As many of you know, I have contributed occasionally to the website, Feminist Review. Basically, Feminist Review is a website that does reviews on everything from books to zines to clothes. I never thought to even look at the website before I was approached by one of the editors, Mandy Van Deven, to write up a few reviews for them. It’s a feminist site, and well, I don’t call myself a feminist.

The following is that interview! 1. Can you talk about what Feminist Review is and how it works?

I started Feminist Review three and a half years ago because I’d
gotten really invested in indie media through my work with
Altar
Magazine and Clamor. When the latter closed its doors, I still had this overwhelming desire to make media, but I knew print media was out of the question. Blogging was something I was aware of, but I had never been a part of the scene directly. Actually, at the time I was working at the same nonprofit as one of the founders of a very popular feminist blog, so I heard about a lot of the stuff that would go down in the feminist blogosphere from her, and although I was intrigued by the idea of forming a community online, I was enormously skeptical of it as well. I didn’t want to create a blog that lacked a holistic perspective on the spaces where women and politics collide, and it was important to me to figure out a way to create a site that was inclusive of multiple perspectives (as opposed to my own ego stroking), particularly ones that were not necessarily in agreement. Also, in coming from a grassroots organizing background, I know the importance of representation at the start of a project because the reality is that very, very few projects become truly representative if they fail to start out that way. Publishing reviews of books, film, music, plays, etc. written by a number of writers seemed to fit the bill, as it allowed for diversity (including geographic diversity since our blog isn’t US-centric) in both the content being produced and the content producer.

As to how Feminist Review works, instead of having a fixed staff, we
have a fifteen
member editorial collective and a rather large number of regular
contributors. To date, we have worked with over 500 writers, some who had never written before for a public audience and others who write professionally. All of our editors and contributors work on a
volunteer basis, save for the fact that writers keep whatever items
they review, and though we’d eventually like to change that, payment
is still quite a ways off. Neither I nor anyone else has pocketed a
single penny at this point; all of the income generated by ads,
affiliate links, and individual donations goes toward just keeping the
site running. Shipping enough items to writers to post three reviews a
day is pretty expensive, as you might imagine.

2. As an occasional contributor to FR, I’ve noticed that the site
covers a huge variety of items that target different races, genders,
sexualities, and even nationalities. But the site is still called
“Feminist Review”–which I think may turn many women of color
especially away from the site before they even explore it. Can you
talk a little about the thought process that went into the decision to
call it “Feminist Review”?

Most definitely. To situation myself in this discussion, I’m a white,
queer, married to a man, cis woman who grew up poor in the semi-rural South, and has lived in and worked among communities of color in Atlanta, Brooklyn, and now Kolkata, India, so I’m no stranger to the entirely legitimate resistance to feminism by people to whom feminism hasn’t been kind. For me, feminism was something that gave me a language with which to speak of my own struggles, and I have been a fierce advocate of the power and potential of feminism for most of my adult life, while also being fiercely critical of my fair share of feminists. So, I chose the name Feminist Review because I wanted to put forth the idea that there are a that there are a plurality of
*feminisms* and that it was possible for that difference to
harmoniously coexist in one place.

That being said, Feminist Review is actually in the midst of a site
revamp that will include a name change that will clarify our
perspective that feminist identification is not a requirement (or even
desirable) for a great many of our editors, writers, and readers. The
change was prompted by our being contacted by an academic journal of the same name that has recently begun to build an online presence.

They’ve been around for forty some odd years in print form and are
concerned about readers confusing the blog with the journal now that
they’re working more online, which I think is understandable, so we’re
relinquishing the name amenably.

But another aspect of the truth about the motivation for changing the
name is that I feel like my relationship with feminism has become
pretty unstable recently. I had what some might call a loss of faith a
year or so ago when I wrote something that was critical of traditional
feminist blogs that caused a lot of anger and unintentionally hurt the
people I had wanted to support. The response of many feminist bloggers was brutal and unforgiving, while women of color bloggers who actively reject feminism refused to reject me wholesale because I made a mistake, even though it hurt them. That was when the paradigm shift happened for me, when feminism became more about empty rhetoric than connection and community. It feels really dishonest to run a blog called Feminist Review when I don’t comfortably identify as a feminist anymore and I don’t think the term accurately describe the mission of the blog. So it’s kind of a happy accident that we were asked by the journal to change our name.

