Nancy Paterson
nancy@utcc.utoronto.ca


CYBERFEMINISM
    
In her latest incarnation she is exceedingly voluptuous. The scalpel
blades beneath her nails are discreetly retractable. The arm twisted
up behind her back is, at first glance, barely noticeable. Meet Molly
in William Gibson's novel Neuromancer, or Melanie Griffith in the film
Cherry 2000 - sexy, tough, aloof, and ultimately a fantasy. (1) 

The power which these women wield is evil, technological and, of course,
seductive. Any influence or control which they exert is clearly misguided
or accidental. The powerful woman, bitch/goddess, ice queen, android,
is represented in popular culture as a 21st century Pandora. And the
box which she hold this time is electronic and very definitely plugged
in.

Linking the erotic representation of women with the often terrible cultural
impact of new electronic technologies is not a new concept. Cinema addressed
the desire to anthropomorphize machines and vilify women in the process
as early as 1927 in Fritz Lang's cult classic Metropolis. Sex, danger,
women and machines: the plot of virtually every futuristic, sci-fi movie
in which women play any role at all. Cyberfemmes are everywhere, but
cyberfeminists are few and far between.

Ubiquitous and omniscient, the significance of new electronic technologies,
their development, design, implementation and dissemination, cannot
be ignored and must not be underestimated. Whether directly or indirectly,
issues of economics, class, race, nationality, personality and gender,
are driven and defined by new electronic technologies. Immersed as we
are in the popular applications of these new technologies and media,
their long-term and more profound impact become invisible.

In The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, Nicholas Negroponte is
quoted as saying: 'Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not
part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.' (2) Without celebrating
the military-industrial complex responsible for the origin and development
of these new technologies, what alternatives are left for women who
are not satisfied with the roles which patriarchal culture has designated?
Certainly not the association of the feminine with 'nature' advocated
by eco-feminists and theorists such as Camille Paglia. It is no longer
possible or desirable for women to capitulate and retreat to this position.
The progress of new electronic technologies will leave them in the dust.

Women are not alone in the need to understand how, why and by whom our
criteria and confidence for understanding ourselves, each other and our
relation to the world, has been stripped away. The dissolution of
conventional concepts of time and space through new electronic media has
contributed to the acceptance and success of PoMo punk nihilism,
pluralism, diversity and the disappearance of dominant history.
Simultaneously, we are witnessing a crisis of both individual and cultural
identity as we are faced the interminable task of incorporating new
electronic media into our lives without handing over control. 

Cyberfeminism as a philosophy has the potential to create a poetic,
passionate, political identity and unity without relying on a logic and
language of exclusion or appropriation. It offers a route for
reconstructing feminist politics through theory and practice with a focus
on the implications feminist politics through theory and practice with a
focus on the implications of new technology rather than on factors which
are divisive. It rejects the trend toward carefully crafted descriptions
of people which rely on more than a few adjectives. At issue is not
whether a woman can be accurately described as a lesbian-separatist,
pacifist, woman of colour, but rather, whether we can recognize and
address the personal and political impact which new electronic
technologies and media have on daily life. New electronic technologies are
currently utilized to manipulate and define our experiences. Cyberfeminism
does not accept as inevitable current applications of new technologies
which impose and maintain specific cultural, political and sexual
stereotypes. Empowerment of women in the field of new electronic media can
only result from the demystification of technology, and the appropriation
of access to these tools. Cyberfeminism is essentially subversive. 

Vancouver-based author William Gibson is credited with having introduced
the word 'cyberspace' into popular culture, in his novel Neuromancer,
defining it as a 'consensual hallucination.' (3) In fact, this word
may be used to describe electronic space in all of its manifestations,
ranging from virtual reality to the telecommunications infrastructure
or internet. As illustrated by the recent U.S. Clinton/Gore initiative
to regulate the internet or  Information Superhighway, governments are
beginning to recognize in public policy the commercial potential of
media which have been under development for several decades. Predictably,
the involvement of feminists and other marginalized groups in this process
of development and design has not been solicited or encouraged, either
in public or in private initiatives.

In the very near future, lines of cultural influence will be drawn based
on computer access and literacy. It is becoming the new political divide
- those who have access to computers or are computer literate vs. those
who are not. The North American Free Trade Agreement, workplace automation,
and legislation regarding the 'Information Superhighway,' are generally
supported by those individuals, organizations and corporations which
have and promote access. Those who have access and/or are computer literate
but do not share enthusiasm for these types of policies and initiatives,
are severely isolated as they have no one to unite with in their quest
for well thought out socio-economic reforms. Those who do not have access,
are not computer literate, and in fact, are often technophobic, are
critical, but not necessarily constructive in their analysis of new
electronic technologies. 

New electronic technologies represent a magic circle from which women
have been traditionally excluded. It is true that there are definite
barriers to our participation in the discourse shaping the tools and
the applications of new electronic media. Women are largely absent from
the institutions, networks and structures which determine where and
when new technological applications will be developed, and how the potential
of these new media will be described. However, lack of initiative, aggression,
or determination should no longer be utilized to justify our continued
exclusion.

