Sunday, October 8, 2023

Cyberfeminism



 Cyberfeminism

This blog is a task given by Dilip Barad sir H.O.D of English Department M.K.B.U. In this blog I am going to write about Cyberfeminism.






Introduction



Feminism is about believing that women should have the same rights as men. It's the idea that men and women should be treated equally in society, in areas like politics, work, and social matters. Jeremy Bentham, who had some very forward-thinking ideas, secretly supported this belief. He thought that women were often more sensitive and caring than men, even though they might not be as physically strong. He believed that women were well-suited for family life, while men were better suited for work outside the home. But he didn't think women should be completely kept out of public life. In fact, he even fought for women's right to vote in real life.



Feminism is the belief that women should have the same rights as men. It's about treating both genders equally in society, including in social, political, and economic matters. Jeremy Bentham was a supporter of this idea, and he had some unique views. He thought that women were often more sensitive and caring than men, even though they might not be as physically strong. He believed that women were well-suited for family life, while men were better suited for work outside the home. But he didn't think women should be completely kept out of public life. In fact, he even organized a competition for women and advocated for everyone to have the right to vote secretly.


Definition


Cyberfeminism is a sort of alliance that wants to defy any sort of boundaries of identity and definition and rather be truly postmodern in its potential for radical openness.


Mia Consalvo defines cyberfeminism as:

  1. a label for women—especially young women who might not even want to align with feminism's history—not just to consume new technologies but to actively participate in their making.

  2. a critical engagement with new technologies and their entanglement with power structures and systemic oppression.


Feminist theory 


Feminist theory is when people talk and think about feminism in a deeper way. They try to figure out why there's inequality between men and women. They look at how men and women are expected to act in society, what they're interested in, and the things they do at home. This thinking happens in different subjects like anthropology, sociology, communication, and more. They also look at things like books and movies, and even how our minds work. Overall, feminist theory is about understanding and trying to fix the unfair treatment of women.


Cyber feminism



Cyber feminism is a term that was created in 1994 by a woman named Sadie Plant. She was in charge of a research group at a university in Britain. This term is used to talk about feminists who are interested in thinking about, questioning, and making use of the Internet, cyberspace, and new technologies.


This idea comes from the third part of the feminist movement. Before that, there were two other waves of feminism. The first one was about women's rights in the early 1900s, and the second one was in the 1970s, focusing on making sure women had the same rights as men. Cyber feminism is a newer way of looking at things.


The people who are usually associated with cyber feminism are younger women who are good with technology, and they often come from Western countries, are white, and belong to the middle class. However, more and more women are becoming interested in cyber feminism, and they have different ideas about what it means.


Cyber feminism is all about putting women at the center and saying that women should use new technology to gain power. Some believe that these technologies can help end the idea that men are superior, because women are really good at using them in today's digital world. Just like there are different types of feminism, like liberal or radical feminism, there are different views within cyber feminism too.


Cyber feminism came about partly as a response to the negative feelings in the 1980s about women in technology. Some people thought that technology was mainly for men. Another reason it started was because there weren't enough women talking online about things that were important to them.


Cyber Activism V/S Women Protests and Movements



In May 2011, a woman named Manal al-Sharif from Iran bravely posted a video online of herself driving a car. This might seem normal to us, but in her country, women were not allowed to drive. Because of this, she was arrested. However, her video sparked a big movement called the #Women2Drive Campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. It encouraged Manal to keep standing up for her right to drive.


Even though the video was seen over 700,000 times, it was eventually taken down from Youtube. In 2014, an Iranian journalist named Masih Alinejad shared a photo of herself without a headscarf online. This caused a huge response, especially among women in Iran. The photo spread quickly on social media. Alinejad named it "My Stealthy Freedom." She made a Facebook page for it, and it got 770,000 likes, mostly from people in Iran. More and more Iranian women started posting pictures without headscarves on this page. Alinejad even received a human rights award for her efforts.


