The future of the Powerful Woman Monologues

Breaking news: I applied for a grant to turn the Powerful Woman Monologues into its own feminist community.

What is the community called?
For the purpose of the grant proposal, I titled it The Gender Empowerment Project, but I’m not in love with that title yet. Please give me suggestions.

What is the structure?
There will be seasons of writers who will share their stories through a gendered lens once a week over the course of four months.  Hopefully, in these four months, readers will feel as though they know and understand the gendered experiences of the writers.  Through sharing experience and participating in conversations in the comments, readers and followers of the community will participate in online consciousness raising.

Who can be writers?
Although my research focuses on women online, the end goal of this online space is to empower all genders and celebrate engendered experiences, in line with third wave feminist ideals, thus all genders will be welcome to participate and contribute.  I believe such a feminist space should encourage conversation, compassion, and understanding and I would like to cultivate these experiences.  I’m looking for a diverse crew of writers, from all genders, ages, races, sexualities, regions, creeds, abilities, socio-economic status, etc.

What is the mission?
The mission of this project is to acknowledge the intersectionality of gendered experiences and to empower all genders.  This is an overtly feminist mission in that the community recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to many of the world’s most pressing issues, including poverty and violence. This project seeks to tell stories of experiences of inhabiting gender in reflexive way and recognizes that gender is not experienced in a vacuum.  In fact, gender is racialized, constituted by sexuality and educational and socioeconomic privilege.  This safe space seeks to empower people to share their stories through technology, which will inspire others to live authentic gendered lives.  This project fills a need for collaborative and personal feminist space.  Its existence as a non-judgmental feminist space, safe for sharing gendered experiences, counteracts the results of my thesis: that patriarchal ideals are pervasive even in women’s online spaces.

But what if we don’t get the grant?
Great question! I’ll probably start looking into ways to fundraise, because I’m not giving up on this idea easily. I will keep everyone posted on the status of the grant.  If we don’t get it, let’s brainstorm!

How do I stay up-to-date on the community’s progress?
Lucky for you, I’ve created a (very short & simple) newsletter to keep you updated! Sign up here and be sure to follow me on Twitter, too!

What if I have a suggestion?
Please leave a comment, send an email, tweet me, facebook me, send smoke signals, whatever you have to do to get my attention. I welcome suggestions, feedback, thoughts, advice – all of it! I hope this will become a collaborative community and effort, so just because I’m at the helm doesn’t mean I’m the leader. We’re all the leaders.