What Happens When You Make A Wordle of #TwitterFeminism? #F
This post originally appeared on December 24, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
This post originally appeared on December 24, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
Wordle: a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source.
After spending hours in front of the computer scanning tweets and hashtags over the past few days, I wondered about how our words (and sentiments) might be represented by each individual hashtag. Given the overwhelming response to Top Feminist Hashtags of 2013, (by the way, thank you! Please donate to my labor), I wondered what it means to give meaning to a hashtag. I’m obsessed with data. And whether we like it or not, numbers and words have a unique way of telling their own story.
So what happens when you make a Wordle of the hashtag #TwitterFeminism? By way of Topsy, I took a random sample of 30 tweets (of 598) within the past day that were associated with the#TwitterFeminism hashtag, which roughly amounts to a 5% sample size. I copied and pasted each tweet (manually!) into the a Wordle text box. I removed the hashtag #TwitterFeminism and only placed words without hashtags and Twitter handles in the text box.
#BlackFemMusic Trends Globally, Missy Elliott Retweets #F
This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich.
This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich.
Beyonce garnered lots of attention this week after releasing her latest album in secret. Many have pointed to Bey’s dominance in the last year. The highlights include: singing the National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, SHUTTING DOWN THE SUPERBOWL, and winning her 17th Grammy, thereby becoming the third most honored female artist in Grammy history.
The latest tribute to Beyonce’s power came from News & Then, a PBS program that started a Twitter chat using the hashtag #BlackFemMusic, which then trended globally by this afternoon.
#BlackFemMusic is a chat w/ @dreamhampton @thetrudz @feministajones @Blackamazon@karnythia on Black feminism in music. 11 am EST, 12/23.
— News and Then (@NewsAndThen) December 20, 2013
#BlackFemMusic was inspired by the lively debate that #Beyoncé‘s latest album has sparked about what feminism is and who can be a feminist.
— News and Then (@NewsAndThen) December 23, 2013
That is, #Beyoncé is one of many Black women producing feminist/womanist texts through music, and part of a longer tradition #BlackFemMusic
— News and Then (@NewsAndThen) December 23, 2013
Beyoncé has always upset mainstream feminism; message isn’t “generic.” Does tend to speak to BW intersectional experiences. #BlackFemMusic
— Trudy (@thetrudz) December 23, 2013
The discussion about Beyonce and her role in the Black feminist music world led to further conversations about other influential #BlackFemMusic artists, what is means to be a Black feminist, and what the music of Black feminism represents.
#BlackFemMusic shows the world that Black women are beautifully diverse, amazingly talented, and have stories to tell.
— A$AP Feminist (@FeministaJones) December 23, 2013
The five invited experts and hundreds of Twitter users created lists of current and past inspiring #BlackFemMusic including Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, Salt-N-Pepa, TLC, Eartha Kitt, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Queen Latifah, Eve, Lil Kim, Nina Simone, Betty Davis, Tracy Chapman, Lady Saw, Joi, and Ashanti.
One of the mentioned #BlackFemMusic artists, Missy Elliott, even joined the conversation, RT’ing several fans who praised her influence and individuality in hip-hop.
RT @FeministaJones: @MissyElliott Defied beauty standards, brought raw sexuality/sensuality &writer, producer, emcee &singer #BlackFemMusic
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) December 23, 2013
What did you get out of the #BlackFemMusic conversation? Were some of your favorite artists and music genres missing from the discussion?
Is #BlackFemMusic solely R+B and Hip Hop? Where are our jazz and classical divas at?
— P. Mimi Poinsett MD (@yayayarndiva) December 23, 2013
What makes a #BlackFemMusic artist? Does Beyonce typify and/or misrepresent this generation of empowered Black women musicians?
Speak on it. Share your brilliance below and on Twitter with @hashtagfeminism. You can also tweet me @kellybycoffee!
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.
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.
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!
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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A Hashtag Synonymous with Feminism #F: #noreallythisisbullshit
This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich. This was Kelly’s first post on Hashtag Feminism.
This post originally appeared on December 23, 2013 written by Hashtag Feminism’s first head writer, Kelly Ehrenreich. This was Kelly’s first post on Hashtag Feminism.
Over the weekend in the land of #TwitterFeminism, online Feminists used the hashtag#noreallythisisbullshit OR #noreallythisbullshit to call out the types of anti-Feminist justifications people use to ignore oppression (in other words, bullshit).
SaltyPepper summed up the use of these hashtags perfectly…
The #noreallythisbullshit tag is glorious in how comprehensive it is.
