Imagining the social justice warrior

Ruth A Deller(r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk @ruthdeller)

Tagging and #sjw ‘wars’• #gamergate• #notyourshield; #yourslipisshowing• #yesallwomen; #notallmen• #blacklivesmatter; #iftheygunnedmedown• #everydaysexism• #checkyourprivilege• #diecisscum• #freethenipple• Vs #mra #meninism #swm #terf … and more

Most people hadn’t heard of a “social justice warrior” until about a year ago, when it emerged as the preferred term among the Gamergate movement for the people they believed to be their greatest enemies… More than 20 years ago, the term was generally used as a neutral or even complimentary describer… There are a few negative uses that pop up, like a 2007 anti-multiculturalism editorial… But the balance is overall positive…. the year 2011 seemed to be a turning point. (Ohlheiser 2015)

Vs

?

Imagining• Space for LGBTQ+ identities (Oakley 2015; Renninger 2015;• Space for teens and younger adults (Bury et al 2013; Deller 2015; • Space of play (Tiidenberg 2012)• ‘You meet many different people, see absolutely [sic] and feel absolutely

beautiful things, experience things that wouldn’t happen in your wildest dreams and learn the most useful, weirdest and craziest things. Tumblr gives us the opportunity to connect unlike any other platform out there.’ (Songbird8 in Renninger 2015: 1520)• Tumblr as ‘policed’ or mocked by Reddit and other platforms (Deller 2015;

Renninger 2015)

Imagining • Sites of trolling and antagonism – ‘toxic technoculture’ (Massanari

2015. See also Phillips 2015; Bergstrom 2011)• But with feminist, LGBTQIA+ and other (counter)publics (Renninger

2015; Bergstrom 2015)• Sites of play (Massanari 2015; Shifman 2013)• 4chan – anarchic, ‘chaotic’, yet also policed. Memes as cultural capital

and ‘discursive weapons’ (Nissenbaum and Shifman 2015. See also Bernstein et al 2011; Trammell 2014)• Seen as male oriented (Milner 2013; Renninger 2015)