminism #NotYourAsianSideKick #fem2#femfuture #BeyonceThinkPieces #MyFeminismLooksLike #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen and #FastTailedGirls. Yes, honey, I created an entire infographic. #Geekshit.

If you really appreciate the work, then donate to my labor below. Between working on my dissertation research, consulting projects, and this lovely little start up Hashtag Feminism, it’s fair to say I’m working hella hard this holiday season. Your donations are very much appreciated.

Each hashtag represents it’s own unique entry into conversations dealing with race, gender, sexuality, economic justice, global citizenship, and Ms. Yonce Carter. The infographic below is a visual representation of how the numbers tell these unique stories. The metrics are based on a 30-day sample set ranging from November 22, 2013 to December 22, 2013. Though the sample set does not fully represent exact totals of each hashtag, the sample is representative of the larger qualitative impact these hashtags had over the past year.

Don’t be afraid to click on the infographic, it’s interactive!

Sources: Topsy, Keyhole

Primary takeaways:

• #TwitterFeminism has picked up steam over the past few days, but lags quantitatively in comparison to some of the other hashtags listed below.

• #NotYourAsianSidekick is the fastest growing feminist hashtag to spread globally.

• #fem2 continues to be the longest running, widely used, and consistently referenced feminist hashtag to date.

• #femfuture has lost some traction over the past few months, but continues to remain popular among female [sic] users.

• #BeyonceThinkPieces are especially loved by dudes (or at least that’s how Keyhole’s algorithm represents it).

• #MyFeminismLooksLike is the most image-referenced feminist hashtag.

• #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen not only sparked a national conversation but birthed a new generation of critical hashtags in 2013 that talked back to the status quo.

• #FastTailedGirls is one of the fastest growing hashtags to date.

What do you think? Given the data and takeaways above, how do you think each hashtag represents the social, political, cultural, and spiritual climate of feminism in 2013? Were your favorite hashtag represented? Where were you when Suey Park (@suey_park) and Mikki Kendall (@Karynthia) tweeted out the first #NotYourAsianSidekick and #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomenhastag, respectively?

Now that we know tweets and hashtags have power, where do we go from here? Share your brilliance in the comments section below!

**Update. I’ve received an overwhelming response about this post and it’s only been up for a few hours. I sincerely appreciate the support. Please donate! I’ve also received responses from a few folks about how and when a particular hashtag was created. I want to acknowledge again that I used Topsy’s tracking to locate the first time each hashtag appeared on Twitter, assuming Topsy’s algorithms are correct. For instance #FastTailedGirls first appeared three years ago, but the term itself did not share the same meaning as it does currently, thanks to Mikki Kendall. Similarly, the hashtag #femfuture first appeared on Twitter four years ago when Shelby Knox tweeted out a request to highlight the work of young activists. Currently #femfuture represents FemFuture.com, an online feminist venture from Vanessa Valenti and Courtney Martin. I wrote about the life story of #femfuture HERE. I want to acknowledge that I understand meaning and context give power to words. I also want people to be aware of the germinating processes involved in creating hashtags. As I tweeted earlier this morning:

Thanks for chiming in everyone! FYI – I’ve explored what it means to invent, create, give meaning to something and make impact previously.

— Tara L. Conley (@taralconley) December 23, 2013

I talk about webs here: http://t.co/g58fMpB7OQ I talk about impactfulness/whirlpooling here: http://t.co/yqE2KddXE7

— Tara L. Conley (@taralconley) December 23, 2013

I acknowledge my methods/methodologies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re how I currently understand digital worlds+media ecologies.

— Tara L. Conley (@taralconley) December 23, 2013

It is not my intention to misrepresent the work of those who have in fact given meaning to these hashtags. If anything, I hope to celebrate all those involved this year who purposefully transformed the meaning of words through hashtags.

As such, I’ve amended the infographic to state “first appeared” instead of “creator”. I hope that clears things up.

What does it mean to create or give meaning to something? I hope to explore questions further via #hashtagfeminism http://t.co/MFFou7kVzV #F

— Tara L. Conley (@taralconley) December 23, 2013

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Time spent producing article: 4 hours

I value my labor for producing this article at: $200 USD