Cassandra Barboza

Barboza 1

Dr. Logan
LIT 4554
11-11-11
Short Critical Essay on Feminist Theory
When it comes to the world or (virtual) reality of cyberfeminism both Sadie Plants
Beyond the Screen: Film, Cyberpunk, and Cyberfeminism and Rosi Braidottis Cyberfeminism
with a Difference focus on the idea that men (patriarchy more correctly) are intent on
domination through technology and lack the vision to notice that in actuality, patriarchy is
being taken down by the technology it once created to exert control. In Plants own words,
Cyberfeminism is simply the acknowledgement that patriarchy is doomed (503). The other
side to this idea is the answer to why this is happening; the view that machines are a part of
humanity and that technology is so interconnected to nature that they cannot be separated. In
the first moment that man created technology and thought to control it, it had already escaped
his grasp. This thought also reveals the inherent connection between women and machines and
the notion that women are cyborgs. With this idea, If the male human is only human, the
female cyborg is the only cyborg (506). Thus, technology has given us the tool to come after
patriarchy through a machine that it created. With the designation of the machine as other,
patriarchy has unknowingly given us an ally in the fight against it, it has made a dangerous
alliance (503). Another small but clear form of overlap is also the notion of nostalgia that is

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mentioned in both articles. Both articles take a stance against nostalgia as a good factor in
thought.
Even if as Plant says technology has always been intended as toys for the boys, that has
not been the reality of its function. Technology has become an effective way for women to be a
part of the world. From the seemingly simple household appliances we use in our homes to the
blogs we are able to write through our computers, technology has given women more time and
freedom in nearly every aspect of life. A woman is no longer relegated to do hours upon hours
of work in the house. She is now able to do with this time, whatever she pleases. Her time can
be spent in leisure or a form of work she chooses. Even the simplicity of appliances has opened
up the idea of shared household chores. When in the past, cleaning the house was a specialized
job that only a housewife knew how to perform, that is no longer the case. The cleaning tools in
our modern society are accessible to everyone. Men can no longer feign lack of knowledge. And
women in the workforce have made a sharing of responsibilities essential to the household. I
would argue that this advance in household technology is cyberfeminsm, information
technology as a fluid attack, an onslaught on human agency and the solidity of identity (503).
Even though it is not information technology in the sense of being a part of the internet it is
technology that spreads information. And it most certainly challenges the solidity of identity. It
challenges the idea that To be truly human is to be a real man. Woman does not yet exist,
except as she appears on the set: wife and mother, sister and daughter: always performing
duties, keeping up appearances, the acting head of the household (505-06). We are showing

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patriarchy that we are more than what it assigns us to be and technology has given us that tool
and weapon.
It is because of technology and its similarity to nature that we are able to use this
advantage. Since No matter how sophisticated, the machine is still nature, and therefore
understood to be lacking in all the attributes of the man: agency, autonomy, self-awareness,
the ability to make history and transform the world. Women, nature, and machines have
existed for the benefit of man, organisms and devices intended for the service of a history to
which they are merely a footnote. (503), we have taken this second class citizen status and
used it because It is these technologies, the pinnacles of mans supremacy, the high-tide of his
speculation, that leave his world vulnerable to cyberfeminist infection. Because man has
underestimated technology and women Man has finally made nature work, but now it no
longer works for him (508), and has created a world where, we are heading for a post-human
world, in which the intentions of the human species are no longer the guiding force of global
development (507). It is now the cyberfeminist intention that will be able to triumph. Because
we understand our connection to technology and its connection to nature we will be able to
work with it and not against it as patriarchy tries to do. Because Far from appearing
antithetical to the human organism and set of values, the technological factor must be seen as
co-extensive with and intermingled with the human (521).
The last part that overlaps is the idea of nostalgia. To many who do not see the forces of
patriarchy at work, nostalgia seems like a good and natural thing, but in both of these articles

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nostalgia is noticed for what it really is, a system of patriarchy that prevents us from being
curious. Nostalgia is usually another word for tradition, which in our feminist perspective we
understand as a method used to prevent change and progress. Braidottis article clearly goes up
against nostalgia by saying, The nostalgic longing for an allegedly better past is a hasty and
unintelligent response to the challenges of our age (521). It emphasizes the need to keep
people from looking at a past that kept other oppressed and focus on looking to the future
where we can effect change. As Plant says, In spite of every attempt at domestication, the
agents of history have now to contend with runaway economies, overheating atmospheres,
computers which can beat them at chess, and gun-toting women like Thelma and Louise. These
are occasions for regret to those nostalgic for the days when planning and mastery seemed
unproblematic (504-05), but as a feminist theorist I can only say that this is an occasion for
celebration, a moment to rejoice. This is the moment in history where we have all the tools and
technologies that patriarchy has created as moving over to our side. This is not a battle against
men or a battle at all, it is a redefining of understanding. This is when women can show
patriarchy that the world is not as simple as it seems and that power can be shared. Women
like nature and technology do not seek to overcome, overpower and control but to be
understood and to work together.

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Works Cited

Plant, Sadie. Beyond the Screens. Feminisms. Ed. Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1997. 503-08. Print.

Braidotti, Rosi. Cyberfeminism with a Difference. Feminisms. Ed. Sandra Kemp and Judith
Squires. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 520-29. Print.