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effects of cyberfeminism
1. Introduction
‘Despite women’s place at the bottom of the global economic hierarchy, their Internet
research suggests that the number of female internet users is the same or exceeds their male
counterparts (Everett 2004). Although the pattern does not match worldwide, as women still
represent a small percentage of online users, linking ‘cyber’ and ‘feminism’ represents a new
Considering that cyberfeminism critique often assume an universal white, educated and
upper-middle class (Fernandez and Wilding 2003) participant, this essay detached from such
notions and critically assessed how internet technology acts both as an oppressor and a
liberating tool for the universal woman. However, the aim of the essay was not limited to this
aspect. Rather, the motivation behind this choice of topic was to examine several ways that
portray technology as empowering to women which can leave the impression that men are not
The last section of the essay developed this problematic, commencing with Daniels’
(2009) idea of women using technology as an empowerment tool. This was exemplified
through instances of peer-support like ‘pro-ana’ communities (Daniels 2009) where it was
highlighted that eating disorders are not specifically female problems (Weltzin et al. 2005)
even though a cyberfeminist framework might portray it like this. Similarly, the essay touched
on how online platforms help women fight against racial discrimination due to their racial
difference tolerance (Hansen 2006), but emphasized that men too are psychological victims of
the same issue and often suffer from negative consequences such as the impostor phenomenon
Also, considering that platforms like online forums allow ‘opportunities for forms of
'peer-to-peer' sex and relationships education that exist outside adult surveillance and control'
(Masanet and Buckingham 2015:487), the essay discussed how technology allows young
women who identify as QLBT to educate themselves (Bryson 2004). The latter is a form of
2. Theory
As Lugones and Spelman (1983:573) argued feminism and feminist theory started as a
‘response to the fact that women either have been left out of, or included in demeaning and
disfiguring ways in what has been an almost exclusively male account of the world’.
Consequently, the demands of feminists revolve around the rights of women to act as per their
own will, as well as on who has the right to talk about the lives of women, an account which is
believed to have close links with leading someone’s life (Lugones and Spelman 1983).
Feminist theory has different strands which includes liberal feminism, radical feminism or
postcolonial feminism. However, for the purpose of linking feminist theory to information
systems research, cyberfeminism is the theory to rely on considering it ‘explicitly fuses gender
and information technology’ (Rosser 2005:1) which is the foundation of this essay.
Daniels (2009:102) argued that ‘cyberfeminism is neither a single theory nor a feminist
movement with a clearly articulated political agenda’, so its discourses can become conflictual
especially when issues of race, ethnicities and social class interlink. This motivates why
feminists worldwide devoted their attention to evaluate how emerging technologies facilitate
women in developing countries (Gajjala and Mamidipudi 1999). Cyberfeminism does not rely
exclusively on traditional principles found in other feminist theories’ strands like liberal
feminism, which mainly revolve around the idea that the oppression of women is linked with
unjust discrimination (Jaggar 1983). Rather, cyberfeminism ‘explores the ways that
information technologies and the Internet provide avenues to liberate (or oppress) women’
(Rosser 2005:17). Its’ perspective is woman-centred, and the role of technology is arguably
empowering given the status of women in the digital future, which is considered a feminine
world where zeros overcome the ones’ order (Plant 1997) in terms of power relations. Although
cyberfeminist critics don’t deny that ‘there are hierarchies of power embedded in the very
construction and design of the Internet’ (Gajjala and Mamidipudi 1999:15), cyberfeminism
recognises the potential of the Internet to empower females despite these impediments.
using Internet technology for activities like internet shopping or general browsing which
other strands of feminist theories is the optimistic approach regarding technoscience which is
no longer seen as patriarchal (Plant 1997). However, as Wajcman (2004) argued, although this
optimism is beneficiary the relationship between women and technology needs to be carefully
assessed.
3. Applications of cyberfeminism
feminist politics (Everett 2007). Rosalind Gill (2005) warned about women’s actual use of
digital technologies, which for a lot of females from developed Northern European countries
is mostly represented by e-mail checking, home shopping or health information which are
deemed as depressing and not at all empowering. A similar attitude can be observed in
Harcourt’s (2000) work, who claimed to use the internet for family and marital communication
as well as work. Her use of technology consists of e-mail exchanges in which she admitted
investing ‘much emotional and creative energy’ (Harcourt 2000:693), an attitude which hardly
is the ‘intersection of gender and race’ (Daniels 2009:103) which can result in a uniform
meaning of digital technologies for all women. As Gill (2005) argued it is important not only
to label technology as a factor of positive or negative change, but also to pay attention ‘to social
longer deemed as inherently masculine and critics like Plant (1997) argued about the potential
Gill (2005:100) referenced Haraway’s (1985) framework who warned that ‘the
categories of ‘race’, class and gender should not be thought of as existing independently of
technoscience but rather as constituted in its practices’. It is important to consider this argument,
given that often cyberfeminist practices tend to use old feminist principles that assume that all
participants are white, educated women, who usually have an upper-middle class background
(Fernandez and Wilding 2003). These kinds of participants are mostly found in developed
nations where there is a higher incidence of people owning computers and Internet access
(Norris 2001) compared to people from developing countries who might experience uneven
effects of these technologies. An example of these effects was illustrated by Millar (1998) who
argued that although Chinese women working in factories or Indian women working in call
centres have access to technology, using it is closely linked to economic necessities rather than
empowerment.
