Feministing Year In Review: Jos spreads the love

Do you have any idea how lucky I feel to blog with such a brilliant, badass crew? I was supposed to pick two posts to highlight, but I totally cheated. As you’ll see this afternoon, cheating is the theme of the day. Anywho, here’s a few examples of times my fellow bloggers made my brain explode this year:

The limits of a WOC feminist stance within the context of global racism by Samhita

Samhita came back from writing a book and dropped this. I’m still in awe. Rather than continuing the back and forth conversation about the veil, Samhita uncovers why the dialogue’s playing out the way it does, and how racism, colonialism, nationalism and global capital, and choice feminism constrict women of color’s efforts to combat sexism. Yeah, just that.

Is criminalization a good prevention tactic? by Miriam

Miriam calls out the use of criminalization, across the political spectrum, as a tactic for preventing activities we find morally unacceptable. Has punishment actually been successful in stopping these actions? Or has it actually caused more harm than good? Miriam pulls us away from the standard political conversation to talk about what might actually work. This post captures so much of how I believe we need to shift our approach to politics.

The feminine mistake of blogging unsustainably by Courtney

Damn, I miss Courtney’s voice on the blog. Thank goodness she’s still a presence behind the scenes, playing a vital role in our efforts to make Feministing sustainable. In this post, Courtney began a public conversation about the ways we have failed to value blogging and online organizing, despite their crucial role in the contemporary feminist movement. For this work to continue, this sector of the social justice field cannot just be the unpaid work we do after our 12-hour day of other movement work. Courtney’s carried on the convo from there, tackling the feminist internet’s money problem head on. Hard, necessary work if we want to continue building a strong feminist movement that, ya know, wins.

A big thank you to all our readers for continuing to make Feministing a kick ass hub of feminist community. Have a fabulous end of the year y’all! Can’t wait for all the awesome we have coming in 2012!