2016 A Year of Writing in Review
So, here we are. Another year end and time for a recap of sorts. After two long years completely offline, 2016 is when I finally got back to publishing on the internet. I need to get a couple of things out of the way first:
I am, as you know, an indie content creator. I publish here, have daily discussions on Twitter and I am constantly engaging people through my work. If you find value in what I do, please consider making a donation to support me. I would like to continue writing as an indie (though I am open to write for publications, of course) and in order to continue doing so, like all indie creators, I need readers’ support. I have plans to expand what I write about and how I publish but I can only do so if I have material resources (and peace of mind). So, going into 2017 if you can, support indies. You read us, fill our tip jars!
Looking back, I see I wrote quite a bit for only five months of production. I published one long essay in June which I had written earlier this year and the rest of my essays went on from August onward. So, without further ado, here’s my year in writing (technically, five months but you get the idea, right?)
Euthanasia as a Dutch neoliberal success story. I took a look at the rhetoric surrounding euthanasia in The Netherlands and how it is used politically to advance certain ideas around individual rights in times of austerity and health care cuts.
Clean Eating and Dirty Women. Or how food, sexuality and gender are brought together to promote the same old patriarchal control over our bodies.
My feminism will be capitalist, appropriative and bullshit merchandise . About appropriation of my work for profits and the commodification of feminism.
Political Strategy and Buzzfeed’s analysis of “the Twitter problem”. About violence as political strategy and how online harassment is used to further advance right wing ideas
Be afraid: Geert Wilders released his platform for next year’s election. I translated Geert Wilders’ platform (now that’s a generous word to use for his one page pamphlet) from Dutch into English on the day it was released. Oh it kinda went viral because mine was, apparently, the first translation into English.
Don’t throw sand over my eyes. On the burkini ban and European cruelty What the burkini ban means in the context of European racism and Islamophobia
Europe’s racist far right is not on the rise. It’s always been there. A haphazard archive of 20 years of headlines claiming that the far right is on the rise in Europe.
Tourist Attractions, Displacements and Feminist Resistance. This was the text of a talk I gave earlier this year at the Museum Volkenkunde / Research Center for Material Culture in Leiden as part of the Sexing the City conference
As a follow up to the essay I presented at the conference in Leiden, I also started having some discussions on privacy and Big Data (that materialized into an ongoing series of essays later in the year)
(Click here for the whole thread)
I was slightly less “writerly” in October due to some chronic health issues but I did publish “Amanda Knox, Netflix and the making of white innocence” — just what the package says
Also, this thread with a discussion I had about precarity, a topic I should pick up more into the next year
(Click here for the whole thread)
Right before the US elections I had a long thread on Twitter with plenty of resources and examples of the links between European right wingers and American neo-nazis. I didn’t know back then how insightful this thread would become
(Click here for the whole thread)
Introducing Post Trump Europe. I wrote about the political alignments that happened in Europe as a result of the US elections
I followed up with further clips about European “celebrations” of Trump’s victory
and An Introduction to Italy’s Constitutional Referendum
Also, a bit of feminist history: The eroticization of abusers: from jizz in the face feminism to dapper white supremacists
This discussion on Twitter about how the biggest media corporation in The Netherlands uses 4chan tactics to influence public opinion
(Click here for the whole thread)
The biopolitics of desire and neo-nazi fashion icons. About the normalization of neo nazis as “fashion forward” and how this normalization ties to eugenics and sexuality.
This discussion about leftist critics of “identity politics”
(Click here for the whole thread)
I started writing a series on Big Data:
A simplified political history of Big Data
Private Internet and Public Streets
Surveys, vigilance and the myth of neutral data
There will be more about this topic in the coming month.
I participated in a dialogue about “Mercy and Other Diseases” in Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk. The audio of these conversations can be listened to here:
Curated and organized by the wonderful Amal Alhaag and with contributions by
Em’kal Eyongakpa
Jabu Arnell
Anna Frei
Romy Ruegger
Maria Guggenbichler
Simone Lagrand
And to close the year on a high note, a rant about whose ideas and intellectual production are considered valid
(Click here for the whole thread)
Again, if you enjoyed what I wrote or if you learned something, were challenged, found it interesting or worthwhile, consider making a donation. I am very grateful for all contributions no matter the amount. Follow me on Twitter for more daily discussions and above all, have a very Happy New Year! May 2017 bring you everything that you wish for and more!
With love always,
Flavia