In many parts of the world, women's voices and opinions are ignored. They're not encouraged to ask questions or join important discussions. Without information, women don't know about their rights to things like education, property, and pensions. They also can't challenge old-fashioned ideas about how they should act. This makes it hard to create fair societies, which is what we're trying to do with the Global Development agenda. When women have access to information, they can stand up for their rights and make better choices.




As cyber feminist artist Faith Wilding argued:


"If feminism is to be adequate to its cyber potential then it must mutate to keep up with the shifting complexities of social realities and life conditions as they are changed by the profound impact communications technologies and techno science have on all our lives. It is up to cyber feminists to use feminist theoretical insights and strategic tools and join them with cyber techniques to battle the very real sexism, racism, and militarism encoded in the software and hardware of the Net, thus politicizing this environment."


Gender Equality and Women Empowerment



Women's rights is a collection of ideas, politics, and social changes all working together for one main goal: to create fairness between different genders, especially benefiting women. Gender equality, on the other hand, means making sure that everyone has the same rights, chances, and opportunities, no matter their gender.


Around the world, women often have fewer chances to get financial help compared to men. They also may not have the same access to basic and advanced education. Women face bigger health risks and have fewer chances to be involved in politics. These are big challenges that need attention and action to make sure everyone, regardless of their gender, has an equal chance to succeed.



Role of Social Media and Internet


The subject for empowering women must be placed on light. Strengthening or Empowerment is important to make a brilliant eventual fate of the family, society and country, to go with their own choices for their own ward. Ladies' initiative in interpersonal organizations can destroy old generalizations and segment classifications, creating a genuine effect on media, commercial and diversion. Since the 1990s, India has had quick development in the ICT area, which has extended beginning around 2000. As per a Google research delivered in June 2013, a larger number of than 60 million ladies in India utilize the Internet to deal with their day to day routines, out of a sum of 150 million Internet clients.


Cyberfeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity

Susan Hawthorne, Renate Klein



An international anthology by feminists working in the field of electronic publishing, electronic activism, electronic data delivery, multimedia production, virtual reality creation, developing programs or products electronically, as well as those developing critiques of electronic culture. This collection explores what the possibilities are for feminists and for feminism. It also grapples with the pitfalls of the medium. The book, however, does not assume that the technology in itself is negative, but rather how it is used is open to critique. This leaves open the possibility of feminists having an impact on the way the technologies develop. The book includes connecting HTML with poetry, developing resources for Women's Studies and libraries, on-line, CD-ROM and VRML developments. The book has markets across trade and educational sectors and could be used at secondary and tertiary levels.


Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life

Sarah Kember




Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life examines the construction, manipulation and re-definition of life in contemporary technoscientific culture. It takes a critical political view of the concept of life as information, tracing this through the new biology and the discourse of genomics as well as through the changing discipline of artificial life and its manifestation in art, language, literature, commerce and entertainment. From cloning to computer games, and incorporating an analysis of hardware, software and 'wetware', Sarah Kember extends current understanding by demonstrating the ways in which this relatively marginal field connects with, and connects up global networks of information systems.

Ultimately, this book aims to re-focus concern on ethics rather than on the 'nature' of life-as-it-could-be.



Conclusion


All around the world, ladies face expanding kickback and maltreatment via web-based entertainment; negative orientation generalizations and lower portrayal of ladies in both conventional and new media associations as additionally quiet ladies' web-based voices. Expanding female administration in media associations can guarantee that backing can impact both dynamic cycles and public mindfulness on key women's privileges issues.


Social developments are getting more grounded, and new missions are growing as fast as they arose. Over the long haul, there is potential for ladies to acquire sufficient help that arrangement producers can't disregard the issues they address. The truth will surface at some point, yet online entertainment is starting to change the story for women's voices.


Here is a video of Kirti Sharma which is interesting one.


Kirti Sharma: How to keep human bias out of AI?





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Thank You.🍁

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