New Media and Feminism: Emphasis On Content, not Form

      While reading this weeks assigned articles, one of the arguments Van Zoonen’s brings to the table sparked a thought about form versus content for me. While the author lays out the argument of the Internet as a feminine medium because the experience’s “immersion in its textual, virtual realities” is reminiscent of the “fetus of the womb,” I couldn’t help but question the point of the argument. The Internet has a variety of forms, from video clips, to blogs, to social networking sites, there are far too many variations of media forms within the form of the internet. As such, a focus on content is more important and accurate. While Zoonen’s argument addresses the overarching experience of browsing the Internet not the individual forms within the  Internet, it’s also somewhat invalid to umbrella the experience under such broad strokes because of the different forms within the umbrella term of “the Internet.” The Internet, at least in its current state, cannot be quantified and studied as precisely as other media content like television or magazines. Furthermore when analyzing content within a feminist framework, the emphasis should be on the content, not the form. Whether the Internet, on a Freudian psychoanalytical level is a feminine experience or not is irrelevant. The content being uploaded, streamed, commented on etc. and its gendered implications are where the focus of observation should hone in on instead.