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CYBERFEMINISM = CYBER + FEMINISM
. . . or does it?
Take [[a closer look. ->the breakdown]]Since at least the early 90s, CYBER was initially used as an abbreviated form of CYBERNETICS ([[OED|works cited]]; [[Paasonen 335|works cited]]).
CYBERNETICS, borrowing from the greek kubernētēs ‘steersman,’ or from kubernan ‘to steer,’ first came into the english language in a 1943 manifesto co-authored by Julian Bigelow, Arturo Rosenblueth, and Norbert Wiener [[(Paasonen 335)|works cited]], though its first instance has often been attributed to N. Weiner's monograph Cybernetics, published in 1948 [[(Plant 156)|works cited]].
With this history in mind, according to the Oxford English Dictionary CYBER means:
<div class="block-quote">
i. Of or relating to cybernetics; elating to or exhibiting automatic control, esp. self-regularity control through feedback machines.
ii. Relating to or involving the integration of living organisms and electronic or other technological devices. Cf. CYBORG n.
iii. Relating to or involving electronic technology; (in later use) esp. Relating to or connected with cyberspace or the Internet.
</div>
Though CYBER most commonly refers to CYBERNETICS, the word has come to also mean CYBERSPACE (see def. iii above) or the Internet more broadly, manifesting in at least [[43 CYBER iterations]] that signal this meaning.
Next, a very brief glance at [[FEMINISM]] before a final turn to CYBERFEMINISM.
Before a definition of CYBERFEMINISM can bet attempted, CYBER and FEMINISM must first be defined. Since the focus is on CYBERFEMINISM, let's run through the definitions of CYBER and FEMINISM quickly.
Continue on to a definition of [[CYBER]].
Cyber affair
Cyber age
Cyberart
Cyber-attack
Cyberbabe
Cyber-bully
Cyber-bullying
Cybercash
Cyberchondriac
Cybercommunity
Cybercop
Cybercrime
Cybercriminal
Cybercrook
[[Cyberfeminism|CYBERFEMINISM]]
Cybergeek
Cyberjournalism
Cyberkid
Cyberland
Cyberlaw
Cyberlibertarian
Cyberlife
Cybermall
Cyberman
Cyberporn
Cyber-romance
Cyber school
Cybersecurity
Cybersmut
Cyberspeak
Cybersphere
Cyberstalker
Cyberstalking
Cyberstore
Cybersurf
Cybersurfer
Cybersurfing
Cyberterrorism
Cyberterrorist
Cyber-thriller
Cyberwarfare
Cyberwarrior
Cyberworld
(OED)
For the sake of consistency, I've drawn on [[OED|works cited]]'s definition of FEMINISM.
<div class="block-quote">
Feminism, n.
Origin: A borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element. Etymons: Latin fēmina , -ISM suffix.
Etymology: < classical Latin fēmina woman (see FEMALE n.) + -ISM suffix. In sense 2 after French féminisme (in medicine) feminization (1871 or earlier). In sense 3 after FEMINIST adj.; compare also French féminisme (1896 or earlier), Catalan feminisme (c1910), Spanish feminismo (1898 or earlier), Portuguese feminismo (1905), Italian femminismo (1896).
1. Feminine quality or character; femininity. Now rare.
2. Med. The appearance of female secondary sexual characteristics in a male individual; feminization. Now rare or disused.
3. Advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social, and economic rights of the female sex; the movement associated with this (see note below). Cf. WOMANISM n., WOMEN'S LIBERATION n.
The issue of rights for women first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th cent., with regard especially to property rights, the marriage relationship, and the right to vote. In Britain it was not until the emergence of the suffragette movement in the late 19th cent. that there was significant political change. A ‘second wave’ of feminism arose in the 1960s, concerned especially with economic and social discrimination, with an emphasis on unity and sisterhood. A more diverse ‘third wave’ is sometimes considered to have arisen in the 1980s and 1990s, as a reaction against the perceived lack of focus on class and race issues in earlier movements.
1895 Athenæum 27 Apr. 533/2 Her intellectual evolution and her coquettings with the doctrines of ‘feminism’ are traced with real humour.
1897 Daily News 6 Sept. 8/6 You alluded, Mr. Goldwin Smith, somewhat disparagingly, to that phase of feminism which is so curious a feature of the present day.
1909 Daily Chron. 29 May 4/4 Suffragists, suffragettes, and all the other phases in the crescendo of feminism.
1913 ‘R. WEST’ in Clarion 14 Nov. 5/2, I myself have never been able to find out precisely what Feminism is: I only know that people call me a Feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
1950 J. L. JESSUP Faith of Our Feminists i. 10 Unlike sociologists and other tractarians, writers of fiction have recognized feminism as lying deeper than the demand for economic opportunity or political enfranchisement.
1971 S. FIRESTONE Dialectic of Sex ii. 16 In the radical feminist view, the new feminism is not just the revival of a serious political movement for social Equality.
2011 Guardian 15 Jan. 33/5 Nowadays, saying bad stuff about men is not how feminism conducts itself.
</div>
With relation to CYBERFEMINISM, the FEMINISM in CYBERFEMINISM signals an interest in the relationship between women and technology, with particular hope placed in the possibility of 3rd wave feminist emancipation via the hacking of male-dominated Web technologies.
The definition pasted above is by no means an exhaustive account of FEMINISM. In fact, there are much better and more interesting definitions out there. If this is your first time familiarising yourself with the concept of FEMINISM, place your hand above your heart and solemly swear to open a new tab and dedicate the rest of today catching up.
If you feel confident in your ability to move on, continue to a definition of [[CYBERFEMINISM]].The concept of CYBERFEMINISM emerged from the early 90s in the wake of personal computers, gender performativity ([[Butler 1990|works cited]]), and techno-utopian feminist visions of the World Wide Web [[(Haraway 1985)|works cited]]. CYBERFEMINISM, in its most basic form, is made up of a range of critical inquiries that takes interest in the relationship between women and technology. However, as [[Jesse Daniels|works cited]] reminds in her essay, "Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment,"
<div class="block-quote">
Cyberfeminism is neither a single theory nor a feminist movement with a clearly articulated political agenda. Rather, "cyberfeminism" refers to a range of theories, debates, and practices about the relationship between gender and digital culture (Flanagan and Booth 2002, 12), so it is perhaps more accurate to refer to the plural, "cyberfeminism(s).
</div>
Though the origin of the word is difficult to pin down, it is typically attributed to either British cultural theorist Sadia Plant, founder of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at the University of Warwich, or Australian art collective VNS Matrix, a group founded by Josephine Starrs, Julianne Pierce, Francesca da Rimini, and Virginia Barratt in 1991 [[(Scott; Evans; Paansonen 338)|works cited]].
1991 was a major year for CYBERFEMINISM with the publication of Donna Haraway’s "A Cyborg Manifesto" as well as VNS Matrix collectively authored <i>A Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century</i>. Six years later, the First Cyberfeminist International conference took place in Kassel, Germany, organized by a Berlin collective called the Old Boys Network. Made up of 38 women programers and artists from a total of12 countries, the meet-up produced an anti-manifesto titled [[100 Anti-These of Cyberfeminism|100 anti-theses]].
Reacting to assumptions that technology was a male domain, early CYBERFEMINISM argued that females were naturally suited to harness the technology of the Web. In her book <i>Zeroes and Ones</i> (1997), Plant pushed to restore the history of women and technology back into the public imagination with particular interest in the life of Ada Lovelace, pioneering 19th century computer programmer. In a similar vein, VNS Matrix pushed to recenter the female body as the locus of technological innovation, making way for a new Amazonian cyber-utopia [[(Evans)|works cited]]. Both parties focused on the female body's direct ties to Web technologies with lines like, "the clitoris is a direct line to the matrix" (first published in VNS Matrix's "Cyberfeminist Manifestor for the 21ST Century" (1991) and later used in Plant's "Feminisations: Reflections on Women and Virtual Reality" (1996)) and "we see art with our cunt we make art with our cunt" [[(VNS Matrix)|works cited]].
