Assignment
Literary Criticism and Indian Poetics
Cyberfeminism
Name :- Nirali Makvana
Sem :- 2 ( 2019 - 20 )
Roll no. :- 14
Subject :- Literary Criticism and Indian Poetics
Topic :- Cyberfeminism
Submitted to :- Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar university
Enrollment no. :- 2069108420200023
Email Id :- niralimakvana9599@gmail.com
Key Points
- Introductions
- Definition
- Techno - feminist Inspiration
- Early Cyberfeminism
- Liberal Cyberfeminism on the Internet
- Cybermasculinity meets liberal Cyberfeminism
- United Nations Secretary General campaign Unite to END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
- Conclusion
- Work Cited
Introduction :-
We all know that " Feminism " is the advocacy of Women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes and it is manifested worldwide and is represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women's rights and interest. But now in the 21st century, the age of information and development of Science and technology as well as digitalisation, the term " Cyberfeminism " was coined in the year early 1990. The purpose was to describe the work of feminists interested in Critiquing, theorizing, exploring and re - making internet, cyberspace and new media technologies in general. Generally Cyberfeminism is a genre of contemporary Feminism, the relationship between the Internet and Technology. My Purpose is selecting this topic is to know more about how Critique criticised the term Cyberfeminism in a particular way and also we can find out Cyberfeminism in contemporary time.
Now first let us see what is Cyberfeminism.
What is Cyberfeminism?
According to LEXICO OXFORD dictionary " Cyberfeminism " is,
" A Feminist movement concerned with counting the perceived dominance of men in the use and development of information technology, the Internet etc. "
Mia Consalvo defines " Cyberfeminism " as,
"A label for Women - especially young women who might not even want to align with feminism's history - not just to consume new technologies but to actively participate in their making or in other words a critical engagement with new technologies and their entanglements with power structures and systematic oppression. "
Techno - Feminist Inspiration :-
" I want to the readers to find an ' elsewhere ' from which to envision a different and less hostile order of relationships among people, animals, technologies and land. I aslo want to set new terms for the traffic between what we have come to know historically as nature and culture. " ( Donna Haraway)
Donna Haraway
Donna Haraway's, " Cyborg Manifesto " first published in 1985, must be mentioned as a central piece of techno - feminist thinking and also she has never used the term, " Cyberfeminism " herself. Her metaphor of " Cyborg " provides numerous references of Cyberfeminist experiments to come. She is considering as most influential Feminist commentator on techno - science and she inspired not only the feminist theory but also in equality Feminist activism and art. She does not deny the existence of approaches on technological issues on gender but her critique seems to be very valuable than others. Her achievement to have a significant contribution to the deconstruction of Scientific knowledge as historically patriarchal and of science and technology as closely related to capitalism, colonialism racism and materialism. As Judy Wajcman noted that,
" For Haraway, Science is culture in an unprecedented sense. Her central concern is to expose the ' god trick ' the dominant view of science as a rational, universal, objective, nontropic system of knowledge. "
Haraway's analysis includes multiple standpoints. Her analysis does not lead to an anti science stance but rather demand a more comprehensive, stronger and true science. With the concept of " Cyborg " she put step further and provides a concrete concept of rethinking feminist, Socialist, Politics in the age of techno - science. The term Cyborg stands for neither natural nor mechanical, neither Individual nor collective, neither male nor female, but an integrated human machine system and the term Cyborg is more than some of her part.
Early Cyberfeminism :-
The term " Cyberfeminism " was first used in 1991 by the English Cultural theoretician Sadie Plant and the Australian artist group VNS Matrix independently from each other. The term " Cyberfeminism " applied in many different ways. For the applying very different means " Cultural theory and art practice " both Plant and VNS Matrix had gave same objectives:
" throwing overboard the traditionally technophobic version of earlier feminism by propagating an intimate relationship between women and technology. Finally technology was conceived as sexy for women. "
In her book, " Zeroes and Ones " published in 1997, Plant brings together the Past, the Present and the Future of technological developments and interweaves them with suggestive quotes and excerpts from feminist theory and literature, psychoanalysis, philosophy and Cybergpunk materialism. She wrote not only " genderquake " taken place in the 1990 but also,
" Western culture was suddenly struck by an extraordinary sense of volatility in all matters sexual differences, relations, identities, definitions, roles, attributes, means and ends. All the old expectations, stereotypes, senses of Identity and security faced challenges. "
According to Plant contrary to popular belief, women significantly contributes this development.
The Australian artist group VNS Matrix including Virginia Barrett, Julianne Pierce, Francesca de Rimini and Josephine Starrs can claim to have been the first to add feminist fuel to the flaming embers of digital networked technology.
