The task at hand is a rather touchy one for me - discussing how a minority group can or uses the internet to reduce alienation and prejudice. It's touchy because it is, but also personally, because I'm a huge advocate for equality. I'd state I'm a feminist, but my girlfriend being a radical feminist, I know this is anathema as radfem declare that the oppressor cannot be a feminist, which is a view that I respect (but of course, I politely disagree with. But that can be my white male heterosexual privilege talking. Enough of that).
That said, I'd like to hijack this post not to talk about how women use the internet to reduce alienation and prejudice but instead how they use it to mobilize and support each other. I'm a great admirer of the many times extremely ad-hoc but always fantastic mobilization power or Brazilian radfem, how they are massacred by every side, including liberal feminists, how they're deviled and called feminazis and still when their sisters are in trouble, be they other radfem or libfem or not really feminists at all, it's always a huge support network of radfem organizing through social networks and mobile chats who get shit done.
While libfem are worried about including men in the debate or organizing polls or whatnot, radfem go and flashmob wherever there's trouble brewing and clash with authority and give their blood (sometimes quite literally) to keep sorority alive and kicking. I admire not only their spirit, but their non-tech savvy, patched together approach that gets great results even if most of them have no idea of the underlying tech that's enabling them to fight the good fight.
And maybe that's one of the beauties of living in the times we live today - you don't need to be a techie, you don't really need to read an RFC on how to implement a protocol or a big manual on how to configure a server to run a top-notch support network for your social movement. You just need to have a need and will to set things right.
Fun times.
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