Presentation about Cyberfeminism paper_5_sem_3

1. Cyberfeminism
Prepared by :-Sneha Agravat
Sem-3
Roll no.:-16
Department of English MKBU

2. Introduction
Women's empowerment is a multi-dimensional social
process consisting of components like: feeling of self-
worth, their right to settle on choices, their right to
have ingress to prospects and resources, their right to
have the authority to manage and direct their
individual lives (both indoors and outdoors), and their
propensity to clout the direction of social conversion
to fashiona more impartial and just social and
economic order, not only nationally but also
universally.

3. ● The term cyberfeminism was first used around
1991 by both the English cultural theoretician
Sadie Plant and the Australian artist group VNS
Matrix, independently from each other.
● of “third-wave” feminism.
● tended to include mostly younger,
technologically savvy women, and those from
Western, white, middle-class backgrounds.
● Eg.although women had been involved in the
creation and development of the computer,
their contributions were largely marginalized,
and their participation often ignored or written
out of history.
Background

4. ● Plant, an important early proponent, has argued
● that women are naturally suited to using the
Internet, because women and the Internet are
similar in nature.
● according to Plant, are non-linear, self-replicating
systems concerned with making connections.
● She has argued that although previous feminists
have believed computers to essentially male, we
should instead see computers and the Internet as
places for women to engage in new forms of work
and play—where women afraid from traditional
constraints and are able to experiment with identity
and gain new avenues for claiming
power and authority.

5. ● The origins of the movement are
cloudy. In 1985, Donna Haraway, a
professor at the University of
California, published the “Cyborg
Manifesto”, an essay in the
Socialist Review. Haraway’s ideas
were radical: she called for a
rejection of rigid boundaries
between humans and animals, and
asserted that the cyborg is “a
creature in a post-gender world”.
Technology was redrawing the
boundaries of identity.

6. heady early years of the World Wide Web, four Australian women— Josephine
Starrs, Julianne Pierce, Francesca da Rimini and Virginia Barratt—made fierce
and funny feminist art under the name VNS Matrix. They were part of a cultural
movement called ​Cyberfeminism, which peaked in the early 1990s and
dissipated sometime between the bursting of the dot com bubble and the
coming of Y2K.

7. What is Cyberfeminism?

8. Cornelia Sollfrank from the Old Boys
Network states that:
Cyberfeminism is a myth. A myth is a story of unidentifiable
origin, or of different origins. A myth is based on one central
story which is retold over and over in different variations. A
myth denies one history as well as one truth, and implies a
search for truth in the spaces, in the differences between the
different stories. Speaking about Cyberfeminism as a myth, is
not intended to mystify it, it simply indicates that Cyberfeminism
only exists in plural.

9. Who are Cyberfeminists?
Donna Haraway.
Faith Wilding
Cornelia Sollfrank
Linda Dement
Melinda Packham, and
Shu Lea Cheang,whose 1998 web project
Brandon was the Guggenheim Museum’s first
foray into collecting Internet-based art.

10. ● Today, feminist movements and organisations have gone far beyond
“Women’s rights are human rights” by intentionally practising more
intersectionality and expanding the idea of “women’s rights” and
“women’s issues” to a feminist, political framework that is applied to
issues ranging from climate justice(link is external) to drug policy(link is
external).
● During this time, technology has drastically altered the landscape of
human rights. Social movements and human rights organisations are
struggling to deal with human rights violations that are being facilitated
and perpetuated by those in power and their technology.
● Tech corporations are more powerful than many governments around the
world.
In today's context…..

11. Feminist Activism on Digital Platforms in India
According to Shruti Jain….
● Using digital tools, feminists have appropriated the
internet culture with the use of humour and other
creative satirical formats as a mode of communication.
● At the same time, digital feminist activity can also be
exclusionist because dominant cultures and languages
have a significant role in selecting those who can be
heard, included and seen in the movement.

12. According to feminist activist Faith Wilding,
“there is a tendency though among many
Cyberfeminists to indulge techno-utopian expectations
that the new e-media will offer women a fresh start to
create new languages, programs, platforms, images,
fluid identities and multi-subject definitions in
cyberspace; that in fact women can recode, redesign,
and reprogram information technology to help change
the feminine condition.”

13. ● the fourth wave of feminism is still in its nascent
stage in India, women are using digital tools to
demand accountability from their governments,
corporations and leaders. In India, digital feminist
movements largely rely on social media platforms.
● 2017, the #LahuKaLagaan
● 2012, Nirbhayamovement(#Delhibraveheart)
● 2017, this culminated in the #WhyLoiter
● 2018, the #MeToo movement
Examples

14. 2017, the #LahuKaLagaan

15. 2012, Nirbhayamovement(#Delhibraveheart)

16. 2017, this culminated in the #WhyLoiter

17. 2018, the #MeToo movement

18. ● Another study of women’s movements on social media by Sujatha
Subramanium, who interviewed a Dalit feminist activist, noted, “In
Kerala, the voices of subaltern groups are very prominent on
social media, especially sexual minorities and Dalit groups. On
social media, all of us are publishers.
● in 2013, acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal gathered 27,000
signatures through an online petition, ‘StopAcidSale’, to curb the
sales of acid and took the issue to the Supreme Court. The
campaign gained nationwide attention and allowed several other
acid attack survivors to voice their support for the ban on acid
sale.

19. Cyberfeminism goes beyond previous feminist waves that
conceived women as a homogenous group, whose interests
could be represented by a singular agenda. To avoid replicating
the damaging universalism of old-style feminism, it is essential
that cyberfeminism becomes more diverse, decentralised and
democratic. Narrowing the existing digital divide can play a
crucial role in increasing the participation of marginalised
women. India currently lacks the tools to encourage inclusive
online movements independent of on-ground activism.
Conclusion

20. Refrences
Claire, Evans L. “An Oral History of the First Cyberfeminists.” VICE,
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z4mqa8/an-oral-history-of-the-first-cyberfeminists-vns-
matrix.
Faith Wilding, “Where Is Feminism In Cyberfeminism?“, NEME, March 28, 2006.
Geeta, Pandey. “Delhi Nirbhaya Rape Death Penalty: What Do Hangings Mean for
India's Women?” Https://Www.bbc.com/News/World-Asia-India-50812776, 20 Mar. 2020,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50812776.
Kalyanam, Rajeshwari. “Why Loiter? the Book Talks about Women Access and Their
Need to Reclaim Public Spaces.” The Hans India, The Hans India, 7 Dec. 2019,
https://www.thehansindia.com/featured/sunday-hans/why-loiter-the-book-talks-about-
women-access-and-their-need-to-reclaim-public-spaces-587967.

21. Keertana, Tella K. “#MeToo: An International Conversation on Sexual Violence Impacting Feminist
Discourse across Borders.” Economic and Political Weekly, 30 Oct. 2018,
https://www.epw.in/engage/article/metoo-international-conversation-sexual-violence-feminist-discourse-
impact.
Mohanty, J. R., and Swati Samantaray. “Cyber Feminism: Unleashing Women Power through Technology.”
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 2, 2017,
https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v9n2.33.
SHRUTI, JAIN. “The Rising Fourth Wave: Feminist Activism on Digital Platforms in India.” ORF, 9 Oct. 2020,
https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-rising-fourth-wave-feminist-activism-on-digital-platforms-in-
india/?amp.
Sollfrank, Cornelia. "The truth about cyberfeminism". obn.org. The Old Boys Network. Archived from the
original on 2014-04-25. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
Verma, Smita. “Youth , Social Media and Emerging Alternative Spaces for Socio-Political Movements :
Analysis of 'Nirbhaya' Impact.” Abstract: YOUTH , Social MEDIA and Emerging Alternative Spaces for
Socio-Political Movements : Analysis of 'Nirbhaya' IMPACT (XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July
13-19, 2014)), Isaconf, https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2014/webprogram/Paper45163.html.