Feminista Jones

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Feminista Jones
Feminista Jones at Sexuality Conference Widener University.jpg
Jones speaks at Widener University in 2015
Born
Michelle Taylor

(1979-04-06) April 6, 1979 (age 45)
Education University of Pennsylvania (BA)
Hunter College (MSW)
Temple University (PhD)
Occupation(s)Social worker, author, activist
Notable workReclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminism is Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets
Website feministajones.com

Feminista Jones (born Michelle Taylor; April 6, 1979) is an American social worker, author, and activist known for her work on Black feminism. [1] She is a freelance writer for national newspapers and magazines, a podcaster, book author, and social media influencer. [2]

Contents

Career

Jones is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, [3] and obtained an MSW from Hunter College and a PhD from Temple University. [4]

In 2019, Jones authored Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminism is Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets. [5] [6] In 2020, she founded the Sankofa Summer School, "a virtual Afrocentric community school for students and adults aged 14+". [7]

Activism

In 2013, Jones was selected as a United Nations Foundation Fellow for her social media influence.[ citation needed ]

In 2014, Jones launched a global anti-street harassment campaign (#YouOKSis) after she tweeted about her own experience intervening in an incident of street harassment in New York. [8] Another user, Mia McKenzie, suggested turning the phrase she had used to check in with the woman—"You OK, sis"—into a hashtag campaign designed to raise awareness and encourage people to ask victims of harassment if they need help. [8] Hundreds of people began using the hashtag to report street harassment. [8]

The same year, Jones launched the National Moment of Silence protesting police brutality (#NMOS14), which received international media attention. [8] #NMOS14 was used to organize national vigils after the death of Michael Brown. [5] She was named one of the SheKnows/BlogHer 2015 "Voices of the Year" in their Impact category for her work with #NMOS14. [9]

Jones was a featured speaker at the January 21, 2017, Philadelphia Women's March, where she primarily discussed the difference between allies and co-conspirators. [5]

Other work

In 2015, Jones co-founded and served as general director of the Women's Freedom Conference, the first all-digital conference organized by and featuring exclusively women of color. Jones has written for the Washington Post , Salon , Time , and Ebony . [10] She has also been regularly featured on Huffington Post Live, has appeared on the Dr. Oz Show and the Exhale Show, and her work has appeared on C-SPAN (2014) [11] and MSNBC (2014). [12] Jones also advocates for young children as well as the homeless and those with psychiatric disabilities. [13]

Jones wrote an article for The Washington Post on May 14, 2015, titled, "Keep Harriet Tubman—and all women—off the $20 bill." She argued it is wrong to place Black women on money, especially Harriet Tubman, due to the historic lack of access to wealth by women and especially women of color. Jones contended that placing Tubman on the $20 bill is counterproductive because "Her legacy is rooted in resisting the foundation of American capitalism." [14]

Reclaiming Our Space

In 2019, Jones published Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminism is Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets. [15]

Publishers Weekly wrote in its review that Jones "astutely analyses the nuances of black female identity." [16] Kirkus Reviews described the book as "[s]harp and provocative, the narrative is most powerful in its implication that, unless born to privilege, all Americans, regardless of race or gender, now 'feel something akin to what Black people... have always experienced.' Understanding black (female) struggles are therefore critical for everyone." [17] The book additionally explores features of Black feminist social action, such as the use of "traditional African-rooted call and response" on Twitter. [18]

Works

Novel

Poetry

Nonfiction

Personal life

Jones was born and raised in New York City. Jones identifies as pansexual. [19] She is divorced and has one son. [13]

Accolades

Related Research Articles

Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of our need as human persons for autonomy."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminism in the United States</span>

Feminism is aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. It has had a massive influence on American politics. Feminism in the United States is often divided chronologically into first-wave, second-wave, third-wave, and fourth-wave feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Jones (comedian)</span> American comedian and actress (born 1967)

Annette Leslie Jones is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She was a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2014 to 2019, and hosted the ABC game show Supermarket Sweep. She has also been a featured performer at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal and the Aspen Comedy Festival. In 2010, her one-hour comedy special, Problem Child, was broadcast on Showtime. Jones starred in Ghostbusters (2016) as Patty Tolan. In 2017 and 2018, Jones was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Saturday Night Live.

