Digital spaces offer new ways to define ourselves.
In today’s interconnected world, digital platforms provide individuals with
unprecedented opportunities to shape their identities, challenge traditional norms,
and foster self-expression.
Intersectionality plays a crucial role in understanding how digital
spaces offer new avenues for self-definition. It recognizes that individuals’ experiences
are shaped by the intersections of various social categories such as gender, race,
sexuality, and class.
In digital spaces, intersectionality allows
for more diverse and inclusive narratives to emerge, as individuals from marginalized
communities can reclaim their narratives and challenge dominant representations.
Through social media, blogs, and online communities, people can amplify
their voices, share their experiences, and actively define their identities in ways that
challenge oppressive systems.
Feminism further emphasizes the transformative power of
digital spaces in enabling individuals, particularly women and people from oppressed
communities, to define themselves on their own terms.
Historically, women’s identities and self-perceptions have been shaped and limited by
patriarchal norms and the male gaze, which objectifies and commodifies their bodies. Digital
spaces disrupt this dynamic by providing a platform for women to reclaim their agency,
challenge societal expectations, and express their multifaceted identities.
The male gaze refers to the traditional way of looking at women through a
heterosexual male lens, often reducing them to objects of desire.
Digital spaces provide an opportunity to
challenge and subvert the male gaze by allowing individuals to curate their
own online presence.
Women can share their perspectives, challenge stereotypes, and
redefine beauty standards on their own terms. Showcasing their achievements, creativity,
and diverse talents, they reshape the narrative around women’s identities and empower others
to do the same.
Conversely, the female gaze brings a feminist perspective to the act of looking and
representation. It centers women’s desires, perspectives, and experiences, offering alternative
ways of seeing and representing themselves. In digital spaces, the female gaze can be
expressed through art, photography, and storytelling that highlights women’s agency, diverse
experiences, and non-conforming identities.
It allows for the exploration of female desire, pleasure,
and subjectivity, challenging traditional narratives and creating space for self-definition
outside of patriarchal norms.
Digital spaces offer a unique place for individuals to define themselves
without the constraints of physical appearances or societal expectations. Online communities,
virtual worlds, and social media platforms allow people to explore different facets of their
identity, experiment with self-expression, and engage in dialogues that transcend geographic
and cultural boundaries.
Through creative digital avatars, personal
websites, and social media profiles, individuals can curate their online personas and present
themselves authentically, emphasizing aspects of their identity that may be marginalized or
overlooked in the physical world.
In conclusion, digital spaces provide transformative opportunities for self-definition,
intersectional narratives, and feminist perspectives. They allow individuals to challenge
traditional norms, reclaim their identities, and foster inclusivity. By disrupting the male
gaze and embracing the female gaze, digital spaces empower individuals to redefine themselves
on their own terms and contribute to a more diverse and equitable representation of identities
in the digital realm.
Self-definition is a prime aspect of feminism.
This sentence encapsulates a core principle of the feminist movement. At its essence,
feminism seeks to dismantle oppressive systems and empower individuals, particularly women,
to define themselves on their own terms
Self-definition acknowledges that each person has the right
to shape their own identity, express their authentic self, and determine their own path.
Feminism recognizes that society often imposes limiting roles, expectations,
and stereotypes on individuals based on their gender. By promoting self-definition, feminism
challenges these societal constructs and encourages individuals to reject prescribed
notions of who they should be.
It affirms that personal experiences, desires, and identities
are diverse and valid, and that individuals have the agency to define themselves
beyond the confines of societal norms.
Self-definition is essential for achieving gender equality and dismantling systems of
oppression. It enables women to reclaim their voices, make choices that align with their
values and aspirations, and challenge patriarchal structures.
By embracing self-definition, feminism affirms the autonomy
and agency of individuals, fostering an environment where personal empowerment,
self-expression, and individuality can thrive.
It recognizes that no one person’s identity should be defined or limited by others,
but rather be shaped by their own experiences, desires, and values.
About the project
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The Digital Feminist Manifesto aims to find new ways to define visual self-representation in digital spaces through a feminist point of view. Taking into account the medium that the digital space is, this website will change and evolve, to better accomodate future theories or discoveries regarding the subject of digital spaces.
But as the digital spaces are still made by physical people, it seemed crucial to give the website some ties to the AFK world (stands for Away From Keyboard, Legacy Russel). Therefore, the Digital Feminist manifesto needs to exist beyond the digital space, in our physical world. To make this possible, each point of the manifesto is printable.
Click, print, take the streets, spread the words.
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This website is a diploma project made at ECAL in 2023 under the supervision of Guy Meldem & Jonathan Hares
Graphic Design, texts, illustrations and animation by Tessa Roy
Fonts : Instrument Serif, PT Serif
Many thanks to Nicole Udry, Elodie Anglade, Alexandru Balgiu and Adryan Barrilliet for their additional help, guidance and support throughout the elaboration of this project.
Additional infinite thanks to Laeticia Jakob, Aude Gunzinger and Louise Dupont for their mental strenght and getting their hands dirty throughout the nights we spent glueing down the Manifesto's Statement on public walls.
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