CMC Magazine / March 1, 1996
| SPECIAL FOCUS: WOMEN AND GENDER ONLINE |
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Review Essay: The Gendered Mystique
by Leslie Regan Shade
Books Reviewed:
- The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age, by Allucquere Rosanne Stone
- Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, by Sherry Turkle
- Nattering on the Net: Women, Power, and Cyberspace, by Dale Spender
- NetChick: A Smart-Girl Guide to the Wired World, by Carla Sinclair
In 1993, I wrote that the topic of women and the Net seemed to be the "flavour of the month"; a year later, women and cyberspace in the media had really geared up; and a year after that, women were actively staking out cyberspace turf and creating vital spaces of their own. Now, less than a year after those words were written, a plethora and profundity of W3 sites and books related to the whole 'women and cyberspace' debate have been created. The debates hinge on two phenomena: 1) gender-bending role playing in cyberspace; and 2) the dearth of women on the net.
Sandy Stone and Sherry Turkle, celebrated doyennesses of cyberculture,
take on the first phenomenon in their
recently published books that explore
and play with the notion of gender identity in networked virtual communities.
As for the second issue, that of gender equity on the net,
Dale Spender addresses it head-on in her
recent
work,
while Carla Sinclair has written
a practical guide to
net resources for postmodern and postfeminist women out there.
Leslie Regan Shade (shade@polestar.facl.mcgill.ca ) is in McGill University's Graduate Program in Communications.
Copyright © 1996 by Leslie Regan Shade. All Rights Reserved.
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