Tomomi YAMAGUCHI
Assistant Professor, Montana State University
On June 10, 2007, a workshop entitled “How Does Backlash on the Internet Occur?: the Interactive Relationship Between the Mass Media and the Discursive Sphere of the Web” was held at the Spring conference of the Japan Mass Communication Association at Kumamoto Gakuen University. Among the panelists were Masami SAITO (Toyama University), Chiki OGIUE (blogger), Akihiro KITADA (University of Tokyo), Tomomi YAMAGUCHI, and a special guest, Noriaki IMAI (writer). All the panelists are bloggers with a history of opposing backlash discourse on the web. Here, I would like to focus on two points that I consider to be particularly important. Please see the reports on the workshop already posted on the web for detailed information. *
1. Against the theory of “young, disadvantaged men as backlashers”
It was significant that this workshop examined and questioned the validity of the commonly heard theory of “young, disadvantaged men as backlashers.” The keynote speaker, Ogiue, examined the background and history of the backlash phenomenon on the web, which became prominent around 2002, and diminished (though it could be temporary) around 2005. He argued that the “backlash” phenomenon on the net is caused by a “cybercascade”, and pointed out that it was wrong to automatically assume that the backlash happened because the youths and netizens were becoming more conservative. The 2 Channel backlashers may not strongly believe in anti-feminist ideas, but were simply enjoying the predominant mood for a short period of time and only increased their anti-feminism discourse for that moment in time, until they found a new target for criticisms and attack.
Kitada’s report was based on his research on about 1,000 internet users, and deals with the question that Ogiue posed regarding the idea that Japanese youths were becoming more conservative. He rejected the “2 Channel users = anti-feminists” formula, and he found no relationship between the length of the time a person has been using the internet, and their degree of conservatism. Imai, who received intense bashing after the Iraq hostage incident, reported his own experiences of attempting to talk to those people who sent him hate email and letters by post. From these dialogues, he developed the impression that these people were acting based not on any strong political beliefs but on their enjoyment and fun at attacking. **
Whether constructive discussion on the internet is possible at all is a question Imai posed. Ogiue replied that it should be possible to switch the direction of the cybercascade and create an environment in which it is difficult for cybercascades to occur. An example is Ogiue’s “What is Gender-free?” website; he attempted to offer a different kind of information than the ones backlashers offered, which could act to stop the cascade. ***
2. Feminism’s ability to present itself?what kinds of difficulties does it face in the age of the internet?
The minimal success of feminism in representing itself was another major theme for discussion in this workshop. Ogiue stated that feminism should have as its goal Web 2.0 ? or “Activism 2.0” in its performance, but in actuality it has been so bad that its behavior has been called “feminism 0.5”. The audience pointed out that the image of feminism as not trendy and boring is spread even more widely than feminism’s positive views, and that feminism should not force on people its own belief that “right thoughts should be spread,” but should adopt more marketing-style strategies in spreading its ideas widely to the general public.
In my presentation, I pointed out the problem of feminist activism’s history not being shared widely even among feminists. In addition, feminism has not been able to make a good use of the internet, in particular, interactive media such as blogs, and we actually do not see many feminists active on the internet. There were concerns among the workshop participants that under the current situation, discussion is centered around the good and the bad of the notion of “gender” (a term that is difficult to understand for the Japanese general public), and that the aim and goal of feminism might have become invisible and lost among feminists.
After the workshop, a popular feminist blogger, macska (Emi Koyama), wrote an entry critical of the blog use of a feminist group against backlash, and on feminists’ (and activist groups’) use of blogs and the internet. **** Backlash, which seemed to be dying down at the time of this workshop, looks to be re-emerging recently. In this situation, discussion of backlash on the internet should be shared widely and advanced further.
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* Chiki OGIUE http://d.hatena.ne.jp/seijotcp/20070611/p1
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/seijotcp/20070623/p1
Noriaki IMAI http://blog.livedoor.jp/noriaki_20045/archives/51094428.html
Masami SAITO http://d.hatena.ne.jp/discour/20070611
Tomomi YAMAGUCHI http://diary.jp.aol.com/mywny3frv/436.html
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yamtom/20070704
** For more information, see Imai’s public lecture at the University of Chicago, “Why I Went to Iraq ? Three Year Later”http://chiasmos.uchicago.edu/events/imai.shtml and his article in Japan Focus, ”Why I Went to Iraq. Reflections of a Japanese Hostage” http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2620
*** http://seijotcp.hp.infoseek.co.jp/genderfreeQandA.html
**** http://macska.org/article/190 http://macska.org/article/203