Two “Actually Existing” Networked Counterpublics: The Rhetorics of the Feminist Blogosphere and Political Black Twitter

Abstract

A growing number of scholars are examining how new technologies and new media spaces shape public discourses and activities. This work explored two networked counterpublics, Slutwalk and Black Twitter. Each counterpublic is treated separately, however both were studied through a feminist rhetorical lens that assumes “actually existing” publics are valuable sites of rhetorical inquiry. The researcher utilized the feminist rhetorical research practice “strategic contemplation” throughout the project’s process. Several interesting findings emerged; Slutwalk is a movement resisting exigent issues in rape culture. Slutwalk as a feminist subject serves as a useful microcosm for understanding the contours of contemporary third wave feminist debates, which tend to be hypercritical. Moreover, in comparing the ways in which two cities separately organized their own Slutwalks, a difference between “active” and “passive” intersectionality was identified. The Black Twitter community is a powerful networked counterpublic that is gaining scholarly attention. This project contributes an explication of how the community is culturally Black, and traces the multimodal strategies of Political Black Twitter in the context of #Ferguson and mainstream media narratives.