There Are No Girls on the Internet - Introducing: There Are No Girls on the Internet

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

Marginalized voices have always been at the forefront of the internet, yet our stories often go overlooked. Bridget Todd chronicles our experiences online, and the ways marginalized voices have shaped the internet from the very beginning. We need monuments to all of the identities that make being online what it is. So let’s build them. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Bridget Todd, and I spent my whole career exploring how marginalized people shape culture. I used to be on a feminist podcast called Stuff Mom Never Told You. And before that, I helped activists use the internet to push for social change. It's been a really exciting time to be organizing online. We've seen huge movements like Me Too and Black Lives Matter take off, movements that were largely started and run and shaped by black people, women, and other marginalized voices. And it got me thinking, when it comes to cool and important ship popping off online, We've always run the show.

Yes, we use the internet to build movements that the kind you're seeing erupt today, but women, black folks, and other marginalized voices also shape culture, make art and connect with each other, using tech in ways that have a big impact on internet culture. Even from the very beginning, the reason why computers and the internet and tech are everyday parts of all of our lives

is because of the talent and labor of marginalized folks, and today is no different. So that's why it bums me out to see white tech-do leaders act like they don't have to be accountable to those very same people. When their platforms would be nothing without us. Tech is not neutral. It's not apolitical. But this isn't what many important tech leaders would have you believe.

Guess what? They're wrong. Framing tech as neutral lets tech leaders off the hook for the ways that their policies and platforms hurt people, many of whom are women, black people and other marginalized voices. For instance, Facebook put out a statement recently, affirming their commitment to Black Lives Matter, Also letting Trump and other sexists misuse their platform in ways that directly harm those same marginalized communities,

while also raking in fistfuls of profit while doing it. Wondering why we've allowed tech leaders to get away with framing tech as neutral as their policies harm our communities, we'll just take a look at who feels at home in the tech space and online. By buying into the idea that tech and the internet are not our domain, we've let white male tech leaders dominate the conversation in a space where our voices should be the loudest. I want to change this. Okay, but hell.

It's kind of a lot, so buckle up. I want to bust the myth that the only voices that matter in tech belong to white men. I want to bust the myth that women and marginalized voices weren't always at the ground floor of technology and the way it impacts our culture. We were, so we should have a bigger voice. I want to amplify the stories that traditional conversations around tech and the internet leave out, both from history and today. Tech is more than is people who make things with code.

It's the artists, organizers, writers, movement builders. It's people who are doing work that is traditionally associated with women and marginalized voices, so unfortunately, that work goes overlooked. I want to demystify conversations about the Internet and tech so that you, yes, you, feel like you're entitled to take up space in these conversations. You may not be a tech bro, but if you're listening to this podcast, it's likely that you use the Internet every single day. And whether tech leaders want to emit it or not,

Technology in the internet would be nothing without us. Tech is nothing without its users, so why shouldn't we have a bigger voice? So are you with me? We need monuments to all the ways that marginalized voices have shaped what it means to be online. So let's build them. Subscribe to There Are No Girls on the Internet dropping on IHeart Radio on July 7.