Digital Idealism and Feminism

         To understand the directions digital feminism one needs to first understand the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism.  Capitalism, in order to go to the next level of neo-liberal colonization of the world at a globalised scale, began to spreads culture of doing what we want whenever we want without thinking about the network of influences those actions have. With the globalization of consumption, it was important to create an alienated relationship between the consumer and the source. It was important to create an atmosphere where you can consume endless amounts of electricity without caring about the human, ecological damage this hyper consumption causes. When this “I have the right to do what I want" commonsense afflicted feminism, it lost its ability to provide an alterna(ra)tive to patriarchy. 

What we see in contemporary feminism is a divorce from the traditional partnership with leftist and other critiques of capitalism. Thus we see generations of liberated women numbed or unaffected by struggles of class and cast. Feminist ideas that once formed part of a radical worldview are increasingly expressed in individualist terms. To the extent that they fail to recognize the different way some women experience sexism and racism, sexism and casteism or sexism and economic exploitation, or sexism and homophobia, and post colonial concerns. 

The cosmopolitan liberal utopia can only be kept alive through our participation in this game of “I can do what I want”. Feminism needs to re-contest the notion of ethics if we want to have build alternative societies, not mirror and further existing power structures.

 Thus as levels of gender based violence remain the same (maybe more mass destructive), as comparative wages across all sectors continue to be low, as key decision making choices still stay in the control of men,and the patriarchal family system largely remains unchanged. Somehow there is a celebration of women's liberation. The right to labour, and the right to consume have managed to give an illusion of choice-a culture that says you can buy what you want, 'do' what you want but it will take extreme rebellion or good fortune to not be the handmaidens of patriarchy.