For these early founders of CYBERFEMINISM, the Internet was a space in which women could experiment with identity and challenge patriarchal authority; however, as much as the movement challenged so-called traditional models of female sexuality and public behaviour, the biologically essential ties made between the female body and a woman's identity both alienated members of the LGBT community and ignored other crucial social identities which affected the lives of girls and women, such as class and perceived race. To quote Mia Consalvo,
<div class="block-quote">
Simply put, all women do not have access to computers and the Internet, and likely will not in the foreseeable future; cyberfeminists who make the simple declaration that “all girls need modems” are ignoring the conditions of those who do not share their privileged middle-class, Western (and often white) background. Women's material conditions must be taken into account when considering how best to advance feminist ideas, online or otherwise.
</div>
This failure to take into consideration the lived experiences of women who are neither middle-class, white, nor anglophone reveals a history of CYBERFEMINISM's initial so-called "reactionary" activism and advocacy that reproduced the very violence of fixed subject identity the movement resisted [[(Paasonen 349)|works cited]].
Read more on [[critiques of CYBERFEMINISM]].
<div class="block-quote">
old boys network
100 anti-theses
cyberfeminism is not ...
1. cyberfeminism is not a fragrance
2. cyberfeminism is not a fashion statement
3. sajbrfeminizm nije usamljen
4. cyberfeminism is not ideology
5. cyberfeminism nije aseksualan
6. cyberfeminism is not boring
7. cyberfeminism ist kein gruenes haekeldeckchen
8. cyberfeminism ist kein leerer kuehlschrank
9. cyberfeminism ist keine theorie
10. cyberfeminism ist keine praxis
11. cyberfeminism ist keine traditio
12. cyberfeminism is not an institution
13. cyberfeminism is notusing words without any knowledge of numbers
14. cyberfeminism is not complete
15. cyberfeminism is not error 101
16. cyberfeminism ist kein fehler
17. cyberfeminism ist keine kunst
18. cyberfeminism is not an ism
19. cyberfeminism is not anti-male
20. sajbrfeminizm nige nesto sto znam da je
21. cyberfeminism is not a structure
22. cyberfeminismo no es uns frontera
23. cyberfeminism nije poslusan
24. cyberfeminism nije apolitican
25. cyberfeminisme is niet concreet
26. cyberfeminism is not separatism
27. cyberfeminism is not a tradition
28. cyberfeminism is not maternalistic
29. cyberfeminisme id niet iets buitenlands
30. cyberfeminism is not without connectivity
31. cyberfeminismus ist nicht mehr wegzudenken
32. cyberfeminismus ist kein oxymoron
33. cyberfeminism is not on sale
34. cyberfeminism is nor for sale
35. cyberfeminismus ist nicht gut
36. cyberfeminismus ist nicht schlecht
37. cyberfeminismus ist nicht modern
38. cyberfeminismus ist nicht post-modern
39. cyberfeminism is not natural
40. cyberfeminism is not essentialist
41. cyberfeminism is not abject
42. cyberfeminism is not an avatar
43. cyberfeminism is not an alter ego
44. cyberfeminismus ist nicht truegerisch
45. cyberfeminismus ist nicht billig
46. cyberfeminismus ist nicht willig
47. cyberfeminisme n'est pas jaloux
48. cyberfeminism is not exclusive
49. cyberfeminism is not solid
50. cyberfeminism is not genetic
51. cyberfeminismus ist keine entschuldigung
52. cyberfeminism is not prosthetic
53. cyberfeminismo no tiene cojones
54. cyberfeminisme n'est pas triste
55. cyberfeminisme n'est pas une pipe
56. cyberfeminism is not a motherboard
57. cyberfeminism is not a fake
58. cyberfeminism nije ogranicen
59. cyberfeminism nije nekonfliktan
60. cyberfeminism nije make up
61. cyberfeminism nije zatvoren prozor
62. cyberfeminism is not a lack
63. cyberfeminism is not a wound
64. cyberfeminism is not a trauma
65. cyberfeminismo no es una banana
66. cyberfeminism is not a sure shot
67. cyberfeminism is not an easy mark
68. cyberfeminism is not a single woman
69. cyberfeminism is not romantic
70. cyberfeminism is not post-modern
71. cyberfeminism is not a media-hoax
72. cyberfeminism is not neutral
73. cyberfeminism is not lacanian
74. cyberfeminism is not nettime
75. cyberfeminism is not a picnic
76. cyberfeminism is not a coldfish
77. cyberfeminism is not a cyberepilation
78. cyberfeminism is not a horror movie
79. cyberfeminism is not science fiction
80. cyberfeminism is not artificial intelligence
81. cyberfeminism is not an empty space
82. cyberfeminism is not immobile
83. cyberfeminism is not about boring toys for boring boys
84. cyberfeminismus ist keine verlegenheitsloesung
85. cyberfeminism is not a one-way street
86. cyberfeminism is not supporting quantum mechanics
87. cyberfeminism is not caffeine-free
88. cyberfeminism is not a non-smoking area
89. cyberfeminism is not daltonistic
90. cyberfeminism is not nice
91. cyberfeminismo no es callado
92. cyberfeminism is not lady.like
93. cyberfeminismus ist nicht arrogant
94. cyberfeminismus ist keine nudelsauce
95. cyberfeminism is not mythical
96. cyberfeminism is not from outer space
97. cyberfeminismo no es rock 'n roll
98. cyberfeminism is not dogmatic
99. cyberfeminism is not stable
100. cyberfeminism has not only one language
</div>Works Cited
Consalvo, Mia. "Cyberfeminism." <i>Encyclopedia of New Media.</i> Ed. Steve Jones. SAGE Publications, Inc. 2003.
"cyber, adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. <www.oed.com>
"cyber-, comb. form." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. <www.oed.com>
"cyberfeminism, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. <www.oed.com>
Daniels, Jessie. "Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment." <i>WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly</i> 37.1 (2009): 101-124.
Earhart, Amy. "Can Information Be Unfettered? Race and the New Digital Humanities Canon." <i>Debates in the Digital Humanities</i> (2012): 309-318.
"feminism, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. <www.oed.com>
Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in <i>Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature</i> New York: Routledge, 1991, 149–81.
Liu, Alan. "Where Is Cultural Criticism in the Digital Humanities?" Debates in the Digital Humanities (2012): 490- 509.
McPherson, Tara. "Why Are the Digital Humanities So White? Or Thinking the Histories of Race and Computation." <i>Debates in the Digital Humanities</i> (2012): 139-160.
Paasonen, Susanna. "Revisiting Cyberfeminism."
<i>Communications</i> 36.3 (2011): 335-352.
Plant, Sadie. <i>Zeros + Ones: Digital Women + the New Technoculture.</i> London: Fourth Estate, 1997.
VNS Matrix. "The Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century." <i>VNS Matrix</i> Image. <http://vnsmatrix.net/the-
cyberfeminist-manifesto-for-the-21st-century/>
The first of these critiques emerged from Old Boys Network member Faith Wilding in an essay titled, "Where is feminism in cyberfeminism?” (Wilding and Maria Fernandez went on to write <i>Domain Errors: Cyberfeminist Practices</i>). In her essay, Wilding calls out early CYBERFEMINISM for being biologically deterministic, that is, conflating sex with gender (pre-Elizabeth Grosz), reaffirming the notion that reproductive organs dictate a subject's identity, and completely failing to address class and racial identities.
