Social Networks and Self-branding (148 views)

In Banet Weiser's article, the concept of self-branding is introduced as a significant, if not the ultimate, practice of feminist media production. Alison Hearn defines self-branding as a means of transforming the self into a branded commodity within consumer culture and that the social media have provided us with rich sites for such a practice due to its focus on visibility. She concludes to the hypothesis that social media has rendered the practice of self-expression as a business in and of itself. Sarah, one of the thinkers who brought up this issue, explains that social network sites fit with the logic of self-branding due to the ability of users to post opinions, thoughts and status updates which could be empowering but more of a commodity because of the commercial context of online spaces. She believes that participating in such contexts has shaped our notions of empowerment today. Do you believe that under any circumstance, there will be an example of self-empowerment and feminist negotiation and participation online without the result of self-branding? In other words, will feminist activists and bloggers ever truly be heard and build their own online community without commodifying their thoughts, purpose or even themselves? Might the struggle to self-brand oneself be the reason why several feminists struggle for their voices to be heard and to be able to motivate others to speak up? In this part of the article, Sarah mentions that she does not want to “confuse self-promotion with self-branding”, but is self-promotion not branding as well when it comes to participating in social networks?