Gendered coloniality and the politics of internet access

This thesis re-theorises the under-researched concept of internet access from a decolonial feminist perspective, contributing to emergent decolonising debates in the field. Scholarship on internet access has bifurcated towards ‘digital divide’ and ‘digital inequalities’ approaches on the one hand, and internet governance and policy approaches on the other, limiting view of multi-scalar arrangements. This research considers how varied modes of access facilitate and limit decolonising politics with relation to the historically-constituted, geopolitical and sociotechnical construction of the internet. The multi-sited, multi-scalar, decolonial feminist methodology has involved five years of participant observation at internet governance consultations, Mozilla Festival, RightsCon and the global Internet Governance Forum, taking place both in-person and online. Additionally, I have followed and interviewed youth activists located across the African continent and feminist activists located across South Asia, as they have circulated between these sites and their communities of work. I argue that relations of gendered coloniality, shaped by co-constitutive processes of gendered/racialised oppression, structure expansionist moves to generate a particular internet universality. Research findings show these workings are obscured from view often by seemingly virtuous claims that, at face-value, look to be in opposition the entrenched disparities that the colonial matrix of power maintains. Gendered coloniality denigrates Majority World knowledges, ways of being and socialities. In the governance of the internet these relations project Western societies as kinetic, innovative and future-oriented, whilst Majority World societies are fixed into the eternal past. In the face of these moves to power activist collaborators who contribute to the research engage in multi-scalar negotiations for access for themselves and their communities. In their organising these activists value lived experience at the borders and multi-scalar tactics, whilst embodying decolonial habitus and cultivating solidarities. The work finds that ‘access’ is in an inherently limited concept, functioning to foreclose options outside of a market-based, US-shaped and Global North-led internet universality. However, the access agenda is used by activists to articulate and share differentiated notions of interconnectivity which are expansive and optimistic in their ambitions towards social justice; these visions are the basis for what I term ‘internet pluriversality’

Changing spaces: exploring the role of the internet in supporting non-heterosexual youth aged 18-25 in Ireland

This study used a sequential qualitatively driven design to explore non-heterosexual internet usage among 18-25 year olds in Ireland. Within the last decade there has been a growing body of research focusing on supporting sexual minority youth in Ireland and understanding their experiences, yet little is known about how they use the internet for support. Non-heterosexual youth can use the internet to access narratives and communities which previously would have required physical presence in geographical places. Considering the role that narrative plays within identity formation, the change this spatial shift has brought about in social relations offers the opportunity for a radical reshaping of both the development of identity and the opportunities for new types of identity to occur in places which they would be unlikely to occur in the past. This study has addressed the gap in literature by positioning a phenomenological sense of place at the centre of the analysis. Using a questionnaire with 126 participants along with 8 in depth narrative based interviews, the study found that non-heterosexual youth perceive the internet as highly valued for its supportive role in identity formation as well the ability to redefine norms and authenticate place for those who experience an absence of offline support

Negotiating queer public visibility: experiences of LGBTI residents in Kurtuluş, Istanbul

This thesis focuses on the everyday spatial practices and encounters of the LGBTI residents living in Kurtuluş, İstanbul. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the residents of Kurtuluş and participant observation, the research explores how LGBTI residents negotiate the spatialized boundaries of sexuality, gender and the morality in the district. How do LGBTI residents negotiate mahalleli identity and the presence of queerness as a component of the neighborhood among each other and with the other residents? What are the limits of public and the private in Kurtuluş? What is the role of sexuality in the construction of these limits? What kinds of queer visibility are negotiated in the neighborhood? Departing from these questions, this thesis argues that Kurtuluş is a challenging area beyond being merely modern or traditional, since it contains the complicated mix of diverse spatial codes and practices of living together, and this very in-between terrain of Kurtuluş becomes a site for LGBTI residents to build a sense of community, to produce queer social spaces, and to reconstruct themselves variously, beyond “trans-normative” codes of visibility in the case of trans sex workers living in the district. The thesis aims to contribute to the growing literature on sexuality in Turkey as well as to the literature of cultural geography in Turkey with a critical reconsideration of the geographical concepts such as space, place, sites of resistance, the transgression of boundaries, and the concepts of public and private, and further to that, to come up with an interdisciplinary research which extends the limits of these two fields

