I sought a Women’s Center internship because the Women’s Center aims for intersectional gender justice. Intersectionality, according to Jarune Uwujaren and Jamie Utt, is “a framework that must be applied to all social justice work; a frame that recognizes the multiple aspects of identity that enrich our lives and experiences and that compound and complicate oppressions and marginalizations.” 

There is a continued disenfranchisement of these multiple marginalizations and oppressions within our culture, including race, gender inequality and dichotomy and sexual orientation. The GVSU Women’s Center aims to eradicate these oppressions and marginalizations.

Writing opinion articles and blog posts is part of my internship at the Women’s Center. I try to focus on ideas that are highly prevalent in current media and that surround events that take place during that month. 

The three articles that I have written this semester so far have done just that: manspreading, ecofeminism and rape culture. All these ideas were, and are, part of the media. They are ideas that have been discussed before this year and the last. For example:

• Manspreading has been a popular topic around the Internet. It is still a topic discussing the unconscious, social privilege often associated with public transportation. Manspreading is a privileged and physical space issue. Even in the 1970s, Japan tried to conquer manspreading on the transit system through a series of posters.
• Ecofeminism is not a new idea; in fact, the movement was started in the 1970s. We have several professors that teach this subject on campus and there are many books written about ecofeminism. Finally, this February, there was the annual Women and the Environment Symposium, a partnership between the GVSU Women’s Center and WMEAC in Grand Rapids.
• Rape culture is also a popular topic around the Internet and social media. It is prevalent in laws, social interactions, the many examples of college and business administrations supporting sexually abusive athletes, etc. It manifests through large tangible examples and everyday microaggressions.

However, instead of inciting open-minded discussion, as was the intention, it has led to closed-minded individuals trolling the Lanthorn – simply to gain attention and incite hatred on the internet, the monotonous responses aimed to shut-down conversation through the ownership of space. 

Of course, this is also not a new occurrence. It is easy to dismiss individuals on the Internet as human beings that do not have emotions, thoughts and opinions. It is also interesting to note that many of the responses had the same behaviors that the articles suggested, and have a level of privileged personality.

What I experienced this semester is, unfortunately, not unique. Many feminists who have an online presence experience threats like gang-rape and murder, and also experience harassment like being called a feminazi, being fat/slut-shamed or being called other names. The haters try to shut down feminist opinions using threats of bodily harm and assault (physical abuse and sexual abuse) and verbal harassment and slurs. 

In short, many online feminists experience rape culture. For example, on Oct. 15, Anita Sarkeesian was going to speak at Utah State University about video games and gender, organized by the campus Women’s Center. She was threatened repeatedly online, and then it escalated to a threat of mass-murder on the campus. 

Another example is the feminist writer Jessica Valent who has commented that “It’s ‘not just the physical safety concerns, but the emotional ramifications’ of constant, round-the-clock abuse.” Also mentioned in this same article by Michelle Goldberg is the “incessant, violent, sneering, sexualized hatred…is harder to escape” and Jamia Wilson experiences “racialized rape threats”  – according to Michelle Goldberg. At GVSU, comments and responses to the articles have been taken down due to fat-shaming and degrading verbiage. 

Through the semester, I have been called a feminazi more than once, as well as other slurs. These responses to my articles are a continuation of a marginalized discourse set by mainstream society. 

The idea that one cannot be respectful of another human being while also disagreeing with that individual is ridiculous. There is no need to be rude, to harass and to shame individuals simply because opinions differ. The responses that I and other individuals writing about feminism and issues related to gender receive clearly indicate the need for feminism and the ongoing discussion about gender justice.

www.everydayfeminism.com/2015/01/why-our-feminism-must-be-intersectional/

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/online-feminists-increasingly-ask-are-the-psychic-costs-too-much-to-bear/2015/02/19/3dc4ca6c-b7dd-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html