3. Can you talk a little about why those women who are turned off by “feminism” (because of the racism, the fixed definition of woman, the US centrism, etc), should be reading your site?

The purpose of Feminist Review is to give voice to communities on the
margins and provide a space where difference is represented, explored, and valued. We’re not simply giving lip service and then acting a-fool; we try to enact our values. Now, to be real, this doesn’t mean that every review on the blog is going to necessarily be on point for all readers. There are plenty of reviews that contain perspectives I am staunchly opposed to. But in order to be truly representative of the myriad standpoints of women who value gender equity and women’s rights, I won’t censor what I don’t agree with because I believe there is value in having a conversation about those disagreements, so long as it is done in a respectful way (which is why we closely monitor the comments). The hope is that, at the end of the day, the blog is space for personal and intellectual growth and learning, and that, more times than not, we are getting it right. And if we aren’t, tell us. Listening is just as, if not more important than, talking.

4. You’ve talked a bit offline about some possible changes you and
other editors at FR are considering making to the site. Can you
discuss any of those now (or are they all in the planning stage? :->).
What can readers do who may have suggestions for you?

Oh, I’m definitely down for folks to email suggestions to me! Aside
from the name, we’re changing the design of the blog completely, in
part because the back-end is mad clunky, but also because we think the front-end can be improved too. A common complaint I’ve received is that Feminist Review is difficult to navigate because our search engine is crappy and the reviews aren’t broken into categories, so the new site will have reviews separated into sections–like books, films, products. We are also adding more interactive and collaborative features that will encourage people to engage more, like a weekly roundup of feminist reviews around the web (from the New York Times to individual bloggers), a weekly review of news and current events, more interviews with cultural creators and activists, a calendar for writers and artists to publicize their talks and exhibits, and a self-updating scroll of newly made comments. I’m ridiculously excited for the relaunch, which will happen September 1st!

5. Talk to us about the FR fundraiser!

The fundraiser was awesome. We’d never done one before, and didn’t
really know what to expect, but in the end we raised $3,000 from 58
individuals. One donor (who asked to remain anonymous) gave $1,000
along with a note that said they did so because they are constantly
impressed by the quality of the writing on the blog and the level of
professionalism and passion behind the work. They said that for a
media outlet as small as ours to be producing such excellent reviews,
we must have a staff that is truly invested in the blog’s mission. To
me, that’s one hell of a compliment and speaks to both the loyalty of
our audience and the faith they have invested in us. Both of which are
enormously humbling.

6. How can people contribute?

Well, it must be said that one is welcome to

donate, even though the campaign is complete. Otherwise, we are always looking for new writers who want to contribute or collaborate. We cross-post reviews with like-minded blogs regularly (including
VivirLatino!) and will be looking for people to write some of the new
features on the site as well. All someone needs to do is send me an
email at info@feministreview.org.

7. And the most important question–why should they contribute??

Because their voice is important. Those who believe in justice are not
a homogeneous group, nor should they be, and one way to struggle
against the silencing of difference is to simply speak your truth and
consider the truths of others. Change is rarely instantaneous, and you
never know when something you say will have affect. I mean, a
life-changing moment for me was ignited when my friend Alex, who I
started Altar Magazine with,
interviewed Mr.
Lif for our first issue. She asked him how he was able to reconcile
his own politics while sharing the stage with hip-hop artists who
might have some amazing stuff to say, but said some f*cked up stuff at the same time. I didn’t fully understand his answer at the time, but
it always stuck in my head, and at some point years later I had one of
those revelatory ‘ah-hah’ moments. Lif said: “All I can really do, if
I happen to be performing at a spot and someone is perpetuating the
kind of stuff I don’t necessarily approve of, is just try to shine as
hard as I can to communicate to the people as effectively as possible.
You can change the whole vibe in the room…I just try to be as strong
as I can with what I’m trying to do.” Feminist Review is a place that
encourages people to shine.