VOF Week One: A Woman's Beauty

Web 2.0 is an amazing step in the information industry that I have been very proud to be a part of for most of my life. It gives voice to the voiceless, and connects people who might otherwise have never met. I believe that it will be an invaluable tool in the women's empowerment movement, as, ultimately, the entire world utilizes the same tool. Our voices will be louder, and more likely to be heard, and it will enable us to allow ourselves to be heard outside of the inter and intra nets.

For myself, I find Web 2.0 to be empowering because it allows me to make myself and my career the way I want them to be-not the way someone else, inevitably a male someone else, thinks they should be. I do not need higher education to use it, nor do I need to be of a certain social standing or rank. As a writer of genre fiction, and a magazine editor of the same, I believe that it gives me the opportunity to bring change to the staleness of our entertainment in the areas of fantasy, science fiction and horror. I can show people that women in such entertainments do not have to be scantily clad and brainless, or, alternatively, scantily clad and perfect in every way. It enables me to reach young women throughout the world, and hopefully show them that they do not have to adhere to these standards that are set upon us-that they, too, can take control of their lives and their bodies and say to the status quo that they refuse to be anything but themselves. I hope that my use of Web 2.0 will inspire other women, young and old, to use Web 2.0 for their own creativity, whether that be artistic, social-economic, political or otherwise.

Ultimately, I hope that together we can join hands through this tool; and, while admitting our differences, celebrate our similarities as well. We all come from different upbringings, different countries, different political upheavals-and we all, no matter where we come from, are affected by gender politics-but connecting and working together, made easier by the internet, will eventually show the world that we really can work together, no matter how different. If wars can be started over a woman's beauty, I believe that peace can be achieved the same way. The world will not change itself-someone has to step up to the plate, and if men will not do it, then women should, and what better way to do it, than through the tool that has shaped the lives of people everywhere regardless of gender?