| Faith Wilding on Fri, 18 Sep 1998 18:48:30 +0200 (MET DST) |
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| <nettime> The Future is Femail |
Note: This is a considerably shortened version of Verena Kuni's text. For the complete version please see the OBN Cyberfeminist Reader,available from Cornelia Sollfranck. The Future is Femail" Some Thoughts on the Aesthetics and Politics of Cyberfeminism By Verena Kuni What intrigues me, is being alternative and completely conformist at the same time." k.d. lang 1. Preface The following text reflects the attempt to reproduce a lecture I gave at The First Cyberfeminist International in Kassel, in September l997. I have since revised and added to this essay based on responses to presenting it to different audiences. It is presented in very abbreviated form here.(The full-length version of this paper was published in the Cyberfeminist Reader by OBN, ed. Cornelia Sollfrank). This essay centers on visual representations of gender, and is especially addressed to artists (re-)presenting their work in the visual field of the World Wide Web who are concerned with this issue in their everyday practice. 2. Future is Femail! Now, just to add an ad for Cyberfeminism--let us admit that... Future is femail. This is a fact most men seem not to be capable of accepting - except in the case it is called Barbarella and has the body shape of Jane Fonda. One of the issues of Cyberfeminism should be to question how to get even with old-fashioned fantasies of that kind and to throw a pinch of sand into the gears of cybernetic bachelor's machines (Junggesellenmaschinen), how to finish off the damned sexist-machistic colonialisation of Cyberspace... (Here I omit a long discussion of the development of the Internet within masculinist structures; of Sadie Plants' and Donna Haraway's contributions to the discussion of the relationships of women and technology; and a discussion of the definition of cyberfeminism.) 3. A new subversive cyberfeminist energy takes effect wherever women artists work consciously with means of replication and simulation rather than referring to traditional strategies of representation. At this point, it seems to be near at hand that electronic media - as they principally support different techniques of replication and simulation - should match a correspondent artistic practice perfectly. Sounds like good news for feminist artists working with new technologies: Is Cyberfeminism just another name for a new born feminist avant-garde? At this point it is important to ask ourselves about specific effects of new media technologies that might seriously interfere with the break with concepts of representation (as claimed by Sadie Plant). To answer this question in relation to the aesthetics and politics of Cyberfeminism, the World Wide Web as an expanding field not only of feminist activities, but also of artistic practice seems to be an appropriate area to discuss. 4. Label it! On Netchicks and PopTarts Similar to the multitude of different notions and concepts of Cyberfeminism discussed in the field of theory we can find a broad range of Cyberfeminist presence on the Web: from personal homepages to ambitious zines, from webrings, jumping stations and networks to artistic projects there is a growing number of sites provided by women that are not only dealing with feminist issues, but also associate themselves explicitly with the label Cyberfeminist". But how can we distinguish between feminist" and Cyberfeminist" webwork? As I have already pointed out, regarding the discussions about the relations between Cyberfeminism and the so called Old school feminism" on one hand, and the continuing disagreements between different feminist and Cyberfeminist positions on the other hand, it does not make very much sense to define Cyberfeminism as the sum of feminist activities. I would like to propose another definition: Cyberfeminist practice as both a political and aesthetic strategy - and, as a strategy working consciously with means of replication and simulation rather than referring to traditional strategies of representation. But how far does this definition fit into a medium like the World Wide Web which is loaded with one of today's most common means of representation: the image? Well, representation is not only built up on visuals, and do not forget that basically the WWW is nothing but a big hypertext. Unfortunately, this doesn't make things better at all. Net politics begin with the naming of a domain or a site - and in general this will be a name that defines not only its geographic or physical origins, but also the contextual and ideal framework a project is situated in. According to this, let us look at how feminist and Cyberfeminist projects deal with this tool. What can be noticed here generally is that on the one hand a majority of feminist as well as Cyberfeminist sites refer to a spectrum of terms more or less explicitly associated with femininity in respect to the female sex. On the other hand the way this term is related to the female sex seems to be a first criterion to distinguish between feminist and cyberfeminst presence on the Web. At first hand, this can be mentioned as an indication for the unease of a younger generation against concepts developed by an older one that worked on a different basis not only considering the historic situation and the socio-political context, but also considering the media available to work with - and therefore leading not only to a different self understanding, but also to different strategies. As RosieX from the CyberFemZine GeekGirl" remarks, even the idea of a movement" itself is based on an older style feminist rhetoric which tended to homogenize all women with the same wants/needs/desires to embrace each other [...]. Whereas feminist projects tend to relate to terms like woman" or femina" or to go back to names grasped from the pool of history and mythology like Ariadne", Elektra" or Sappho" - thereby following similar concepts to many projects during the first and second wave of feminist movement that tried to point out the need for consciousness about a female identity", herstory" and so on - looking at projects associating themselves with the concept of Cyberfeminism we can find a remarkable predilection for the use of a special slang I would like to describe as an ironic play with the so called toys for boys, recognizing traditional notions of female identity" as already prestructured by the male perceptions of the female". For example, there are quite a lot of names using and sometimes also fusing the world of computer technology with phrases normally used as vulgars for women, for female sexuality or for ugly feminist, as in Clara Sinclairs Netchicks Homepage", Akke Wagenaars RadicalPlaygirls", Crystal Tiles Feminist Pop Tarts", the german Cyberweiber" - and yes, we can even put the notion of Cyberfeminism" into this category. Another major part of the projects refer in a similar way to the word girl" changing it into grrl" and thereby citing the Riotgrrl movement that emerged from the music scene during the eighties and transferring it into cybersphere, as it is the case in site-names like PlanetGrrl", GeekGrrl" and so on. Similar to the Riotgrrl movement in music (or the Bad Grrls in contemporary fine arts), this is also about the need to be part of a scene and at the same time keep one's distance to the gender politics it is ruled by. As Chrystal Tiles from the Feminist Pop Tarts" puts it: A very practical reason grrrls/geeks/nerds use these codewords in titles or our site is to make it clear that we're not naked and waiting for a hot chat with you! I mean, just do an infoseek search using the keyword 'girl' or 'woman' and see what you find. Cybergirl.som (not to be confused with Cybergrrl!) s a nekkid-chick.gif site or something [...] Ever heard about the cliche 'It's not a man's world, it's a boy's world'? Well, I think of girl, geek, grrl, etc. as words women of whatever age can use to signify that we refuse to play the circumscribed, no-win, lady/cutie/muffin/angel/whore/bitch game, and a way to fight back against the boys will be boys and old boys stuff that is so subtle, yet so powerful in our society." Following this, it seems that within the Name Space" of the World Wide Web Cyberfeminist Grrlism is not only a means to create and to claim free spaces" for women in the net, but a strategy of masquerade as a tool to undermine dominating gender politics that keep control over the female data set" (i. e. visual or linguistic objectifications of that which male netusers regard as female") as well. Furthermore this strategy is not only important for the naming, but also for the visual design of Cyberfeminist web projects, as I will try to demonstrate in my sketch of an iconology of Cyberfeminist webdesign" following below. By trying to find categories and common grounds I do not intend to return to the problematic issue of a female", feminine" or feminist aesthetic". Rather, my purpose here is to describe Cyberfeminism by the means of its aesthetical and political strategies - and thereby to develop perspectives on the representation of gender in the visual field of World Word Web. 5. Masquerades of the Cyborg Regarding the Web as a visual field and stating that Cyberfeminist politics include the screendesign, we will have to take a closer look at the constituting elements like the construction of a site, the use of logos and frames as well as colours, background textures and so on. At first let us ask what a Cyberfeminist website could look like. Is there a possibility for an imaginary with a Cyberfeminist bent? For quite a lot of theorists in the field of Cyberfeminism the use of new technologies is more or less closely associated with the desire to erect a new symbolic order in cyberspace that allows not only for imagining notions of identity and sexuality beyond the binary code, but to incorporate them as well.In this context, the figuration of the Cyborg as outlined by Donna Haraway plays an important role as a synthetic techno-flesh being that in itself already dissolves the gendered knot beween body and cultural identity. "The cyborg as imaginary figure and lived experience changes the notion of what at the end of the twentieth century is being understood as the experience of women". Another notion to discuss is the concept of hybridity, founded on the idea of difference rather than of identity. Donna Horaway characterized her cyborg as "an ardent adherent of partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversion." Following that, we may conclude that the potential of a cyberfeminist figuration--any public image, be it a logo, a corporate identity, or a screendesign--could be based on a strategy of difference and hybridity. Or if we speak in terms of visual representation (as Judith Halberstam proposes it in reference to Judith Butler) as a strategy of masquerade that may be the only option to outline different images and different visions of possible alliances of women and technology. Coming back to our reflections about possible strategies for visual artists working on and with the World Wide Web: Is it possible to understand masquerade as a strategy of representation beyond representation, let's say: a representation that at the same moment undermines traditional concepts of representation by using techniques of replication and simulation, irony and parody? I would like to finish by looking at that what we could call the current reality of Cyberfeminist practice on the World Wide Web, thereby trying to condense the results of my investigations in this field into a short summary of what I call an iconological reflection" of the aesthetics and politics of Cyberfeminism. In so doing,I am proceeding from the assumption of the World Wide Web as a kind of graphic interface that can be understood as an arena of visual representation where aesthetics and politics are woven together inseparably. 6. Blue Stockings and Tupperware Aesthetics Looking at the majority of websites devoted to feminist issues, in the first instance we will find a lot of them following what I already described as the traditional practices of first and second wave feminist movement. However plain and unpretentious the design of a site, there will be at least the good old Venus' Mirror as a sign to show the project's orientation, others will use the colour purple to design their letters, some even do not hesitate to use a floral patterns for their backgrounds and frames. And of course there is the traditional way of labeling, by calling the projects after big names" from women's history", be it mythological as Artemis", Ariadne", Electra", be it historic like the zine Blue Stockings" refering to suffragette's movement or just simply by naming the public": WWWomen", lesbian.org" and so on. No doubt this politics of definition makes sense in a world wide business center, where you want to place and distribute your offers by using a clear concept for sales promotion - but thinking of Cyberfeminist strategies as mentioned before we will still look for something different. Given the fact that there are lots of projects calling themselves not only" feminist, but Cyberfeminist", this group will be our field of research. Indeed, browsing through the variety of Cyberfeminist activities from personal homepages to those run by groups and associations, from e-zines to artistic projects,there's no question that the range of webdesigns is being broadened significantly - but yet the impression will remain that in sum there are common features as well, allowing us to continue our reflections about how Cyberfeminist aesthetics and Cyberfeminist politics might correlate. And of course, we will also have to ask in this context, how far the practice correlates with the strategies projected and claimed in Cyberfeminist theory. For example, regarding the fact that representations of femininity on the web are widely dominated by the male gaze (be it to sell pornography, be it to sell technology as toys for boys) it is no wonder this is also an issue for Cyberfeminist activities longing for a practice of difference. But at the same time, we will have to bear in mind that working on this issue means to get into the complex of representation, body and gender politics where difference is always in danger of being confused with and mistaken as the other", a perspective from which any visual notion of women" will be an image mirroring traditional points of view. First of all, a