Anne,<br><br>I've been meaning to reply for a while. Its nice to see you post - for me you are a voice from the past in<br>an odd kind of way. You were one of the few feminist scholars working on Internet and technology related areas of research (with published work) when I first began my dissertation research in early 90s<br>
- even though you dont actually "know" me (we may meet at MLA soon on a panel, I think).<br><br>During those days I was heavily steeped in Usenet cultures and listserv cultures - and I have to agree that<br>they were not very welcoming to women or anyone outside of a certain aggressive, longwinded framework <br>
of articulation. Susan Herring has written about this in her early work - the gendered nature of how people post<br>to email lists.<br><br>I ended up working with the Spoon collective and starting lists as part of my explorations online. But my main dissertation<br>
theorizing is based on my experience within a women only south asian email list. <br><br>I come to the idea of participating or not on lists from another angle - the context for participation on listprocs is different<br>
nowadays with so many people blogging, tweeting, face-booking, gaming, youtubing and so on... where "flaming" has somehow become weaved into the everyday almost... and various online spaces form around niches so that there are enough gendered comfort spaces as well (knit podcast, etsy, ravelry, feminist gamers.... ).<br>
<br>Most of the time when I dont post <br>to a list it is because i am basically overly "list-proc-ed" and cant keep up with all the many places I feel I can<br>contribute to the conversation...<br><br>So I continue to lurk...:) <br>
<br>(which in my past life I would have found difficult to do ).<br><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Radhika Gajjala<br>Director, American Culture Studies<br>Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies<br>101 East Hall<br>
Bowling Green State University<br>Bowling Green, OH 43403<br><br><a href="http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik">http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik</a><br><br>