Female Pressure: A translocal feminist youth-oriented cultural network

Abstract

This article explores the potentials and limitations of Female Pressure, a collective of female DJs, music producers and club organizers that makes use of mailing lists, social networking platforms and a database to form a translocal feminist network. The article's empirical sections are based on the analysis of the two Female Pressure mailing lists, complemented by the analysis of the Female Pressure website and five interviews with Female Pressure members. I examine the network members' discussions of tokenism and the exclusion of female DJs from club nights and international music festivals, as well as the various forms of virtual and translocal activism devised to protest these exclusions. I also explore how Female Pressure discusses issues of inclusion in their own virtual network. The article suggests that Female Pressure is shaped by various ideas of second-wave and third-wave feminism as well as by the use of the Internet for networking, cultural production and political activism.