Fem 2.0: What's Happening Today and Where are We Going in Feminism and the Digital World?

Thanks for continuing to share links and thoughts. It is just a reminder that the people who attended the conference are extraordinary.

Suzanne Reisman ( http://www.blogher.com/member/suzanne-reisman ), Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender ( http://blogher.org/topic/feminism-gender )
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants ( http://cussandotherrants.com/ )

WOW! Thanks for sharing these summaries.  I am still marinating on all that transpired during the Fem 2.0 conference last week.  It was amazing. I feel like it was a great beginning. The Fem 2.0 team were dynamic. Many thanks to everyone who made it happen.  Yesterday I wrote a poem about some of my Fem 2.0 reflections. See below. Enjoy.  

Peace and Fem 2.0 Love

Ananda Leeke

http://baplivingforbapsandebw.ning.com ( http://baplivingforbapsandebw.ning.com/ )

At A Crossroads of Awakening by Ananda Leeke
Copyright 2009 by Madelyn C. Leeke

Inspired by my participation in the Fem 2.0 Conference held at George Washington University on February 2, 2009, and African American artist Meta Warwick Fuller’s sculpture, Ethiopia Awakening (1914)

Excerpt from That Which Awakens Me (iUniverse, Inc. - Spring 2009)

We are at a crossroads.
It is offering us a grand opportunity filled with great awakening.
One that can bring us into a new day that gracefully unfolds into a new tomorrow and future.
It is happening everywhere.
Can you see it?
Can you feel it?
Do you want to be a part of it?

Whether we know it or not, we are manifesting the words of our very own American artist sistalove Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller:

"awakening, gradually unwinding the bandages of [our] past and looking out on life again, expectant but unafraid."

The bandages we are unwinding are complex layers of identities that include our ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, educational backgrounds, professions, places of residence, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and political beliefs.

Many of us wear an array of t-shirts that mark us as feminists, womanists, pro-choicers, right to lifers, democrats, republicans, green party members, socialists, communists, independents, conservatives, progressives, and middle of the roaders.

Our labels of identity have often created barriers to our growth, coalition-building, understanding, and affirmation as women.

Despite the differences, our identities make us who we are.

They give us individual and collective meaning.

And they must be valued, understood, respected, and affirmed.

With all that said, I am left with a question:

How do we awaken and unwind the bandages from the barriers of the past that created exclusion and misunderstanding?

The answers for those of us who are connecting online reveal themselves a little each day as we interact with social media tools that have the capacity to expand our quilt of sisterhood.

When we tell and document our stories, seek support and advice, educate and train, create and share content, advocate for common causes, launch businesses and nonprofit organizations, market and sell products and services, express our creativity, and engage in dialogue on our audio/video/text blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and other social networking and bookmarking sites, we give ourselves the opportunity to learn more about each other.

Our learning efforts can open the door to ways we can honor, promote, and practice diversity, tolerance for a difference of opinion, self-care, compassion, patience, acceptance, mindfulness, loving kindness, and forgiveness.

It all begins with our choice.

If we choose to do the work of understanding who we are and what we believe and want, and seek out common interests without imposing our own strong wills, agendas, beliefs, and branding strategies, we can usher in a much-needed paradigm shift that creates space for our right brain to jump the broom and marry our left brain so that our power, passion, and purpose as women are aligned in strategic ways that give birth to new ways of being, communicating, and working together.

Are we ready to awaken and fully unwind the bandages of our past?

Are we ready to look out on life again, expectant but unafraid of manifesting a shared destiny of common interests while affirming and maintaining our separate identities and causes?

These questions are rhetorical.

We already know the answer.

We are smart, capable, and talented women.

So let’s walk past the crossroads and make what we know a reality.

Won’t you come?
Won’t you come?
Won’t you come?

Here are two from me, one with the really cool network map of feminist blogs and a list of the top 30 feminist blogs ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2009/02/03/femin... ) as determined by Linkfluence, and another with what's called a graphic recording of my panel on feminism and working women ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2009/02/03/my-fe... ).

Then, don't miss this video ( http://notmygal.com/2009/02/04/women-at-a-crossroa... )which includes Tanya Tarr, Jen Nedeau and Cynthia Samuels in their session

Jen's Change.org round-up ( http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/fem_20_an... )

Live-blogging of several sessions by Being Amber Rhea (look for posts on 2/2/09)
( http://www.beingamberrhea.com/ )

And a great round-up by DJ Nelson at All Diva Media ( http://www.alldivamedia.com/blog/2009/02/03/fem-20... )

Veronica Arreola too ( http://www.vivalafeminista.com/search/label/fem2pt... )

There will be many more I'm sure!

JillWrites Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

But I told you I was going to.

It was excellent. I have never been a part of this discussion in an organized way, and after an hour I was texting my sister (who is getting her master's in women's studies at San Diego State) telling her, this is amazing! You have to check out this web site and all these links! I felt much more connected to the world of activists and scholars that she is in every day and I felt for the first time like I could play a role (beyond what I do and what many of us do on a micro level as we just go about living our lives in the spirit of equal rights for all.) 

Anyway, it's always awkward to read liveblogs after I post them - the copy editor in me goes a little nuts - but I wanted to capture a tiny bit of the spirit there. My laptop battery died in the final plenary before the final two speakers on the panel, and I wanted to make sure to link them here: 

Avis Jones-Deweever,  Director, Research, Public Policy, and Information Center
at the National Council of Negro Women ( http://www.ncnw.org/about/staff.htm ).  She had some great things to say about the necessity to deal head-on with economic/health care and other issues and I was so mad that I wasn't getting it down. Check the #fem2 tweetstream for some highlights. Same deal with Kierra Johnson of Choice USA ( http://www.choiceusa.org/index.php?option=com_cont... ).

So many thoughts and ideas and issues, it was amazing. It'll be interesting to see where this all goes next. 

Laurie White

LaurieWrites ( http://lauriewrites.typepad.com )

I never had any doubts that you would pull the conference off and that it would be fabulous. I hope that I can be helpful with any future plans you make, and also attend!

Suzanne Reisman ( http://www.blogher.com/member/suzanne-reisman ), Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender ( http://blogher.org/topic/feminism-gender )
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants ( http://cussandotherrants.com/ )

I can't believe we pulled it off! With the elections, the transition and inauguration and the tanking economy, whether or not we could or would was a serious question!

But, our original sense proved true - that we are at a watershed moment for women, frustrated by years of political disappointment and now increasinly connected and empowered by the Internet, who are sooooo ready to come together to remake this country in the best interests of ourselves and our families - which basically means everyone. I was so sorry you couldn't make it, but so appreciative of the tremendous support you gave us from the very beginning, and know you are with us as we figure out what we're going to do from here!

You may not have been there but you picked some great summaries and live-blogs to offer other absentees.  It really is too bad though; you would have loved it.  It was a wonderful, inspiring day.

Cynthia Samuels, Partner
Cobblestone Associates, LLP
Blog and Media Strategies and Content Development Online and on Television   

Don’t
Gel Too Soon ( http://dontgelyet.typepad.com/dontgeltoosoon )

Thanks for posting on the conference - BlogHer was extremely well-represented!! I'm afraid to list all of the people who've been active w/BlogHer who were there for fear I'll miss someone but we were a sizeable contingent.  It was a lot of fun AND work and thinking.

JillWrites Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )