A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter: Community, Creativity, and Comedy

Abstract

The online arena is rife with mansplaining, harassment, and intimidation of women. Similarly, women in academia operate in a traditionally patriarchal, misogynistic environment. What happens when a female academic creates a vibrant online presence? This chapter is an autoethnographic account of the author's experiences managing the public, online performance of a female scholar (@AcademicBatgirl) with the objective to create and cultivate community. She argues that in the online landscape, prosocial behaviour is essential in creating community and sustaining cohesion. She addresses the prosocial effects of humour, including examples of memes that she created and posted on Twitter. She also addresses pitfalls relative to student shaming that she recommends academics avoid in any online or offline forum.