Posts Written by Vanessa
By Vanessa • 10 years ago

Feministing at 10: The media has become our feminist playground, so let’s play (to win)

Ed. note: In celebration of Feministing’s 10-year anniversary, current and former members of the Feministing crew will be offering their reflections on the changes of the last decade. Next up is Feministing co-founder Vanessa Valenti on online media-making. Read the whole series here. And consider giving us a birthday donation to ensure we’re around for another 10 years!

When it comes to the media, we’re at an unprecedented time in history.

While we’re all so busy tweeting, posting, and consuming tons of information every day, it’s easy to forget just how much media has changed over the last decade. Ten years ago, blogs had just started to garner attention, but for the most part, the mainstream media was your news source. The relationship between readers and the media was very top-down; the media disseminated the news, and the public consumed it. And naturally, in result, whatever the media said largely shaped public opinion. (Problematic much?)

But over the course of the following years, the rise of blogs changed the meaning of media in a significant way. That top-down relationship became lateral. Readers became writers. News publications incorporated comments sections into their websites. The Internet essentially democratized the media, creating a massive dialogue between millions of individuals, sharing their thoughts on the world, and how it ought to be.

Feministing was lucky enough to be a part of this shift. One of the first moments that we began to recognize our influence was in 2007, when ...
By Vanessa • 11 years ago

#femfuture launches: Online revolution

Our impact paper, #femfuture: Online Revolution, goes public today! Share our first infographic (one of many visuals which will be shared from our Facebook page), engage on Twitter, and let’s do this thing. Click here for a text version of the infographic.

Our impact paper, #femfuture: Online Revolution, goes public today! Share our first infographic (one of many visuals which will be shared from our Facebook page), engage on Twitter, and let’s do this ...
By Vanessa • 11 years ago

On April 8th, let’s create a more feminist future

Remember that impact paper I mentioned in my retirement post that I’m co-authoring with fellow Editor Emerita Courtney about online feminism? Well, we’re just about ready to unveil it to the world. On Monday, April 8th, we’ll be releasing the paper online (along with some awesome visuals via Megan Jett — a sneak peak above) and celebrating its launch at Barnard College in New York. Time to rally, y’all.

The birth of this paper was actually sparked when Courtney retired from Feministing, as she pledged to herself that she would create something meaningful about the sustainability of online feminist work. As many know, Feministing and dozens of other blogs and online organizations ...

Remember that impact paper I mentioned in my retirement post that I’m co-authoring with fellow Editor Emerita Courtney about online feminism? Well, we’re just about ready to unveil it to the world. On ...
By Vanessa • 11 years ago

This is one father-daughter dance I can get behind

See version with transcript here.

Purity Balls ain’t got nothing on this father-daughter dance.

At TEDxWomen this year, Courtney and I had the pleasure of working with an extraordinary group of women whom we coached for a session we also curated, “The Mirror.” And one of these extraordinary women was Angela Patton, whose work with young girls at her organization in Richmond, VA  is one of the most inspiring — and simply impressive — examples of youth-empowerment and leadership I’ve ever seen. She created Camp Diva after Diva Mistadi Smith-Roane, the 5-year-old daughter of Angela’s friend, lost her life from a firearm accident in 2004, dedicating her life to connecting with and empowering girls since. And out of Camp ...

See version with transcript here.

Purity Balls ain’t got nothing on this father-daughter dance.

At TEDxWomen this year, Courtney and I had the pleasure of working with an extraordinary group of women whom we coached for a ...
By Vanessa • 11 years ago

On feminist evolutions and online revolutions

It’s been a wild 9 years, y’all.

Yep, this marks my last official post as the managing editor of Feministing. It’s pretty bittersweet–as a co-founder, I’ve literally grown up alongside this project. But there are many reasons why I’m leaving happily: I think it’s time to pass on leadership to the other younger, brilliant minds in the crew, I have a new kick-ass feminist business to run (with our own Editor Emerita Courtney), and also simply feel like it’s time for me to move on to build new projects, and write in new places.

But this isn’t really goodbye; I’ll still be involved with Feministing, blogging occasionally and helping the site out in other not-so-public ways, like forming an ...

It’s been a wild 9 years, y’all.

Yep, this marks my last official post as the managing editor of Feministing. It’s pretty bittersweet–as a co-founder, I’ve literally grown up alongside this project. But there are many reasons why ...
By Vanessa • 12 years ago

What We Missed

On the struggles of prisoners with disabilities in California.

Check out Chloe on Melissa Harris-Parry this weekend talking affirmative action, merit and entitlement.

What kind of world do we live in when a 14 year old girl gets shot in the head for educational activism?

Sandusky was sentenced today.

Sesame Street is so over this presidential race.

And Zerlina talks veep debate on Fox and recent polls on the presidential race with Elliot Spitzer on Current TV.

 

 

On the struggles of prisoners with disabilities in California.

Check out Chloe on Melissa Harris-Parry this weekend talking affirmative action, merit and entitlement.

What kind of world do we live in when a 14 year ...
By Vanessa • 12 years ago

Quick Hit: Meryl Streep vouching for a Bill of Reproductive Rights makes me happy

My inner fangirl is totally squealing like a 5-year old right now.

Draw The Line, this new campaign for a Bill for Reproductive Rights is pretty awesome, and much-needed. And I appreciate the seemingly-alarmist-but-actually-totally-real “what’s at stake” feel the campaign has, considering how friggin’ bad things already are. With 55% of women of reproductive age live in states that are hostile to abortion, reproductive rights will soon no longer be “rights” at all. “Reproductive restrictions” will be the status quo, and that simply can’t happen.

So sign it, and pass it on. After all, Meryl Streep says so!

Transcript after the jump. 

My inner fangirl is totally squealing like a 5-year old right now.

Draw The Line, this new campaign for a Bill for Reproductive Rights is pretty awesome, and much-needed. And I appreciate the seemingly-alarmist-but-actually-totally-real “what’s at ...
By Vanessa • 12 years ago

On the last day to register to vote, exercise your right that others want to take away

 

There are 5 trillion reasons why you should be registering to vote today, but this should really be wake-up call to why: Because others are trying their damnedest — and possibly criminally — to make sure those rights aren’t exercised.

It’s true that voter suppression tactics are not new and it’s been a huge issue around the elections over the last year (a notable example was Florida Gov. Rick Scott being sued by the Department of Justice for attempting to purge thousands of eligible voters), but the incredible level of efforts happening in states across the country right now is pretty unbelievable. Just a few examples:

 Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) recently began conducting an investigation against Truth the Vote, ...

 

There are 5 trillion reasons why you should be registering to vote today, but this should really be wake-up call to why: Because others are trying their damnedest — and possibly criminally — to make sure those ...

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