really remarkable part of Cyberfeminist iconography refers to an already existing pool of images of strong" and liberated" women, i. e. the cross-dressing vamps of the roaring twenties", the super-women known from comic strips like Superwoman", Spiderwoman" or Hellcat", the sexy biker bitches and supervixen pin ups invented by the sixties, up to the angry grrls of nowadays rriot grrl movement - in short : in the majority stereotypes of liberated women that still bear a lot of sex appeal as well. And regarding the webdesign itself, it is also remarkable that quite a lot of them - if not addicted to the current fashion of techno-pop imagery with brilliant colours and psychedelic background patterns - tend to prefer pastels to create a new tupperware aesthetics". Even if the Cyberfeminist housewife no longer deals with household technology only, the GeekGirl operator girl is no longer surrounded with phones and wires, but with motherboards and chips, even if some of the SuperGrrls wear intellectual glasses and even if the All men must die!"-homepage threatens the surfers with blood red weapons of all kind: In the end, all these images refer to a repertoire of one dimensional images of femininity - and we will have to consult them carefully again and again to ask in what way the intended shifts and breaks support a different notion of female identity and are appropriate to undermine rather than to confirm the traditional stereotypes of gender. Appendix: A Cyberfeminist iconology in short 1 the colour purple: old fashioned confessions? Venus' mirror and the colour purple as we know them from the history of feminist movement, name spaces with reference to godesses and heroines: constituting elements for the feminist rather than the Cyberfeminist design... - Godesses wear the colour purple: Electra" and Ariadne" http://www.electrapages.com/ http://www.onb.ac.at/ben/ariadfr.htm - Venus' mirrors all over: From WOWWOmen" to Lesbian.Org" http://www.wowwomen.com/ http://www.womenz.net.au/ http://www.ceiberweiber.com/home.htm http://www.lesbian.org/index.html - Images from the roaring twenties": Isle of Lesbos" and Webgrrls Deutschland" http://www.sappho.com/ http://www.webgrrls.de/ 2. Here comes the next generation: gurls 'n' grrls... - Suzie Pop goes Techno: gURL" and GeekGirl" http://www.gurl.com/ http://206.251.6.116/index.html http://206.251.6.116/geekgirl/010con/backish.html - picturebook Grrlisms: Grll!" http://www.grrl.com/Home.html or http://www.grrl.com/ - Masks and masquerades: Womyn & grrls" http://exo.com/~emily/feminist.html 3. Superwomen and the Like - CyberGrrl Classics: The Universe of Planet Cybergrrl" http://www.cybergrrl.com/ http://www.cybergrrl.com/planet/ http://www.webgrrls.com/ - SuperGrrl with glasses: GeekDashGirl" http://www.geek-girl.com/ - Manga Pop: Spidergirl" http://www.yo.rim.or.jp/~ari/ 4. Tupperware Aesthetics - Pin ups in pastel: RiotGrrls" http://www.riotgrrl.com/ - Happy housewifes: Die Hausfrauenseite" http://www.hausfrauenseite.de/ - Tupperware techno: Friendly Girls Guide http://www.youth.nsw.gov.au/rob.upload/friendly/index.html 5. Tech Babes - Tech babes from Metropolis": f-e-mail http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/f-e-mail/ - Do the Cyborg: Victoria Vesnas Bodies inc." http://arts.ucsb.edu/~vesna/ http://arts.ucsb.edu/bodiesinc/ - Rather temperate: the real Techbabes" http://www.techbabes.com/ 6. Superfemmes - Belle Silhouette: Amazon.City" http://www.amazoncity.com/ - LipstickFemmes: SassyFemme" http://www.txdirect.net/~sassyfem/mainpage.html 7. Wombs und Vaginae Dentatae - Entrance to the female space: yOni Gateway" http://www.yoni.com/ - Heavy Metal Vagina Dentata: Womb" http://womb.wwdc.com/ 8. Men haters und Bad Bitches - Hot hearts cold as ice: Heartless Bitches" http://www.heartless-bitches.com/ - Even more bloody: All Men Must Die!" http://www.kfs.org/~kashka/ammd.html 9. Ambitious bitches and disgusting girls - Marita Liaula: Ambitious Bitch" http://www.edita.fi/kustannus/bitch/index.html http://www.edita.fi/kustannus/bitch/destdive.html - Mare Tralla: Disgusting Girl" http://www.artun.ee/homepages/mare/kmm.html http://www.wmin.ac.uk/~ghmlc/mina.htm 10. Cyberfeminist Spaces and Bodily Architectures - Cyberfeminist Universe: VNS Matrix" http://sysx.apana.org.au/artists/vns/ http://sysx.apana.org.au/artists/vns/manifesto.html http://sysx.apana.org.au/artists/vns/spiral.html http://sysx.apana.org.au/artists/vns/themepark.html http://sysx.apana.org.au/artists/vns/game.html http://sysx.apana.org.au/artists/vns/gashgirl/ http://sysx.apana.org.au/~gashgirl/doll/dollyoko.html http://sysx.apana.org.au/~gashgirl/doll/yukiko.htm - Enter via Hymen: Womenhouse" http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/womenhouse/ http://www.c -----End of forwarded message----- --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl