Everyone hates Pinterest! News media from the Washington Post to Buzzfeed have been criticizing what Gawker called “the Mormon housewife’s image bookmarking service of choice,” and all too often the criticism seems based on the fact that Pinterest is popular with women.
Last week, Buzzfeed published an article called “How Pinterest Is Killing Feminism,” arguing that Pinterest is anti-feminist because much of the content is made up of recipes, home décor, fashion, fitness, mini-food, and “cupcake porn.”
“This isn’t where the Internet was supposed to take us,” Buzzfeed writer Amy Odell laments.
While some of Pinterest’s content is problematic, such as the many “thinspo” boards that persist despite a Pinterest-wide ban, I have a hard time seeing why popular Pinterest subjects such as recipes, crafts, and pictures of Ryan Gosling are anti-feminist. If cooing over mini cupcakes is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!
Girly things are not inherently bad or anti-feminist, and neither is Pinterest. In fact, Pinterest can be used to share some pretty explicitly feminist things. BUST’s Pinterest inspiration board includes photos of feminists like Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis. And, as you can see from the above pictures, feminist content can be popular on Pinterest, too.
And those pictures of donuts on BUST’s food board? Well, there’s nothing wrong with those, either. Nom nom nom.
