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A review by mariahistryingtoread
Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets by Feminista Jones
2.0
I really kicked it into maximum overdrive for this? Never again.
The Twitter angle is interesting, but it limits the book unnecessarily. And for all the focus on Twitter, the Twitter examples actually end up falling off sharply meaning it couldn’t even stick to its own bit. In reality this is more of a Black Feminist look at the internet's influence on Black Feminist outreach with social media being at the core. Even then it does not use its premise to full effect because it's not willing to be more critical. I get wanting to be optimistic and I also understand how social media has been very helpful in some respects. Still that is only part of the story.
I disapprove of nonfiction books that avoid exploring the full breadth of a topic as it’s misleading. This sacrifices a developed argument in favor of overstating the success of Black women in the Internet sphere. It’s not like Black women have not been successful or changed the landscape. It’s more that there are caveats to it that need to be accounted for to see the true depth of their triumph as well as the full scope of what we are up against. You should not enter into activism whether that be online or otherwise lightly. It’s important to discuss the drawbacks too.
Feminista Jones doesn't discuss digital Blackface, racist algorithms, the way leftist talking points have been weaponized against us, the short shelf life for Black women in the public eye, or the failure of the websites themselves to protect us. TikTok isn't mentioned at all despite being the premier social app. Even taking into account the time differential from writing to publishing the book, TikTok would have been very popular. None of the major pitfalls of the Internet in this day and age are talked about.
I dig way deeper in my review of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez if you want to get a much longer, more detailed idea of what my opinions are surrounding the current notions of sex positivity. Long story short, I hate it because it’s too focused on the positives without the negatives and as such encourages young women into sexual situations that do not benefit or can actively harm them in the long run because they are not able to make well formed, educated decisions if not given the entire picture. This isn’t actually a bug, it’s a feature as the patriarchy has simply repackaged modern feminist rhetoric about sex for its own gain and uses the women themselves as the shepherds.
I'm very tired of sex positivity being a cornerstone of feminism in the first place because to me it is not nearly the most important part. It’s the only way that women have technically won in some fashion so many women cling to it rather than move onto the harder, more necessary work. Jones does not explore the nuances to hook-ups or casual sexual relationships. She leaves it at ‘sexual promiscuity is good as long as it's not hurting anyone’ which is not only naive, it relies heavily on the erroneous idea that individual choices are empowering for the whole; a tenet of the pernicious white feminism. It also ignores how Black women engaging in these behaviors are often seeking empowerment via a white lens as white people being sexually promiscuous has an inherently different weight than that of Black people due to how Black people have been historically fetishized.
This is entirely personal thing, but I've very much moved on from the idea that our salvation lies with appealing to the white moderate so I don't really care if white women get it or not. I was unmoved by Jones attempting to reason with a potential white readership at times. I am in no way saying that allyship is not good or important. I'm simply saying that, for me, all of my white education tokens have been spent.
Overall I think this book just does not have enough information to back up its claims. Salient points certainly are made, but the book is flawed from conception.
The fact of the matter is can be difficult to quantify the success of a Twitter campaign because the effects trickle down over time. What's successful at the moment may not have far reaching impact or the 'success' is merely a designation because success means different things to different people. Like her example of #BlackGirlsAreMagic becoming a common part of our current vernacular is successful in one sense because it is a somewhat tangible way of measuring a rise in the confidence of Black women and praise for their achievements, however, on the flip side it's only a phrase. It does not technically equal any real gain since it's not even a call to action and also has been commodified. These hashtags always end up getting co-opted for corporate or individual gain. The message gets watered down and misinterpreted when it grows to a certain level.
Ignoring the Twitter element, it’s just a shallow, underwhelming take on social media from a Black woman’s perspective. I expected so much more than I received. I say pass on this one. There have to be more critical, evocative books on Black peoples’ influence on the social media age. If not, I say wait it out until it eventually gets published.
The Twitter angle is interesting, but it limits the book unnecessarily. And for all the focus on Twitter, the Twitter examples actually end up falling off sharply meaning it couldn’t even stick to its own bit. In reality this is more of a Black Feminist look at the internet's influence on Black Feminist outreach with social media being at the core. Even then it does not use its premise to full effect because it's not willing to be more critical. I get wanting to be optimistic and I also understand how social media has been very helpful in some respects. Still that is only part of the story.
I disapprove of nonfiction books that avoid exploring the full breadth of a topic as it’s misleading. This sacrifices a developed argument in favor of overstating the success of Black women in the Internet sphere. It’s not like Black women have not been successful or changed the landscape. It’s more that there are caveats to it that need to be accounted for to see the true depth of their triumph as well as the full scope of what we are up against. You should not enter into activism whether that be online or otherwise lightly. It’s important to discuss the drawbacks too.
Feminista Jones doesn't discuss digital Blackface, racist algorithms, the way leftist talking points have been weaponized against us, the short shelf life for Black women in the public eye, or the failure of the websites themselves to protect us. TikTok isn't mentioned at all despite being the premier social app. Even taking into account the time differential from writing to publishing the book, TikTok would have been very popular. None of the major pitfalls of the Internet in this day and age are talked about.
I dig way deeper in my review of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez if you want to get a much longer, more detailed idea of what my opinions are surrounding the current notions of sex positivity. Long story short, I hate it because it’s too focused on the positives without the negatives and as such encourages young women into sexual situations that do not benefit or can actively harm them in the long run because they are not able to make well formed, educated decisions if not given the entire picture. This isn’t actually a bug, it’s a feature as the patriarchy has simply repackaged modern feminist rhetoric about sex for its own gain and uses the women themselves as the shepherds.
I'm very tired of sex positivity being a cornerstone of feminism in the first place because to me it is not nearly the most important part. It’s the only way that women have technically won in some fashion so many women cling to it rather than move onto the harder, more necessary work. Jones does not explore the nuances to hook-ups or casual sexual relationships. She leaves it at ‘sexual promiscuity is good as long as it's not hurting anyone’ which is not only naive, it relies heavily on the erroneous idea that individual choices are empowering for the whole; a tenet of the pernicious white feminism. It also ignores how Black women engaging in these behaviors are often seeking empowerment via a white lens as white people being sexually promiscuous has an inherently different weight than that of Black people due to how Black people have been historically fetishized.
This is entirely personal thing, but I've very much moved on from the idea that our salvation lies with appealing to the white moderate so I don't really care if white women get it or not. I was unmoved by Jones attempting to reason with a potential white readership at times. I am in no way saying that allyship is not good or important. I'm simply saying that, for me, all of my white education tokens have been spent.
Overall I think this book just does not have enough information to back up its claims. Salient points certainly are made, but the book is flawed from conception.
The fact of the matter is can be difficult to quantify the success of a Twitter campaign because the effects trickle down over time. What's successful at the moment may not have far reaching impact or the 'success' is merely a designation because success means different things to different people. Like her example of #BlackGirlsAreMagic becoming a common part of our current vernacular is successful in one sense because it is a somewhat tangible way of measuring a rise in the confidence of Black women and praise for their achievements, however, on the flip side it's only a phrase. It does not technically equal any real gain since it's not even a call to action and also has been commodified. These hashtags always end up getting co-opted for corporate or individual gain. The message gets watered down and misinterpreted when it grows to a certain level.
Ignoring the Twitter element, it’s just a shallow, underwhelming take on social media from a Black woman’s perspective. I expected so much more than I received. I say pass on this one. There have to be more critical, evocative books on Black peoples’ influence on the social media age. If not, I say wait it out until it eventually gets published.