As time
continues to move forward, people work tirelessly to innovate,
increase, and invent. With new inventions and possibilities,
previously non-existent social situations arise. The world-wide web
is an example of a relatively new phenomenon that has only existed
for approximately twenty years (scientificamerican.com, 2009). In
this new frontier, breakthroughs have occurred and moral compasses
have been pushed to the extreme; we are able to communicate ideas and
important information easily, but we are also exposed to
desensitizing imagery. The internet has created a space for human
beings to interact with each other at will, and as some may say, free
of any social norms or rules. As it is made increasingly effortless
to peer into the lives of our friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and
individuals whom we do not formally know, it is important to examine
how our roles online differ from our roles in “real life,” or the
day-to-day, face-to-face, tangible world. This piece aims to discuss
the role of gender and sexuality, and more specifically feminism,
within the massive arena of the world-wide web and how acceptance of
behavior online may differ from its acceptance in the tangible world.
The
birth of the internet, combined with the dawn of the new millennium,
created a social climate change. This change was evident in the music
of the late 1990's and early 2000's. In hip-hop music specifically,
there was an increase in the prevalence of futuristic and robotic
themes. The beats as well as the music videos of the time period were
characterized by themes of “cyborg-like” humans and scenarios
inspired by science fiction. In Steven Shaviro's “Supa Dupa Fly:
Black Women as Cyborgs in Hiphop Videos,” (Quarterly Review of Film
and Video, 2005) the author discusses the hyper-idealized qualities
of the artists in the music videos for Missy Elliott's 1997 release
“The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” and Lil' Kim's 2000 release “How
Many Licks.” In each video the artists appear mechanical, as if
they are at least partially cyborgs. A major difference between the
two videos, however, is the intensity of sexuality that is presented.
In “How Many Licks,” Lil' Kim shows seemingly contradictory
depictions of herself as both a robotic, sexually fetishized object
for male pleasure and a dominatrix who demands sexual satisfaction.
Although the videos portray females in different ways, they both
contain themes of a futuristic world of science fiction. The
internet, with its incomprehensible capacity to connect and discover,
is something that at one time seemed impossible, but with the world's
information now at our fingertips, it seems that the romanticized
future has arrived. The internet, as seen in these music videos,
pushes individuals, perhaps especially women-identified individuals,
to strive for perfection in every aspect of their lives.
Celebrities
have long been held to a higher standard of beauty, but with the
advent of the world-wide web, celebrities as well as “ordinary”
people are forced to appear immaculate at all times. The
interconnectedness of internet-users provides ease of communication,
but it also creates a space where users must create a flawless facade
in order to avoid ridicule or judgement by fellow users. Social
networking sites provide ample opportunities for users to create a
semi-alternate world, but stepping a bit further, into the area of
online gaming, reveals a more intense desire among users to escape
reality and venture into a realm of excitement and idealism. As
explained in Lina Eklund's “Doing Gender in Cyber Space: the
Performance of Gender by Female World of Warcraft Players,” users
are able to create an avatar that acts as a virtual version of the
user. “We
do not have bodies online but are ‘performances’ and ... it is
through these that we come to be. When we create an online persona
the meaning is not to create something real but rather hyperreal”
(Convergence, 2011). The avatar one creates in an online, social
gaming arena acts as an extension of the gamer. For this reason,
individuals are granted freedom in deciding several aspects of the
avatar's makeup, including the gender. Some users may “gender bend”
in order to create an online being that is more similar to themselves
spiritually. Some feminists appreciate this aspect of the online
gaming scene, seeing it as an opportunity to show that “the girls
have the same amount of power as the male characters” (Convergence,
2011).
Pornography
is another example of an online world. The actors seem flawless,
carrying out activities that often could only exist in the mental
fantasies of the viewer. This type of mental escapism, however, may
be less innocent than the world of online gaming. Online pornography
is most often created for a straight male audience. Obviously
pornography is created for other groups of people and is designed to
entertain individuals of various sexual identities, but the majority
of the porn industry presents itself to a heterosexual male group. A
major feminist critique of pornography is that it objectifies women
for men's pleasure and reduces women to nothing more than sexual
items, this degrading and disrespecting them. For this reason, many
feminists have sought stricter government regulation on pornography
(Sexualities, 2004). Another point of view regarding pornography is
that women ought to be free to make the decision to engage in sex,
and if it is empowering to a women to partake in the creation of
pornography, then she ought to be able to do so. While the opposing
viewpoints make for a schism among women, the topic of pornography is
nevertheless important to the issue of cyberfeminism and feminism in
general.
The
internet, with its incredible ability to communicate information,
make connections, and create, offers countless opportunities for
innovation and forward movement. Boundaries are pushed frequently.
Men and women are able to express themselves freely, as in the case
of online gaming, and women are able to demonstrate their ability and
intelligence on a level playing field with men. Setbacks that occur
in daily life are not as much of an issue online, as users are able
to create avatars and virtual personas that encapsulate their
personalities, without the insecurities brought on by the
imperfections and social constructs of the tangible world. These
boundaries that are pushed, moved, and eliminated allow women to feel
a greater sense of freedom than what they experience in the “real”
world. However, just as these boundaries are pushed in a positive
way, they can also be pushed in a way that offends, desensitizes, or
even harms women. Social networking sites proliferate the idea that
we, women especially, must appear flawless at all times. Photos must
be updated frequently, but one must never leak a photo in which one
looks less than perfect. In the same respect, women are expected to
live up to the distorted beauty standards created by the world of
pornography, which has so tightly grasped much of the male
population. The world-wide web is a realm of possibility, and we must
continue to discuss how feminism, sexuality, and gender play their
roles in a world with less and less limitations.
WORKS
CITED
Ciclitira,
Karen. "Pornography, Women and Feminism: Between Pleasure and
Politics." Pornography,
Women and Feminism: Pleasure and Politics
7.7 (2004): 281-301. Sexualities.
Aug. 2004. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://sex.sagepub.com/content/7/3/281>.
Eklund,
Lina. "Doing Gender in Cyber Space: The Performance of Gender by
Female World of Warcraft Players." Convergence:
The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.
Sage Journals, Aug. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://con.sagepub.com/content/17/3/323.refs.html>.
Greenemeier,
Laurie. "Remembering the Day the World Wide Web Was Born:
Scientific American." Science
News, Articles and Information.
Scientific American, 12 Mar. 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=day-the-web-was-born>.
Flanagan,
Mary. "Navigating the Narrative in Space: Gender and Spatiality
in Virtual Worlds." Mendeley
59.3 (2000): 74-85. Mendeley
Research Networks.
College Art Associated, 2000. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.mendeley.com/research/another-world-or-the-world-of-an-other-the-space-of-romance-in-recent-versions-of-beauty-and-the-beast/>.
Steven
Shaviro (2005): Supa Dupa Fly: Black Women As Cyborgs in Hiphop
Videos, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 22:2, 169-179
BY DRAKE
