Abstract

I came to video remixing at the height of the “Web 2.0” era, and this surge of online participation was most noticeable to me in feminist and queer online communities where users were quick to publish smart and snarky responses to popular culture. It was 2008, before the movie Bridesmaids and the award-winning HBO series Girls, and as indicated by the popularity of these shows, young women were tired of compromising their gender politics to be entertained. While there is a long academic tradition supporting the criticism of popular culture, women with only an Intro to Gender Studies seminar under their belts were suddenly negotiating the fine line between fan and critic publicly, in real time through GIFs, blogs and vlogs. These viewers were no longer passive victims of the media, they were creators of it, able to talk back and generate content that commented on the misrepresentation or marginalization of their communities. Platforms like Tumblr and Jezebel were one year old and they were hungry for content. It was the perfect climate for feminist video remixing: there was an already-engaged audience that pop culture seemed to repeatedly misrepresent, and multiple platforms to disseminate work. But, of course, it was not so simple.