Networked feminism is a phenomenon that can be described as the online mobilization and coordination of feminists in response to sexist, misogynistic, racist, and other discriminatory acts against minority groups. This phenomenon covers all possible definitions of what feminist movements may entail, as there have been multiple waves of feminist movements and there is no central authority to control what the term "feminism" claims to be. While one may hold a different opinion from another on the definition of "feminism", all those who believe in these movements and ideologies share the same goal of dismantling the current patriarchal social structure, where men hold primary power and higher social privileges above all others.

Feminist Digital Humanities is a more recent development in the field of Digital Humanities, a project incorporating digital and computational methods as part of its research methodology. Feminist Digital Humanities has risen partly because of recent criticism of the propensity of Digital Humanities to further patriarchal or hegemonic discourses in the Academy. Women are rapidly dominating social media in order to educate people about feminist growth and contributions. Research proves the rapid growth of Feminist Digital Humanities started during the post-feminism era around from the 1980s to 1990s. Such feminists’ works provides examples through the text technology, social conditions of literature and rhetorical analysis. Feminist Digital Humanities aims to identify and explore women's digital contributions as well as articulate where and why these contributions are important.

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Black Twitter is an internet community largely consisting of the Black diaspora of users in the United States and other nations on Twitter, focused on issues of interest to the black community. Feminista Jones described it in Salon as "a collective of active, primarily African-American Twitter users who have created a virtual community proving adept at bringing about a wide range of sociopolitical changes." A similar Black Twitter community arose in South Africa in the early 2010s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hashtag activism</span> Use of hashtags for internet activism

Hashtag activism refers to the use of social media hashtags for Internet activism. The hashtag has become one of the many ways that social media contributes to civic engagement and social movements. The use of the hashtag on social media provides users with an opportunity to share information and opinions about social issues in a way that others (followers) can interact and engage as part of a larger conversation with the potential to create change. The hashtag itself consists of a word or phrase that is connected to a social or political issue, and fosters a place where discourse can occur. Social media provides an important platform for historically marginalized populations. Through the use of hashtags these groups are able to communicate, mobilize, and advocate for issues less visible to the mainstream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YesAllWomen</span> Online feminist movement

#YesAllWomen is a Twitter hashtag and social media campaign in which users share examples or stories of misogyny and violence against women. First used in online conversations about misogyny following the 2014 Isla Vista killings, the hashtag was popular in May 2014, and was created partly in response to the Twitter hashtag #NotAllMen. #YesAllWomen reflected a grassroots campaign in which women shared their personal stories about harassment and discrimination. The campaign attempted to raise awareness of sexism that women experience, often from people they know.

Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015. Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminism and media</span> Use of media by feminist movements

The socio-political movements and ideologies of feminism have found expression in various media. These media include newspaper, literature, radio, television, social media, film, and video games. They have been essential to the success of many feminist movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María Galindo</span> Bolivian activist

María Galindo Neder is a Bolivian anarcha-feminist and psychologist. She has worked as a radio presenter and television host. She has written three books and is also a screenwriter.

Fourth-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began around the early 2010s and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women, the use of internet tools, and intersectionality. The fourth wave seeks greater gender equality by focusing on gendered norms and the marginalization of women in society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ijeoma Oluo</span> Nigerian-American writer

Ijeoma Oluo is an American writer. She is the author of So You Want to Talk About Race and has written for The Guardian,Jezebel, The Stranger, Medium, and The Establishment, where she was also an editor-at-large.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MeToo movement</span> Social movement against sexual abuse and harassment

#MeToo is a social movement and awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke. The hashtag #MeToo was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem. "Me Too" is meant to empower those who have been sexually assaulted through empathy, solidarity and strength in numbers, by visibly demonstrating how many have experienced sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meghan Murphy</span> Canadian feminist and journalist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth-wave feminism in Spain</span>

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References

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