Gender performances as a response to accelerationism:self-destructive masculinity in the post-internet music of Death Grips

Abstract. This master’s thesis is an examination of the experimental hip hop band Death Grips and specifically the masculine persona that their music portrays. The theoretical framework is comprised of examination of the genre of post-internet music and comparison to its other artists, the theory of accelerationism and also studies of internet subculture discourses. As many post-internet artists also express accelerationist themes in their music and their artistic representation links heavily to internet subcultures, these form a crucial part in understanding the subject at hand. In comparison with other post-internet artists, Death Grips can be seen to portray a significantly more fatalistic view of the accelerationist future. It is marked by downward trajectories in dire economic realities, inherent white supremacy in society and in the ways that technology will increasingly be used to control humans. The prevalent instances of toxic behavior are then symptoms of a masculine identity in crisis due to the inevitability of this accelerationist progression and an attempt to survive by violent exertion. Also noteworthy is how the interactions between Death Grips and their 4chan audience continuously co-construct the development and resultant implications of the band’s works. In this, the band not only exhibits a notable example of processual post-internet approach to creating art but also by engaging in 4chan’s transgressive meme culture, they strengthen the platform’s societal relevance that has been noted for directly influencing accelerationist developments in contemporary mainstream politics.Tiivistelmä. Tämä pro gradu tutkii kokeellista hiphopbändiä Death Gripsiä, ja erityisesti heidän musiikissaan esittämää maskuliinista persoonaa. Teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu post-internet musiikkigenrestä ja vertailusta muihin kyseisen genren artisteihin, akselerationismin teoeriasta ja internetdiskurssien tutkimuksista. Koska monet post-internet artistit myös esittävät akselerationistisia teemoja musiikissaan ja heidän artistinen representaatio linkittyy vahvasti internetin alakulttuureihin, nämä osat muodostavat oleellisen osan aiheen tutkimisesta. Verratessa toisiin post-internet artisteihin, Death Gripsin voi nähdä esittävän merkittävästi fatalistisempaa kuvaa akselerationistisesta tulevaisuudesta. Tämä käsittää huonontuvan kehityksen taloudellisissa realiteeteissa, yhteiskunnan ylläpitämässä valkoisessa ylivallassa ja tavoissa, joilla teknologia tulee kontrolloimaan ihmisiä. Toksinen käytös on täten oireilua maskuliinisen identiteetin kriisistä väistämättömän akselerationistisen kehityksen edessä ja pyrkimys selviytyä väkivaltaisin ponnistuksin. Huomionarvoista on myös, kuinka Death Gripsin ja heidän 4chan-yleisönsä väliset interaktiot konstruoivat bändin kehitystä ja heidän töidensä implikaatioita jatkuvassa vuorovaikutussuhteessa. Death Grips osoittaa tällä sekä esimerkkiä post-internetille ominaisesta prosessuaalisesta lähestymisestä taiteeseen, mutta osallistumalla 4chanin transgressiiviseen meemikulttuuriin he myös vahvistavat kyseisen keskustelualustan yhteiskunnallista relevanssia, jonka on nähty suoraan vaikuttavan akselerationistisiin muutoksiin nykyajan valtavirtapolitiikassa

Standing in the way of control: Me + third-wave feminism.

This thesis is an example of what happens when a young feminist from a background in community organizing, zine-ing, crafting, and resistance chooses to go to grad school to pursue her nerdy passion: third-wave feminism. Overarching narratives include making space for third-wave feminism in the academy, struggling with the dichotomous/wave framing of contemporary feminist movements, first voice vs. scientific knowledge, and what theory looks like in practice (because, really, you can't have one without the other). --P.ii.The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b167480

Gender without sex(uality)? Exploring the relationship between gender and sexuality at the empirical sites of asexuality and sexual abstinence

