A Call to Feminist Bloggers

So as you may already be aware, in addition to being the chairwoman and CEO (Chief Entirely-Unpaid Officer...?) here at Back on Carrie’s Stoop, I’m also an academic. And in addition to my usual scholarly fare of nineteenth-century women’s history, I’ve been thinking a goodish bit lately about the feminist blogosphere—specifically about feminist bloggers who write about pop culture (or pop culture bloggers who tackle said pop culture through a feminist lens…whichever you prefer--you say potato, I say potato, etc., etc.) What motivates such bloggers to blog? What do they hope to do through their work and their criticism? How are they responded to by their readers? What potential do feminist blogs have to not only speak to, but also to transform culture?

To help me get some answers to said questions (apart from my own answers, of course--I already know what those are, and I must admit that I do not find them terribly interesting), I’ve put together a questionnaire, and hope to circulate it far and wide to feminist pop culture bloggers across, well, the feminist blogosphere, and get their (I am sure far more interesting) answers.

I’m going to be presenting at two quite delightful conferences (on pop culture and feminist activism, respectively) about this research later this year, and hope that I'll have some neat responses to talk about by then.

Which is where you come in, dear readers—if you yourself are a blogger, or know someone fantastic who is, or know some fantastic blog or book or article which I might want to read on the subject… please do let me know! You can e-mail me with any and all thoughts or questions, or interest in filling out my magical questionnaire (fingers crossed that some of you wish to do the latter!) at backoncarriesstoop@gmail.com. It would delight me to hear from you!

And just so you know, I am treating these questionnaires much as though I were a sociologist/journalist (used to dealing with the living) rather than a historian (used to dealing with the dead)—confidentiality and anonymity assured and guaranteed, there will be full disclosure about how I intend to use the info, I get, etc., etc. You’d think I dealt with the living all the time!