In class, we spoke about the Rutgers One Coalition which is essentially a coalition of Rutgers student activists and staff members within the union who heavily collaborate with the bureaucracies of the administration. I believe it is incredibly important to maintain an open line of communication with the administrative staff on the Rutgers campus especially during a time of crisis where there are numerous populations who do not feel safe. Recently the undocumented group of students have not felt safe after the recent declaration made by President-elect Trump to have over seven million undocumented people deported. The women on campus have not felt safe either after recent attacks have been reported of men groping and grabbing women inappropriately. It is up to the concerned student body to plead with administrative figures such as President Barchi to implement the changes on campus. We also spoke on the article presented by Lisa Nakamora and her primary concerns with access vs. interactivity through internet use. She explains that the interactivity online is built upon structures creating a complete radicalization. We ask the questions of what exactly are users producing? Especially the women and users of color? While we know that the internet factors into capitalist production evidently reproducing the inequality already within capitalistic systems, we take into account the production on racial-visual logic as well and if this access is disturbed, which we believe is not.  

For our last official class of the semester, we discussed the linkage of privacy and digital self-fashioning. In a 2013 federal study, it shows that more than two-thirds of the American population use smartphones. Out of these Americans, 64% are adults. Another recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, it shows that 19% of American rely on smartphones and are ‘smartphone dependent’. We are currently living in a society where smartphones truly rule what we have access to, even the most recent news and events on the international level.  However, those who do not have the privilege of owning smartphones or lack the access to the world wide web are considered to be socially marginalized users. The most profoundly marginalized hierarchy ranges from race to class to gender, then to skill level interestingly enough. This skill level will eventually determine their access to education. In class, we discussed how a misunderstanding of this chain of data collection can lead to serious cases such as personal theft. We mentioned the idea of the terms and conditions provided by each website each time you want to make a purchase, or created a user login, etc. These Terms & Conditions are often so long and filled with confusing jargon to the average user, I do not even know one person who truly engages with the presented text. This lack of education and language of personal responsibility is essentially what causes the scams in the first place. The internet has evidently become a new human right being that is a tool for granting social access. 

@femfinity

@femfinity

Today in class, we analyzed the articles by Sastre and Renniger dealing with the body positivity movement and how we normalize our bodies. Establishing that normalizing or popularizing bodies make them profitable for big corporations, we realized how social media platforms like Instagram only perpetuate body positivity to continuously be unattainable by the other; which in this case would be someone who does not fit in the societal body standards of ‘normal’. Those who promote body positivity via Instagram are really promoting the retailers who supply supplements, fitness programs and apparel. We also discussed how while these Instagram ‘careers’ create a personal brand for social media and product ambassadors, they are problematically supporting structures of consumerism who have no investment in dismantling these systems of power: capitalism. Relating this to neo-liberalism: which has to do with the connection between public and private sectors, it would seem as though there is no link between established state institutions and the ability to measure your own success prompting me to question what and who is considered successful? We broke down the concept of success and what access, determined by which social category you belong in, you need in order to be deemed successful by societal standards. Determining that success is a highly ideological system in part of a system of normalization, we also spoke about how one of the ways to end the cycle of using language that normalize bodies is to create narratives with political motives. We have the power to do that!

@femfinity @digitalfem 

This week we have discussed selfiecity and looking at Tifentale and Manovich. Each discuss different forms of the human physical facial features of different man and women. Selfiecity seems like even though they are randomizing the "random" selection room a large pool may not entirely be accurate in terms of my opinion. There was an overwhelming whiteness of images displayed all over the cite which causes me to question the true reason and goal was of selfiecity. I find it interesting how taking a picture of yourself or a "selfie" could tell so much about a person.

The labor force uses people, uses women, and women of color, when it is most convenient for them, and when they are able to twist and take advantage of the through propaganda and cultural stigmas.