3.2 The liberating effects of cyberfeminism for women and its’ problematics
Assuming that all females use technology and the internet for rudimentary activities
would take the merit of the innovative ways through which women instrument their lives with
the help of internet technologies (Daniels 2009). Critics like Harcourt (2000) viewed online
technologies as a vital way of tackling gender inequalities and considered the internet as a place
where communities can feel empowered. Contrary to the views of Gill (2005), this section
brings forward instances when the cyberspace acted as a ‘tool to be picked up and used by
women for empowerment’ (Daniels 2009:108) in difficult situations. Furthermore, the section
will discuss why such examples can transform in problematic situations by portraying universal
general beliefs of anorexia which are considered false, such as the fact that starving oneself in
order to look like a celebrity is not a criterion to be diagnosed (Fox et al. 2005), but rather it
has to do with the mental state of the person. The peer-support available which is facilitated by
technology gives the participants a sense of control of their bodies (Daniels 2009) which might
be challenged in real life by people who do not share similar experiences like parental figures.
It is important to recognise that such problems are not exclusively for women and men
too suffer from isolation and stigmatisation because of eating disorders, accounting for 10% of
people affected by anorexia and bulimia and for 25% of people suffering from binge eating
(Weltzin et al. 2005). Cyberfeminism shall be diffused in a way that it truly reflects its'
theoretical framework, and not be transformed in a gender issue as in cases like the one
described earlier men only recently began to receive research consideration (Robinson et al.
and to devote more attention to the universal person who is suffering from eating disorders.
Internet has provided women with temporary possibilities of changing identity which
can have important psychological and social benefits (Turkle 1997). To elaborate, Daniels
(2009:110) linked this idea especially to the concept that ‘racial oppression is linked to
embodied visibility’, an aspect which is absent online. Considering that online mediums
women also due to its carnivalesque nature, as the temporary suspension of time (while online)
facilitates certain experiences that would be deemed as impossible in the real world (Bakhtin
As online environments do not consider racial difference (Hansen 2006), they act as the
perfect mediums for oppressed women. This is particularly important, because racial
negative indices of mental health (Bernard et al. 2017). Among African Americans, these
effects eventually can lead to the impostor phenomenon which implies a host that feels
intellectually incompetent despite evident success. Similar to research among eating disorders
which was discussed earlier, this issue has been conceptualised as a ‘women issue’ and only
recent studies (Kumar and Jagacinski 2006 and McGregor et al 2008) made it relevant to both
genders. This is particularly worrying as for African American men the portrayal of negative
character stereotypes such as aggressivity or poor work ethic are widely spread (Bernard et al.
2017), and internet technology has the potential to alienate them if employed efficiently.
Going online is not necessarily liberating only by switching identities, but also by
strengthening social identities in terms of race, gender and not ultimately sexuality (Daniels
2009). Examples that illustrate this idea include the use of information technology by young
women whose identities are partly formed online (Mazzarella 2005), or by women who don’t
identify themselves as heterosexual such as QLBT communities. The latter use online
technology to educate themselves (Bryson 2004) about a subject which is still considered taboo
women who suffer in this instance. The role of technology is vital for both lesbian women and
gay men, who are likely to suffer from gender nonconformity that can result in greater
depression rates or suicidal behaviour for gay men (Skidmore et al. 2006). Both groups are
highly stigmatized and are targets of verbal and physical abuse (Skidmore et al. 2006), but find
in online mediums like forums the ideal environments to socialise because they don’t stick to
fixed moral positions when employing sexuality (Masanet and Buckingham 2015), and thus
4. Conclusion
To conclude, this essay used cyberfeminism theory to conceptualise both the oppressive
and empowering effects that internet technology can have on women (Rosser 2005) by
applying its’ principles to practical examples. The essay acknowledged the limitations of
based on the example of Northern European women using the internet exclusively for e-mail
checking or home shopping (Harcourt 2000), activities which are not liberating.
uniform distribution of digital technologies for all women (Daniels 2009). Thus, throughout
the essay were referenced instances which exemplified how information technologies can be
empowering to women, either as educational means (e.g: QLBT communities) or as platforms
Even though cyberfeminism is still a ‘developing feminist theory’ (Rosser 2005: 19),
oppresses and more importantly liberates women. However, in order to recognise its’ validity
it is important to question how issues that are frequently described as ‘female problems’ affect
men as well. As discussed, men too are affected by eating disorders (Weltzin et al. 2005) or
racial and sexual discriminations (Bernard et al. 2017, Skidmore et al. 2006) due to unjustified
stereotypes. Considering that very few studies are concerned about these issues, the difficulty
in the future would be to find ways to employ technology, as a powerful tool that avoids fixed
moral positions on sensitive subjects like sexuality (Masanet and Buckingham 2015), for the
benefit of everybody.
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