The chapter I'm looking at here for this post is chapter six. I gravitate to that stuff, and was keen to see how it would work out for Driver. It's queer girls, they're making communities online, and Driver did some ethnographic work.
I see the chapter in two parts, process and product. The first part of the chapter, the process, describes how the internet has brought together queer girls across great distances to share their experiences and support one another in a relatively safe environment; safe as anywhere else on the internet, I suppose. I could just leave it at that, really, but Driver also invokes Bakhtin's heteroglossia to describe the many voices and collective dialogues from the various backgrounds of the community's members. It's an interesting choice. She establishes that communities she's examining are generally positive and built on altruistic motivations, but also takes note that the places she looks at are for young girls/birls (young by whatever definition). Apparently, adults have a tendency to be overly critical of the young and maturing identities these places are home to; citing the headline for one group, "If you don't want to get eaten alive by the adults for saying the wrong thing when you post about something, then here is a good place to post and ask questions" (176). Driver sees these communities as being most important as a place to "respond to others with understanding, care, and reciprocity" (178).
Moving on the product (not the best word, I know), what a community like the one described actually facilitates, Driver introduces Ikissgirls.com and the Birls community. Both are described being part of Livejournal, but also part of a larger setup that includes dedicated forums, and chat rooms, in addition to the blogging services that are part of Livejournal. By the sound of it, it seems that Driver is looking at forums mostly, or blog posts that are brief and posed like forum discussions. She describes Ikissgirls as a community of (but not limited to) girls that like to kiss girls. The subject matter that comes up in Ikissgirls seems to be mostly about providing a support system for its members as they navigate through adolescence. Girls ask for advice, or simply seek someone to listen to them. The members often offer up their opinions as unbiased, recognizing that they don't truly know the person on the other end of the screen, support may be disclaimered in a "for what it's worth..." kind of way, but is still effective and welcomed. Driver describes the community as being very inclusive, and nonjudgmental, and not enthusiastically critical over topics like bisexuality. Overall, Ikissgirls is a rather informal community, but that appears to be its strength, the casual tone allows a great variety of subjects to be handled in a more honest way.
The Birls community is more focused on trans topics, but is described as being similarly inclusive as Ikissgirls. While the subject of discussion in this (these?) communities can encompass the casual, and supportive purposes that take up much of Ikissgirls' discussion, the Birl community is described in more political terms. This is likely because the focus of the site is a more political topic, but the members there appear to treat the subject of FtM, and other complex identities with a positive attitude and unconditional support. The Birl community functions as a space where members can explore their identities, and receive feedback from other members on what they see in terms of boundaries or the lack thereof. It's also a highly flirtatious community, but still highly virtual. The flirting looks a lot like play.
What was striking to me about this was the process. It's not that unusual, Ikissgirls functions on similar principles to pro-Ana sites, or classic car restoration communities. That's why I was kind of disappointed in how little specifics of girl's discussions made it into this chapter. Once we describe a community of shared affinities/interests and support, it's not terribly surprising to find that people in the community make bonds along those lines and support each other. It's great to see places where positive things happen, but what happens when people don't agree? Why wouldn't they agree? What kind of hierarchies develop in the community? How are those lines drawn? Is there a core of members who are extremely active? I think that Driver has the answer to those questions, but perhaps she didn't ask them for herself.
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