Synthia /Cyberfeminism

Cynthia Payne – cpayne@ucsc.edu DANM 202 – Cultural Theory and Research Close Reading - February 15, 2006

Cyberfeminist Revival

This essay calls into question certain statements regarding the relevance of RL gender identity in the cyberspace of the future. These statements appear on pages 122-23 of the chapter entitled, “Gender in cyberculture” in David Bell's An Introduction to Cyberculture. Bell writes, “…the possibilities of identity-play …? means for some theorists that gender will cease to carry its RL ideological loadings in cyberspace, or might cease to matter or even exist there.” This suggests that because people can construct a different online identity than the one they have in RL, that eventually social constructs of race and gender will lose significance in cyberspace. Such musings suggest a severance from the culture of the RL people who create online identities, and the eradication of the gendered identities that are already established in cyberspace. “Inequities in access, power and representation are real,” (Nakamura 85), and it stands to reason that RL people inherently bring with them into cyberspace the RL trappings of class, race, and gender. Even if they function as “identity tourists” (Nakamura xv) they still are conditioned to react and respond to certain signs and markers. A genderless web might not matter to genderless beings, but “the Internet is …? a theatre of performed identities” (Nakamura 31) already gendered created by RL gendered people whose personalities are the meat of cyberculture. Playing with identity online may be a start in reverse engineering the social constructs that require RL people to define themselves online by social constructs like gender in the first place, but today online gender matters.

How can efforts at ‘storying cyberfeminism’ (Bell 122) encourage people to recognize online gender inequities as having their origins in RL, and work to correct them in both places? It would seem that in order for cyberculture to be truly rhizomatic, the RL people of cyberculture must continue to open up opportunities and connections for those with limited access or education about technology. The answers to preceding questions may come easier if consideration is given to the notion that the Internet is inextricably tied to RL, and by “keeping it real” can be a powerful tool for social reforms both online and in real life.

References Arizpe, Lourdes. Freedom to Create: Women's Agenda for Cyberspace, in

W. Harcourt (ed) Women@Internet, London: Zed Books, 1999.

Bell, David. An Introduction to Cybercultures. London: Routledge, 2001. Brooker, Peter. A Concise Glossary of Cultural Theory. US: Oxford Press 1999. Morse, Margaret. Virtually female: body and code, in J. Terry and M. Calvert (eds)

Processed Lives: gender and technology in everyday life. London: Routledge 1997.

Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New

York: Routledge, 2002.