• Final Projects,  Posts

    Silenced Screens

    Student Submission – Final Project VCU FA24 Silenced Screens In the glow of screens where voices rise, Lies a shadowed truth, a web of lies. Where Blackness blooms with radiant grace, And womanhood carves its sacred space. But here, the storm begins to brew, An endless torrent, cruel and untrue. Trolls sharpen words into jagged spears, Algorithms blind to her hopes and tears. Memes like masks, they laugh, they jeer, Turning joy to whispers laced with fear. Microaggressions slip through the seams, Invisible threads unravel her dreams. The hashtags pile, a digital pyre, Fueling the flames of unholy fire. Her name, her story, her every thought, Reduced to rubble, discarded,…

  • Current Events,  Posts

    Pop the Ballon or Find Love ?

    Student Submission – Current Event VCU FA24 My current event is a tweet sharing a clip from a YouTube ‘dating show’, in which a woman enters a room with 20, or so, men with balloons, which they pop if they would not date her. These videos have recently become popular with many creators making their own versions. The premise of these videos is problematic, upholding transactional views of, particularly romantic, relationships. The specific clip, posted to Twitter (X) by user Raye (@sweetbabyrayes), shows a Black man explaining why he popped his balloon, stating that he isn’t a fan of weave and implying that her application reveals her natural hair braids…

  • Final Projects,  Posts

    Digital Art

    Student Submission – Final Project VCU FA24 In this project, I seem to have learned how deep and widespread misogynoir is in digital platforms. Misogynoir, which has been coined by scholar Moya Bailey, is a term derived from racism of Black women. At first, I treated misogynoir as a phenomenon where Black women are discriminated against. When I was trying to know more about it, I did not know how it affects black women mentally, emotionally and on a personal level and how even some black men perpetrate this. Through participating in this project I learnt how social media, a network that links people together and a platform for the…

  • Final Projects,  Posts

    Artwork

    Naomi Cordova – Final Project VCU FA24 As an artist, I wanted to use this medium to powerfully illustrate the deep-rooted and multifaceted nature of misogynoir that I and so many other Black women face, both in digital spaces and in society at large. Constructing the conceptual structure map was crucial in highlighting the complex web of issues that contribute to and perpetuate misogynoir – from online harassment and hate speech to systemic biases and oppressive ideologies. Seeing those terms like “racism,” “sexism,” “feminism,” and “queer theory” clustered together underscores how these forms of marginalization intersect and amplify one another, creating a suffocating reality for us. Incorporating the image of…

  • Current Events,  Posts

    Halle Bailey and Misogynoir

    Khaalis Smithers – Current Event VCU FA24 IG: @himcess and @inyouyasha This week we’re focusing on a post from Halle Bailey she responded with in defense of her motherhood and family optics. Since the announcement of her pregnancy Halle has been subjected to massive scrutiny regarding her child’s appearance and the credibility of DDG’s potential for fatherhood. Millions of Twitter users, especially Black women who make up the majority of her fanbase, harass her daily for her supposed indignant choice in choosing DDG as the father of her child. They insinuate that despite her supposed hyper-intelligence and emotional complexity, she is predisposed to maltreatment in romantic relationships because she is…

  • Current Events,  Posts

    Tiktok and Misogynoir

    Ananya Udyaver – Current Event VCU FA24 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananya-udyaver-533427241/ I found a Tiktok that perpetuates hatred and discrimination towards black women, itreads, “its 7:15 in the morning on the first day of school and a group of black girls startbeing loud” with a man visibly mad and frustrated on the screen. The background musicof the Tiktok repeats “i hate n*” over and over again. This very hateful TikTok is aprime example of how black women are unfairly criticized and shamed for simplydisplaying their rightful personalities. Moreover, this generalizes black women andperpetuates the stereotype that black women are naturally “loud and obnoxious,” whichis a stereotype we have all seen spread across…

  • Current Events,  Posts

    Jordan Chiles and the 2024 Olympics

    Student submission – Current Event VCU FA24 The event I want to talk about this week did happen last month. Still, I only recently saw a tweet talking about the situation, and upon looking at tweets further, I realized a large portion of them were still very hostile and dismissive of Jordan Chiles despite it being nearly a month after the issuance of her bronze medal. One of the recurring themes I saw in the tweets this month was that Chiles made it about skin color and that she should “stfu” about her skin color. This stuck out to me because I’ve seen black people get accused of “making things…