Virtual Dwelling: Feminist Orientations to Digital Communities
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Date
2021-11-16
Authors
Wiens, Brianna I.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lexington Books
Abstract
This chapter offers the praxis of virtual dwelling, an approach for exploring the circulation of stories and power at an individual level. Through dwelling with stories to analyze their ebbs and flows throughout differently mediated spheres via reflection, I consider how participants of the “me too.” Movement iteratively bring into broader discourse their everyday lived experiences. To do so, I trace a series of stories as they intersect through the metaphor of the “me too.” Movement as a witch hunt and the associated feminist embodiment of the symbolism of the witch to illustrate what virtual dwelling looks like and how it functions to map erased histories and offer context for “me too.” stories. Here, I argue that the use of the witch in the “me too.” Movement deserves our consideration because the metaphors that are used to describe women and their endeavours matter affectively, emotionally, and physically, with material consequences for shaping and responding to the world. Through my own dwelling in virtual space, I demonstrate why this matters and how different strands of scholarship can work together to cultivate alternative ways of seeing these stories that span across different technologies, platforms, media sources, and stories. This chapter illustrates how individually virtual dwelling with specific tensions, like the witch and the so called #MeToo witch hunt, as they cut across different mediated spheres and timelines can nurture different perspectives on dominant storylines and revitalize overlooked histories.