Feminist talk
Beyond the offline-online binary – why women need a new global social contract
By Anita Gurumurthy
The non-territorial, transborder Internet has added layers of complexity to the human rights debate. The idea of substantive equality – a compass for human rights and the key to gender justice – must be interpreted anew and afresh, as the force of digital technologies complicates the nature of social relations and institutions. The easy binary divisions of online and offline cease to make sense…
Feminist talk
ESC rights, gender and internet: Learnings from the GISWatch report
By Namita
The GISWatch report 2016 looks at the link between economic, social, cultural (ESC) rights and the internet in several countries, and from a multitude of systems of governance, whether that of socialism and the welfare state, or the semi-functional welfare schemes in parts of Asia and Africa (Uganda, Cambodia), and even the relatively privileged parts of the world, like Spain. Here is a synthesis…
Feminist talk
Algorithmic discrimination and the feminist politics of being in the data
By Nicole Shephard
Global data volume has grown exponentially in recent years and experts expect this trend to continue. The wider trend towards the pervasive datafication of our lives is not one we can just sit out. Big data and the algorithmic decisions it feeds permeate citizenship, healthcare, welfare states, education, finance, law enforcement as well as the ways in which we shop, travel, and live our social…
Feminist talk
Digital Storytelling: All our stories are true and they are ours!
By Jennifer Radloff
It is a sacred act to tell and to listen to stories. Some of our stories are rooted so deep in our cells, psyches and hearts, that it takes an act of courage to find the words to tell them. We each contain a multitude of stories that shape and make us who we are. It can also be a political act to tell a story. We conceptualise digital story telling as a recording and documentation method which…
Feminist talk
[COLUMN] Joining the dots: ICT sweatshops facing the heat
By Sonia Randhawa
This month's column by Sonia Randhawa looks at intersections between ICTs, gender and climate change through the lens of the women working in the software, rather than the hardware side of things. While many of the big companies in North America have taken steps to ensure that the energy for data processing comes from renewable sources, the question remains what is the environmental impact and…
Feminist talk
Its 2016 and Facebook is still terrified of women's nipples
By Japleen
Facebook's arbitrary policy on women's nipples has angered many, who find their content removed or accounts suspended or banned. Japleen Pasricha writes about being repeatedly 'punished' by Facebook for posting content on the social media platform that is feminist and bold, about young women growing up and even images of protest by women in Manipur against the oppression of the Indian army and…
Feminist talk
[COLUMN] The Gender Binary: TERFs, terms and conditions
By Nadika
Is the internet a playground for sexual identities, or also where new sources of shame and anxiety are found? Nadika in this month's column explores the complexity of different online labels or identities, including that of shemale. She writes about the inspiring journeys of trans women, how they came to adopt or reject labels and identities, and their idea of transgender femininity. Through…
Feminist talk
[READING LIST] Gender, Race, Sexuality and Surveillance
By Nicole Shephard
This reading list provides an overview of recent books, articles and sources across the internet for those interested in learning more about how race, gender, and sexuality relate to surveillance. Far from comprehensive, it offers a starting point to explore how an intersectional lens and feminist attention to state, corporate, and peer surveillance practices and their differential effects on…
Feminist talk
The (mobile) games women play
By Neha Mathews
Games on mobile phones are often a disregarded area of study, because it is relatively cheap and less glamorous than video games. But global consumer spending on mobile gaming in 2015 was estimated to be worth 34.8 billion dollars, and there have been several reports talking about how India is on the ‘verge of a mobile gaming boom’. What the numbers often fail to mention is that a large chunk of…
Feminist talk
[COLUMN] Joining the dots: Labour, sustainability, resilience in gender and climate change
By Sonia Randhawa
What is the connection between labour unions, women workers and climate change? This monthly column on connecting the dots between climate change and gender, explores the exploitative conditions that are still prevalent in the electronics industry. While workers in Pearl River delta in China may no longer face sweatshop conditions, the production has shifted to other poorer parts and most often…
