Feminist blog Femsplain has announced that they will cease publishing new content after running out of funds from their Kickstarter campaign in 2015.
Femsplain promised “feminism full time” in their successfully funded Kickstarter last March, raising over $30,000.
Among certain promises, the campaign blamed the online consumer-revolt movement #GamerGate of “going out of their way to make women feel unsafe,” and their team included a former creative strategist for Tumblr, a Rutgers graduate, and various others. Despite publicly describing themselves as a “diverse collective,” no males were involved in the project out of a team of 15.
In a blog post published on Saturday, founder of Femsplain Amber Gordon wrote:
When we brought Femsplain into the world, we never thought it would become as big as it is today. I never dreamed I’d be running a company at 24, but we did it because someone had to and we really believe in what we’re doing.
With that, it’s important that we be transparent on where we’re at as a company and what we need to be doing in order to succeed. Starting next month, Femsplain will be taking a break from publishing new content. This by no means implies we’re going anywhere, but rather in the meantime Gabriela and I will be focusing efforts toward expanding our future vision while dedicating more time to our daily newsletter, Femsplainer. We’ll also continue to update our social accounts with older stories and inspiration, organize events and meet-ups, be on slack, etc. We just won’t be publishing new content.
As you know, Femsplain is mostly self-funded and our Kickstarter funds are nearing the end. We pride ourselves on being able to pay our writers, and unfortunately it’s something we can’t continue doing without proper funding.
Gordon then finished the post with a plea for more money: “It would mean so much if you could continue supporting us during this time and we hope to emerge even better soon enough! Only if you can, if you have an extra few dollars and want to help us out, you can do so monthly through Patreon or one time through PayPal.”
Pleading for more donations is not a new tactic among feminist outlets and organisations. Most writers tend to have Patreon accounts where they digitally beg for money, and feminist video series Feminist Frequency serves their name true by frequently asking for donations despite raising $158,000 through Kickstarter in 2012 and charging $10,000 for public appearances.
Users on Twitter both defended and criticised Femsplain’s sudden decision to stop publishing new content, with Business Insider’s Technology Editor James Cook set upon by a mob of Femsplain supporters for his criticism.
https://twitter.com/JamesLiamCook/status/701174616157503489
@Nero "I never thought I'd be running a company at 24."
Apparently, you were right.
— Jacob Ritter (@Mornscreek) February 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/literalporn/status/701196092340174848
https://twitter.com/literalporn/status/701198001004367872
Charlie Nash is a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech and former editor of the Squid Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington.
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