Growing up in rural North Carolina I could have gone my entire life without ever hearing the word “feminist.” The first time I heard it I didn’t know what it meant. It sounded awkward, vulgar, and derogatory, and when I was asked if I was a feminist it felt more like an accusation than a question. The inquiry ca
me from a white woman professor in a graduate course who wanted a show of hands of those who affiliated with the term. Ignorant and confused I reacted the same way everyone around me did. I wrinkled my nose and squinted my eyes at the sound of the word, and felt offended at the assumption that I might be associated with it. When my white woman professor asked me if I was a feminist, she may as well have asked me if I was a bitch.
[…]
“By being auto/ethnographic, blogs gain credibility by incorporating cultural, social and political components into subjective personal reflections. Auto/ethnographic blogs are also useful because they have the capacity to inspire cultural criticism, call for political action, and initiate important discussions about social justice (Clough). Accordingly, auto/ethnographic blogs resonate with readers due to their realness, subjectivity, emotionality, vulnerability, reflexivity, and bravery. Blogs and auto/ethnography are emotionally intelligent texts whose success is largely determined by their capacity to instigate a reaction in readers, either resonance or response. Accordingly, auto/ethnographic blogs have the capacity to be life-changing and life-affirming, helping to make possible the change we want to see in the world (Holman Jones).”
Robin M. Boylorn, “Blackgirl Blogs, Auto/ethnography, and Crunk Feminism Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 9, No. 2, April 2013