About
This collection spans a decade of feminist and queer activism starting in 2016 and continuing until 2026. The original collection began with a concern that queer and feminist activist content online was not being adequately archived, especially within the spaces of social media.
Collecting is done from personal accounts as well as our activist account @aesthetic.resistance on Instagram. The content thus reflects very specific algorithmic realities of those accounts. The majority of artifacts in the collection are part of what social media platforms suggest for queer, feminist, social activists with a commitment to anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist values.
The collectors are intergenerational and from diverse social positions with the unifying factor of all being scholars as well as activists. We hope that the collection allows for a snapshot into a moment in time that spans some significant events within social movements over this time period including the first Trump presidency (and the second), the swell of the viral #MeToo movement, #BLM, #IdleNoMore, the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, as well as the concerning rise of authoritarianism, facism, and hate fueled radicalization.
The collection captures these sometimes explicitly but also indirectly through the kinds of resistance and refusal to them that arise from queer, feminist, and social justice accounts that we follow and document. For questions about the account please contact the Feminist Think Tank.
This project is part of the Digital Feminist Network and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Additional financial and in-kind support comes from York University, York University Libraries, and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo.