The Feminization of Cyberspace
by Doctress Neutopia
During the final year of my doctoral work I discovered the new
world of Cyberspace. Having been involved in utopian thought for
more than fifteen years, inventing my own utopia from the ideas of
such futurists and architects as Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
Starhawk, Eiane Eisler, Paolo Soleri, Buckminster Fuller, etc,
which I call Neutopia, I find the world of virtual reality is the
perfect place for my Neutopian imagination be to born into reality.
The central nervous system of Neutopia is the evolving Global Brain
which we are now seeing come about through information technologies
and the world of Cyberspace.
Cyberspace is changing the very nature of text. Electronic
text takes us into the age of non-text which means writing has
become solely an electronic experience requiring no paper form.
Printed matter is no longer necessary in the world of Cyberspace.
In this world today, the power of ideas, and to some degree one's
writing style and skills is the persuader. In the ideal sense,
Cyberspace becomes a place for the autonomous individual, a place
where the integrity of the Self is the determining factor of social
prestige. With the elimination of printed matter and the
decentralized nature of email, a new relationship between
authoress/author and audience is opening up. Editors who have had
the centralized control over the printed word are no longer the all
powerful controller of literature since in Cyberspace the unknown
poetess can post a message along side a literary giant. Because of
the democratizing aspects of the Usenet open forum, the matter in
which one gains social status is also changing. In Cyberspace,
literary merit is achieved through the depth and sincerity of one's
message. In other words, the old hierarchal structures of language
and the old gatekeepers of ideas are being broken down as you read
these words.
Nevertheless, Cyberspace is no paradise on Earth. Quite the
contrary! I don't believe I am being an extremist. Renaissance and the rise the market economy. It s during this rebirth of classical thought when thousands ofinnocent women healers and religious ledrs were being burned as heretics.
A biologist friend has also pointed out to me that in his
laboratory "flaming" means to sterilize a test tube from bacteria.
In that sense, I feel that the majority of "flamers" are white upperly-mobile middle-class young menho are computer literate. Many of them are from the scientific class who are busy creating the Tecncracy. When I began to point out the blatant sexist language and attitudes on Leri, I was "flamed b some claiming that if I changed myself [conformed to their way of thinking], then I would be "lieraed from oppression". Still others believed
that I would be saved if I found my way back to Christ or began to
practice Buddhist meditation or yoga.
Finally, it was decided that the best thing they could do with
my heresy was to follow the example of the Shaker Community. The
worst punishment the Shakers did to a dissenting personality was to
shun them and so this was what Listserve Leri proceeded to do to
me. Other technicians proposed to bar me by setting up the
technology called "kill filters" so that my email messages would
not even appear on their screens.
New Mexico which all the members of the Leri Listserve were invited
to so that people could meet one another in the living flesh.
However, when I expressed interested in attending the party, the
hostess said that if I came "she would have me shot." Then she
wrote me a personal email progress in this underworld of Cyberspace, a place which also controls theuclear weapons of the world through the Computer Empire. This war is the same war which women haveben strugglingagainst for thousands of years. As the millennium changes, so too
is it time to end this war which is draining our vital resources
that are needed to save the Biosphere from total destruction. It is
time that women be acknowledged as the natural sovereigns of the
species so that we will be in a position to use our knowledge and
wisdom we have in creating a world where all our benevolent dreams
find a way to self-actualize.
My mission is to encourage Feminists to play an active role in
the future of Cyberspace. Here is a window of opportunity open for
us to play our role essential in forming the future social
architecture of Cyberspace. If we, Feminists, do not act now and
recruit other like minded Earthlings to take up the cause of the
"Global Feminization of Cyberspace," then we will be caught in the
same trap that we are in today. It is time for us to demand a new
world where everyone has access to the global resources...a world
where everybody's spiritual and physical needs are met. Only then
will the Net become a vehicle of global emancipation and a home of
the Neutopian thinker.
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