Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in English

First Advisor

Jaime Harker

Second Advisor

Leigh-Anne Duck

Third Advisor

Monika Bhagat-Kennedy

School

University of Mississippi

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to argue that online feminist coalitions can be both locally specific and globally accessible. Postcolonial feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty in her 1984 article “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” argues that there is no real evidence to classify all women as a “Woman” because cultural differences and imbalances of power create a myriad of experiences that cannot be homogenized. However, Mohanty is not arguing that women do not have individual experiences with gender injustice. On the contrary, all women have experiences with gender injustice; these experiences are simply all not the same. It is actually more recognizable now with the inception of and wide use of the social internet that women experience imbalances of power in different ways. The social internet cannot replace grassroots movements and real-life interaction, but it can be used as a tool to spread information and to foster global interconnectedness. This thesis will conduct case studies of two active, online, notably modern feminists of color, Mona Eltahawy and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to prove that online feminist coalitions can be locally specific, globally accessible, personally defined, and irrefutably positive in the fight against gender injustice.

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