Abstract

For feminist research, digital media now enable other ways of knowing currently lacking in mainstream research. Therefore, searching for African women's lived experiences in other sites, such as digital media spaces, requires the appropriation of methodologies that empower women. This article discusses the feminist approach of centring women as subaltern counterpublics, to show how this unearths the intersection of technology, power, hegemony, and subordination in the Zimbabwean context. The overall goal is to explain how the feminist counterpublics approach enables empirical findings on the emancipatory potential of blogs for Zimbabwean women. This research approach reveals how Zimbabwean women are using digital media as spaces to circulate counterdiscourses that resist their subjugation and the legitimation of power. Utilising the feminist approach to qualitative content analysis and semi-structured interviews, the study shows that communicative spaces online enable traditionally emasculated groups in Zimbabwe, particularly women, to reaffirm their identities and to begin to question the societal norms that continue to oppress them. This approach illustrates that blogs act as sites for regrouping and contestation, developing remedies for women's oppression, taking positions, and influencing wider publics.

摘要

对于女权主义研究，数字媒体现在可以实现主流研究目前缺乏的其他认识方式。因此，在其他网站（例如数字媒体空间）中寻找非洲妇女的生活经历需要采用赋予妇女权力的方法。本文讨论了以女性为中心的底层反公众的女权主义方法，以展示这如何在津巴布韦语境中挖掘技术、权力、霸权和从属关系的交叉点。总体目标是解释女权主义反公众方法如何实现关于津巴布韦妇女博客解放潜力的实证研究结果。这种研究方法揭示了津巴布韦妇女如何利用数字媒体作为空间来传播反抗她们的奴役和权力合法化的反话语。该研究利用女权主义方法进行定性内容分析和半结构化访谈，表明在线交流空间使津巴布韦传统上被阉割的群体，尤其是女性，能够重申她们的身份，并开始质疑继续压迫她们的社会规范。这种方法表明，博客充当重新组合和争论的场所，为妇女的压迫制定补救措施，采取立场并影响更广泛的公众。