
If you had heard of Suey Park in early 2014, it was likely because she was a Twitter brawler, someone ingrained in the hurly-burly of social media and rewarded for it with followers-23,000, a fair number for a 23-year-old living in Chicago.
#SOOEY PARK SERIES#
Her recent TED Talk, in which she referred to herself as “Patient Zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously,” met with widespread approval, and she has been the subject of a series of approving articles, in Salon, Forbes, The New Yorker, and the mother of all validating content, Upworthy. She seems confident and calm, transformed into something like the patron saint of the publicly shamed.

Even Monica Lewinsky has emerged into the public view (yet again). ESPN reporter Britt McHenry didn’t suffer unduly, either, after being caught on camera insulting a towing company employee. Gawker picked up the story, with this weighty item: “ Professor Accidentally Sent ‘Interesting’ Anal Bead Porn to Her Students.” Unlike some of her colleagues in Internet blundering, McElroy escaped the media and social network scrutiny unscathed: She kept her job and, within a month, published an op-ed in The Washington Post detailing her time in the Twitter maw. Lisa McElroy, a law professor at Drexel University, made news online in late April when she accidentally sent her class email list a link to a porn video. And, like the biblically mandated jubilees of yore, we are making something of a celebration of it.
#SOOEY PARK FREE#
After many years of being what it is and doing what it does, the Web seems unexpectedly prepared to forgive its debts, free its captives, and start afresh with the mocked and exiled of yesteryear. Seeing so many young women take up this mission is inspiring and highly effective in creating measurable, consequential change.We are living through a jubilee of internet forgiveness.

This trend of community-building among women in women’s movements is crucial to our moving forward in all aspects of our lives. Bringing women leaders together to create teams and form communities with one another is a fundamental, and indispensable, part of her activism. Park engages with individuals as a fundamental part of her activism. One of Park’s greatest strengths is that she has encouraged women and girls to take up their own songs and share them with the world. Park’s efforts have helped form a new space for Asian American women to voice their experiences and enact leadership roles within their social circles and daily lives. Park’s recent rise to prominence as an activist for race and gender issues has opened the floor for a discussion of issues that are still marginalized within larger social justice movements. #NotYourAsianSidekick brought a huge response from thousands of individuals around the world and the United States within hours of Park’s initial tweet, and discussions of Asian American women’s status in feminism and American culture has continued on Youtube and multiple major news sources. With this trend, Park created a space for Asian American women to share their lived experiences, critique the tokenization, exociticization, and hyper-sexualization of Asian women in American culture (and even feminism), and express ideas for change. She is a Korean American, Chicago-based writer responsible for creating the #NotYourAsianSidekick Twitter trend that took social media by storm in December 2013. Suey Park is one such individual making waves on the feminist front as a fierce woman leader.

This month, I have enjoyed reading through news sources and digging through my Twitter feed, watching and interacting with women who are promoting women’s issues around the globe. While it is incredibly important to appreciate the progress that has been made by women in our past, I think it is also beneficial to use this time to celebrate the women who are making history, right now. However, this year’s theme got me thinking. I’m still relatively new to the Women’s History Month scene, having never heard of such a celebration until I entered college but in the years I have been fortunate enough to participate in celebrations, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on my foremothers. Each annual celebration has a dedicated theme, and “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment” belongs to all the 2014 ladies, and those who came before us. March has been celebrated and officially recognized as Women’s History Month by the United States government since 1987.
