Self-Branding and the Internet

            Self-branding and the advantages or disadvantages of feminism and the Internet was the premise of this week’s readings. The question on whether or not the Internet has been more of an empowering place for women is a question I can honestly say I am still pondering. On the one hand, the Internet gives those who have access to it the freedom to express themselves in any way they choose. Women however, as Van Zoonen points in this week’s readings, are targeted as consumers and online shoppers. I for example, will admit to being a fan of online shopping. I log into my Facebook and on the advertisements on the side, will be ads for websites I visit, inviting me back to buy those pair of boots I have been eyeing, with free shipping of course if I click on the link on my Facebook home page. As traditional forms of marketing such as television advertisements is no longer profitable with the lack of commercial viewing, there is an obvious need to market consumer’s in another way. However, there is a palpable feeling that women are only seen as consumers despite the freedom the Internet gives to those with access.

            Also mentioned this week is this idea of self-branding and how women craft their identities in this current movement of online interactivity and post-feminism. As we read this week, all those things we put into branding products, we are able to employ ourselves on the Internet to self-brand. Through websites such as Twitter and Facebook, we construct ourselves as a brand with recognizable names, logos and through feedback from social media websites for instance. To put post-feminism and self-branding in conversation with one another, I think there is a certain pleasure that women have with this freedom to put anything online for global display that Sarah Banet-Weiser talks about in another article I read outside of class titled “Branding the Post-Feminist Self: Girls’ Video Production and YouTube” in which Banet-Weiser talks about the Internet environment, an environment that makes total sense for women to call themselves a brand. Banet-Weiser’s conclusion is that this new media landscape gives this promise that power relations between those who control the Internet and those who consume it are collapsed with the posting of videos on YouTube for example. However, I cannot help but think of the danger that comes with girls bodies becoming commodities in a situation such as the YouTube craze Banet-Weiser puts up in this particular article. Their bodies become a product leaving viewers of their views the power to give feedback on their bodies, which despite the freedom, is problematic.