In their book " Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century " published in 1991 is a wild and poetic expression of their desire to contaminate sterile technology with blood, Slime, cunts and madness and to repurpose technology for anarchic feminist aim.
There are many questions in our mind that what were the impulses behind the techno feminist upheaval at that time ? How did the different concepts of the movement vary ? Can Cyberfeminism play a role today ? Are there any techno Feminist approaches that respond to contemporary challenges ?
The importance of women's safety and security in cities throughout the world is now widely recognised. An extensive range of state and civil society institutions currently implement a range of cutting edge ' good practice ' policies, programmes and projects to address this issue. Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girl of many societies worldwide and formed the basis to the women's rights movement in the nineteenth century and feminist movement during the 20th century. In some countries, these rights are institutionalised or supported by law, local custom and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed. Examples of successful female leaders in academia are important in encouraging pursue leadership positions. This case specifically focuses on the challenges an Appalachian woman experienced while advancing to academic leadership. There are many barriers for women's experiences including : 1. Lake of female role model in leadership positions 2. Gender and culture based stereotypes and perceptions 3. Lack of mentors and networking opportunities. The case identifies how these barriers relate to geographic and demographic characteristics including educational opportunities and economic disadvantages.
Liberal Cyberfeminism on the Internet :-
In this point Kira Hall describes that Liberal Cyberfeminism has not been the exclusive property of Cybertheorists and feminist pro - porn activists. The online practice of this theoretical position is evidenced by the growing number of women who dabble in cross expressing, the term she used in an earlier article on the conversational style of telephone sex workers to refer to the practice of " Verbal " gender shifting. Intrigued by these gender shifting possibilities, a number of feminists artists have turned to computer mediated communication as a new form of artistic expression. One of the pieces in the exhibition, jointly produced by artists Pat Naldi and Wendy Kerkup, is a collection of online conversations created through the Citizen Band simulation option of Compuserve. According to Cadwallader it is the ephemeral nature of computer mediated communication or more specifically " the absence of the material body " which allows these participants to construct what she calls a " multiply located " identity or in Cadwallader's words , " they can enter into and explore a constantly shifting, almost fictional world of assumed identities. "
Cybermasculinity meets liberal Cyberfeminism :-
Researchers have studied the expression of " affect " in computer mediated communication for sometime with Kiesler, Moses and Geller nearly a decade ago that electronic mail has a more emotional structure than other types of written discourse. Niko Besnier finds the stylistic of online affect so compelling that he includes a discussion of it in his review of research on " Language and affect " for the " Annual Review of American Anthropology " what Besnier does not say, however, is the employment of these Verbal features, whether discussed as adaptive or disruptive, differs markedly across gender lines. Women and men have different ways of displaying affect electronically. Male interactants have not only been shown to dominate mixed sex electronic conversation, they also been identified as frequent instigators of online sexual harrassment observations difficult to reconcile with the liberal Cyberfeminist notion of a gender neutral utopia.
United Nations Secretary General campaign, United to END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN :-
Launched in 2008, this campaign is aimed to raise public awareness and to increase political will and resource for preventing and ending all forms of violence against women and girl in all parts of the world. Gabriella Shypula , a feminist organized an exhibition the art of Daria Dorosh, Bang Geul Hanm, Amelia Marzec, Marie Tomanove who too their art on digital and social media to discuss their qart, the difficulties they are facing as online artists. They discussed the various issues of Cyberfeminism through digital media. It got good responses as well as criticism from supporters and critique. The feminist organizations like Women's Net in South Africa, Women of Uganda Network in Uganda, Linux chix Africa used ICT effectively for their aim. An online network of Africa Women online started FLAMME to lobby, advocate and participate in the women empowerment. These online portals provide anonymity to the talkers. According to Twitter, the discussion and communication about the Feminism on the Social media has increased 300 % in last three years. Celebrity given a good back up to this online activism for women. #Heforshe, #MeToo, why I stayed, why I left, Bell Bajao, Pink Chaddi and so many campaigns run on social media and the overwhelming result.
Conclusion :-
Thus, above all information I am concluding this topic with the discussion points of what is Cyberfeminism. As above mentioned Cyberfeminism is a feminist movement that connected with information technology and Internet. My main concern in this is that the view of feminist critiques about Cyberfeminism, I discussed here the view of Sadie Plant, Donna Haraway, VNS Matrix, Kira Hall etc. about Cyberfeminism. And also I discussed here the development of technology and various Social media platforms which helps Women fight against their crisis.
Work Cited
Hall, Kira."Cyberfeminism."1996,pp.
146-170.,
kira/content/cyberfeminism.
Verma, Manish. "Social Media a Tool
of Cyberfeminism Activism. " 20
Feb.2018, pp. 1-10.,
Francis, Taylor. "Cyberfeminism."
Technology and International
Development,
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