In 1999, Beryl FLetcher published an essay titled, "CyberFeminism: Connectivity, Critique + Creativity" in which she writes: "Cyberspace has the potential to stretch imagination and language to the limit; it is a vast library of information, a gossip session, and a politically charged emotional landscape. In short, a perfect place for feminists" [[(qtd in Evans)|works cited]]. Perhaps ironically, not all early cyberfeminists identified as a feminist, feeling that the concept was too narrow for their purposes, where others simply cringed at the thought of being labeled [[(Paasonen 344)|works cited]]. Among these early resisters of the alliance between feminism and CYBERFEMINISM was Sadie Plant, suggesting that cyberfeminism "may not be feminism at all" [[(qtd in Paasonen 343)|works cited]]. Early CYBERFEMINISM, then, thrived on the movement's undefinability and strategic ambiguity that, like a Web user's online anonimity, served as a means to both include and empower members.
Anonimity, however, as modern Web users well-know, has become as endangering as it was once empowering with the advent of Internet trollz and cyberbullying. As [[Claire Evans|works cited]] writes in her artcile on CYBEREMINISM in the 90s,
<div class="block-quote">
And anonymity! Anonymity, which CyberFeminists championed as a method for transcending gender, is now a primary enabler of violently misogynistic language all over the web—in YouTube comments, on forums, and in the email inboxes and Twitter @replies of women with public opinions about technology. It’s not that the CyberFeminists failed. It’s that as the Venn diagrams of digital and real life have edged into near-complete overlap, the problems of the real world have become the problems of the digital world. The web is no longer a separate space; we are inseparable from the web.
</div>
Read more on the [[legacy of CYBERFEMINISM and its latest iterations]].CYBERFEMINISM began to fizzle out after the late 2000s [[(Paasonen)|works cited]], though there's no real consensus as to why.
There are, however, projects that have persisted with major advancements in biotechnology like trans-feminist Paul B. Precado's and his work on gender, deconstruction, and experiments with hormone innjections (documented in his monograph, <i>Testo Junkie</i> (2008)), or Xenofeminists, members of a "gender-abolitionist" and "gender hacking" movement that advocate for sex hormones to be made readily available to the public, "building an open-source gender-code platforms for hormone production to allow “laypeople” to grow them at home" [[(Scott)|works cited]]. The latest iteration of CYBERFEMINISM (or at this branch), then, works under the principle that gender is something that can be biologically hacked and encoded.
In retrospect, CYBERFEMINISM conjures an image of gender queering, techno-utopian riot grrrrls (think Bikini Kill) burning the patriarchy to the ground one line of code at a time. A closer look reveals no such cohesion. In fact, much of the movement relies on obscuring identity and celebrating ambiguity: for most cyberfeminists, to subvert the patriarchy means to resist fixed definition.
[[But where is CYBERFEMINISM in the humanities?]]Much of the work of CYBERFEMINISM can be read to have been cannibalized by digital humanities and media studies.
Recent calls for more critical race theory and feminism in digital scholarship [[(see Alan Liu, Tara McPherson, Amy Earhart, Miriam Posner, and Lisa Nakamura)|works cited]] respond to the techno-utopian visions of CYBERFEMINISM with a sobering reminder that we must pay attention to the white, patriarchal epistemologies that fuel searchbar algorithms, inform the ways in which race and gender are boxed in our datasets, and represent human identities on the Web.
It is this continued rage against the [["big daddy mainframe"|VNS Manifesto]] we can perhaps call CYBERFERMINISM's greatest legacy.<img src="http://i1.wp.com/vnsmatrix.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/english_sphere_final_web.jpg" alt="the cyberfeminist manifesto for the 21st century
" style="width:100%;height:100%;">