— Saltypepper (@saltypepper) December 22, 2013
The #noreallythisisbullshit trend is calling out all kinds of oppression: racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and general ignorance. Here are a few great examples:
Men get these biological urges to rape, they just can’t help themselves #NoReallyThisIsBullshit
— Renee Davidson (@reneetheorizes) December 22, 2013
I don't see "color" and if you do, you're the racist one. #noreallythisisbullshit
— PrestonMitchum (@PrestonMitchum) December 22, 2013
I am a white man. Let me loudly and repeatedly tell you you're not oppressed #NoReallyThisBullshit
— Sook Minty Fresh (@doloresonthedot) December 22, 2013
#noreallythisisbullshit "I actually tutored two black kids, so I'm not racist." pic.twitter.com/ATjeRn8GZ0
— Sleezy Jefferson (@Taniyahpls) December 22, 2013
Many #noreallythisisbullshit tweets highlighted hypocrisy within the Feminist or other anti-oppression movements, such as white women not supporting WOC or gay women, Black men undermining black women, gay supporters downplaying trans rights.
“I’M A FEMINIST!” *ignores WoC* *ignores disabled women* *ignores trans* women* *ignores gay women* #NoReallyThisIsBullshit
— Freya (@FuzzCookies) December 22, 2013
What do you think of the use of Twitter and a bit of snark to get across the Feminist message? Do you think this is an effective way to call out inconsistency and encourage recognition of others’ struggles? Tweet me @kellybycoffee or @hashtagfeminism to discuss.
Ever Wonder How Your Favorite Feminist Hashtags Started? We Compiled a List #F #TwitterFeminism
This post originally appeared on December 21, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
This post originally appeared on December 21, 2013 written by founder, Tara L. Conley.
The Internet is all-knowing. While this may be an unfortunate reality for folks like Justine Sacco, a.k.a the inspiration behind the #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag, fortunately for us, Internet tools like Topsy allow us to track the moment when your favorite feminist hashtag was born. Check back later this week for more Top Feminist Hashtags of 2013. We’ve got infographics!
Here’s a rundown of our top five most prolific and most talked about feminist hashtags to date.
1. #Fem2 – One of the original hashtags to appear on Twitter that archives topics related to feminism. Niambi Jarvis (@hiyaahpower) is perhaps the most commonly cited purveyor of the hashtag, but did you know the hashtag finds its roots dating back 5 years ago when Liza Sabater, better known to the Twitterverse at @blogdiva, tweeted a response to @vpynchon (an account that no longer exists)? Sabater’s #fem2.0 was then clarified by web anthropologist Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd) who reminded us that “dots don’t work well as hashtags”. And there you have it. the celestial birth of #fem2, according to Topsy.
@vpynchon so what would you call it? #fem2.0
— Liza Sabater (@blogdiva) December 15, 2008
@blogdiva PS dots don’t work well in #hashtags so use #fem2 — Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd) December 15, 2008
2. #Femfuture – The official hashtag of Femfuture.com, founded by feminist bloggers Courtney Martin (@courtwrites) and Vanessa Valenti (@VanessaValenti). Though this hashtag is often associated with the brand #femfuture, did you know that feminist activist Shelby Knox (@shelbyknox) actually tweeted out the hashtag 4 years ago while requesting ideas for a hashtag that would describe the work of young activist?
Needed: a hashtag to highlight the work/words of young activists as we’re often disappeared. #youngactivists #gennow #femfuture Ideas, plz!
— Shelby Knox (@ShelbyKnox) December 18, 2009
3. #Solidarityisforwhitewomen – One of the most talked about hashtags of 2013 created by writer Mikki Kendall (@Karynthia). With #Solidarityisforwhitewomen, it’s fair to say Kendall birthed a new genre of hashtags that function as a way to talk back to what some believe to be as status quo feminism online. The hashtag started 4 months ago when Hugo Schwyzer was the topic of conversation around various feminist circles both online and offline. I also had a chance to talk with Mikki Kendall on Huff Post Live this past summer about the controversy. Here’s the tweet that started it all.
Convo between @Blackamazon & @JillFilipovic = “your abuser got traction from me until I felt unsafe, so what?” #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) August 12, 2013
4. #NotYourAsianSideKick – To date, #NotYourAsianSideKick hashtag, created by writer and organizer, Suey Park (@suey_park) has garnered the most tweets globally than any recent feminist hashtags to emerge within the last four months. It’s been incredible to watch this hashtag spark generative conversations about racial and gendered stereotypes both inside and outside of the Twitterverse. It all started on December 14, 2013 (only 8 days ago!), when Park warned us about having an honest conversation about Asian American Feminism, and she most certainly delivered.
Be warned. Tomorrow morning we will be have a convo about Asian American Feminism with hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick. Spread the word!!!!!!!
— Suey Park (@suey_park) December 15, 2013
5. #TwitterFeminism – Finally, the hashtag that inspired www.hashtagfeminism.com,#TwitterFeminism has been one of the most talked about feminist hashtag within the last week. Similarly with Niambi Jarvis (@hiyaahpower) and #fem2, writer and radio host Meghan Murphy (@MeghanMurphy) brought #TwitterFeminism back to life after publishing her much debated article, The Trouble With Twitter Feminism. But did you know that the first person to tweet the hashtag in 2010 was sociology student Indira Stammes (@IndiraStammes)? Yeah!
Yeah! #TwitterFeminism @MJ_in_my_Heart
— Indira Stammes (@IndiraStammes) July 6, 2010
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