Julia

Dear Jessica,

I realize that I am a little late on this. But I have been thinking about your post “Farwell, Feministing”. I have been thinking about it a lot. I am a fan of your writing, and have enjoyed your books. In addition to wishing you well, thanking you, and extending to you my continued support. I would also like to tell you respectfully, that as an academic, and a 31-year-old feminist, I am disappointed with one of the reasons you provide for your departure:

Today, almost 5,000 posts later, I’m a 32 year-old feminist with a voice that is listened to. Largely because of the work I’ve done with Feministing, I have a successful platform for my work – I’ve published books, written articles, and built a career as a speaker. Because I feel Feministing should remain a place for younger feminists to build their careers and platforms, I think it’s appropriate to our mission that I step back. (Valenti, 2011, Feministing,com).

Recently, I have been thinking about feminisms online, and feminist blogging communities as first, powerful alternatives to mainstream medias, offering important critical feminist perspectives challenging dominant patriarchal and racist accounts of current events. Additionally, writers such as you and the “Feministing” team also bring attention to important stories that might go overlooked by other news medias.  Second, I see sites like yours’ as an important means towards building feminist communities both online and offline. Third, these sites also contribute to feminist activism.  ...