One factor contributing to the discouragement of women in this field
may be traced to the historical foundations of these media. The internet,
a worldwide computer network, was originally a small military network
of four computers known as ARPANET. This computer network was designed
to research the feasibility of creating a decentralized system of communication
which could survive a nuclear war. Similarly, VR (virtual reality) also
had militaristic origins, having been initially envisioned as a tool
for battlefield simulations. These origins are clearly acknowledged
in every book and article describing current and potential applications
of these systems. However, this candor is deceptive, as no links are
made between the origins of these media and the future towards which
they are being driven. It is obvious that underlying assumptions are
manifest in current popular applications of these media. The evidence
is in the arcades, where video games such as the Sega Genesis 'Night
Trap' challenges players to save scantily clad sorority sisters from
a gang of hooded killers.

Margaret Benston, a Canadian activist with a background in engineering
and an interest in the social and political dimensions of science and
technology, in a chapter of Chris Kramarae's book Technology & Women's
Voices titled 'Women's Voices/Men's Voices: Technology as Language,'
describes technology as a language for action and self expression. (4)
Access to machinery and technology has been culturally sex-typed as
masculine. In maintaining control over new technologies and by promoting
and adhering to a technological world view, men have attempted to silence
us. Whether or not we agree whether this world view is appropriate,
it is clear that women's' absence from this forum is a problem. 

Despite these obstacles, women are increasingly successful in breaking
through and stepping inside the circle. Particularly in philosophy and
cultural theory, an uneasy realization is dawning that mans' haphazard
mastery of nature has not provided an adequate foundation for a vision
worthy of leading us into the next century. Across this bleak and plundered
landscape cyberfeminist theorists are emerging, speaking and gathering.
A new chain of beings and being in the world is constructed; they reshape
each other, they redefine themselves, and they reclaim new electronic
technologies for women.

Virtual reality and cyberspace - the technologies for living vicariously.
Virtual reality describes a wide range of experiences, including the
transformation of two-dimensional objects and spaces through media such
as holography; installations which use multiple video monitors or projections
to surround the viewer; and the 'Hollywood' definition with which we
are becoming increasingly familiar - head mounted display, touch sensitive
gloves and/or full body suit. Telepresencing and cyberspace, where 
telecommunications networks enable instantaneous interaction from remote
locations, have also been commonly described as virtual spaces. The proof of the
impact of such technologies (which have stretched and twisted our understanding
of time and space as well as the limitations of our vulnerable, physical,
human bodies) may be measured by the paranoia which they have inspired.
Cyberspace has become a fertile breeding ground for multiple personalities,
flaming, electronic stalking and gender-bending at the very least.

The body, in virtual space, is no mere user-interface; VR offers the
chance to trade-in, remodel, or even leave behind the physical nature
with which we are, in reality, burdened. Outside forces which act upon
us, impose restrictions, are gone. Gravity, and the laws of physics,
gone. Entropy and the passage of time become meaningless concepts. Women
have always, by virtue or necessity, been adept at free fall, grounding
themselves in personal physical experience. This skill will serve well
as we venture into other dimensions and back home again. However skilled
we become at navigating these spaces and temporarily leaving our bodies
behind, it is doubtful that we will ever achieve immortality. Virtuality
is patriarchy's blind spot.

Paris Is Burning, Jennie Livingstone's film about gender, identity and
style, documents what was surely (before the introduction of
technology-based VR into pop culture), the ultimate virtual experience -
walk down a runway, through Harlem, or down Wall Street for that matter,
in drag. Transsexual and cross-dressing 'walkers,' competing in the
categories of 'executive,' 'college boy,' and 'fashion model,' recognize
that the successful embodiment or representation of stereotypes is
measured by both appearance and attitude. 'Realness' has always been the
unspoken criteria for 'passing,' and women (those who have avoided being
institutionalized for not 'fitting in') have become experts at that. 

Through Virtual Reality, deconstruction of gender is entering the realm
of pop culture, and this link with new electronic technology has implications
for the philosophy of cyberfeminism. Technological convergence describes
the unification of computers, television and communications technologies.
However, convergence describes much more than the evolution towards
an environment in which electronic technologies are pervasive. Convergence
is happening on more than a technological level - it is happening on
a metaphysical level as well. Cultural convergence may be described
as the meeting or merging of art and technology. Cyberfeminism is entering
an arena in which much more than gender is up for grabs.

Multimedia, interactive video, virtual reality; for women these new
technologies present opportunities to break out of prescribed roles and
away from scripted dialogues. A rabbit hole through which we may tumble.
Our real experiences, when not denied, have been acknowledged only in
their immediacy. Our individual histories and the attempt to isolate or
remove ourselves from a patriarchal context, have always been undervalued
and undermined. We have learned to live from hand to mouth. Transgressing
order and linear organization of information, cyberfeminists recognize the
opportunity to redefine 'reality,' on our terms and in our interest and
realize that the electronic communications infrastructure or 'matrix' may
be the ideal instrument for a new breed of feminists to pick up and play. 


Notes


(1)   Gibson, William. (1984). Neuromancer. New York, NY: Ace Books.
p. 25

(2)   Brand, Stewart (Ed.) (1987). The Media Lab: Inventing the Future
at MIT. New York, NY: Viking. p. 9

(3)   Gibson, William. (1984). Neuromancer. New York, NY: Ace Books.
p. 51

(4)   Kramarae, C. (Ed.). Technology & Women's Voices. London, UK: Routledge.
p. 15