This thesis is a case study of the relationship between gender and sexuality at the empirical sites of asexuality and sexual abstinence. Whilst this relationship has been theorised in a number of ways, there has been limited empirical research on how this relationship ‘works’ in practice, with extant studies focusing largely on transgender. I suggest that asexuality and abstinence represent an interesting site to explore this relationship since they represent, for want of a better term, a lack, absence, or negative sexuality (in that there is a lack of sexual attraction to others, or there is an abstention from sexual activity). The study is also warranted due to the insufficient sociological research on abstinence, as well as the limitations of the literature and research in the nascent interdisciplinary field of asexuality studies. Through conducting qualitative research (using interviews and notebooks) with 33 participants who identified as asexual or abstinent, I found that gender and sexuality were experienced as entangled in the lives of participants. With reference to the socio-structural context of hetero-patriarchy, I trace how ideas about sexual desire, sexual activity and sexual agency are (still) gendered, and how this impacts on both the construction of abstinence and asexuality as concepts, as well as in the experiences participants had as asexual people or as people who were practising abstinence. I also explore how sexuality was central to participants’ understandings of gender, and how this affected their gender identities, gendered appearances, and experiences of gendered embodiment. Ultimately, this thesis argues for the importance in theorising and researching gender and sexuality together, and in particular, for the importance of ‘gendering’ sexualities research

Changing discursive formations from Supernatural: fanfic and the legitimation paradox

This thesis argues that fanfic operates through a paradox of legitimation. Using the current cult text Supernatural (CW, 2006-) as a case study, discourse theory adapted from Foucault is utilized to establish that discursive formations from the source text can be de- and re-constructed, sometimes consolidating canon’s constructions, but at other times, altering Othered characterizations and criticising statements from canon. Paradoxically, however, this process utilizes and functions through the capital of the already-empowered: the White male Author (Jenkins 1995; Hills 2002; 2010a; Wexelblat 2002; Gray 2010; Kompare 2011; Scott 2011), and/or the White male protagonists of the series (c.f. Dyer 1992). The discursive formations studied are identified from the researcher’s situated position as fan- insider and academic (c.f. Hills 2002; Hodkinson 2005). They are judged to be of significance in the canon and fandom, and pertinent to the questions of power and Authority this study addresses. The methodology utilizes some techniques from network analysis (Park and Thelwall 2003) to chart the impact of fan-statements in an innovative fashion, using both quantitative and qualitative measures, whilst retaining insights from discourse theory to account for the specificity of fiction as a particular form of writing. In this way, the strength of statements, discursive boundaries, and techniques for alteration can be observed. The study concludes that, though the legitimation paradox cannot be unproblematically escaped or overcome, fanfic has begun to compromise it via deconstruction of the concepts of originality and authorship; and iii thus, from a postmodern perspective, the terms of the legitimation paradox can begin to be questione

Queer mothers and daughters: the role of queer kinship in the everyday lives of trans sex worker women in Istanbul

This thesis focuses on the queer kinship experiences of trans sex worker women in Istanbul, Turkey. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews and participantobservation with individuals who have been part of a queer mother/daughter kinship relation, the research explores the role of queer kinship in everyday practice of trans lives, in exploring its connections to transphobia and heteronormativity. What is queer kinship? How has it developed? What are some of the meanings attached to it? In what ways is it destructive of heteronormativity and/or hegemonic family structures? What gets transmitted from mothers to daughters? Can we speak of a queer inter-generational transmission of memory and a queer postmemory as M. Hirsch conceptualizes? Departing from these questions, this research investigates the alternative forms of motherhood and daughterhood through J. Halberstam’s conceptualization of queer time and space and argues that queer kinship forms its own time zone in which normative understandings of terms such as “birth”, “generation” and “growing up” are deconstructed, and reconstructed. At the same time, this research points out the dynamics and practices in queer kinship that reproduce the binary structure of gender roles through gender reassignment process. The thesis argues that we can speak of a queer inter-generational transmission of knowledge and memory that constructs a collective identity, empowerment, and resistance against transphobic violence coming from state institutions and customers. The thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on queer kinship and memory by exploring the everyday life practices of queer mothers and daughters among trans sex workers in Istanbul

Montana Kaimin, April 18, 1996

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/studentnewspaper/10021/thumbnail.jp