Transforming universal issues in ‘female problems’: the conflictual 

effects of cyberfeminism  
 

1. Introduction

‘Despite women’s place at the bottom of the global economic hierarchy, their Internet

participation is rapidly increasing’ (Daniels 2009:106) especially in Western society, where

research suggests that the number of female internet users is the same or exceeds their male

counterparts (Everett 2004). Although the pattern does not match worldwide, as women still

represent a small percentage of online users, linking ‘cyber’ and ‘feminism’ represents a new

era in feminism history and e-media (Wilding 1997).

Considering that cyberfeminism critique often assume an universal white, educated and

upper-middle class (Fernandez and Wilding 2003) participant, this essay detached from such

notions and critically assessed how internet technology acts both as an oppressor and a

liberating tool for the universal woman. However, the aim of the essay was not limited to this

aspect. Rather, the motivation behind this choice of topic was to examine several ways that

portray technology as empowering to women which can leave the impression that men are not

affected by the same issues that seem inherently female.

The last section of the essay developed this problematic, commencing with Daniels’

(2009) idea of women using technology as an empowerment tool. This was exemplified

through instances of peer-support like ‘pro-ana’ communities (Daniels 2009) where it was

highlighted that eating disorders are not specifically female problems (Weltzin et al. 2005)

even though a cyberfeminist framework might portray it like this. Similarly, the essay touched

on how online platforms help women fight against racial discrimination due to their racial

difference tolerance (Hansen 2006), but emphasized that men too are psychological victims of
the same issue and often suffer from negative consequences such as the impostor phenomenon

(Bernard et al. 2017).

Also, considering that platforms like online forums allow ‘opportunities for forms of

'peer-to-peer' sex and relationships education that exist outside adult surveillance and control'

(Masanet and Buckingham 2015:487), the essay discussed how technology allows young

women who identify as QLBT to educate themselves (Bryson 2004). The latter is a form of

empowerment, considering that gender nonconformity can lead to negative behaviours

(Skidmore et al. 2006), an attitude observed in men too.

2. Theory

As Lugones and Spelman (1983:573) argued feminism and feminist theory started as a

‘response to the fact that women either have been left out of, or included in demeaning and

disfiguring ways in what has been an almost exclusively male account of the world’.

Consequently, the demands of feminists revolve around the rights of women to act as per their

own will, as well as on who has the right to talk about the lives of women, an account which is

believed to have close links with leading someone’s life (Lugones and Spelman 1983).

Feminist theory has different strands which includes liberal feminism, radical feminism or

postcolonial feminism. However, for the purpose of linking feminist theory to information

systems research, cyberfeminism is the theory to rely on considering it ‘explicitly fuses gender

and information technology’ (Rosser 2005:1) which is the foundation of this essay.

Daniels (2009:102) argued that ‘cyberfeminism is neither a single theory nor a feminist

movement with a clearly articulated political agenda’, so its discourses can become conflictual

especially when issues of race, ethnicities and social class interlink. This motivates why

feminists worldwide devoted their attention to evaluate how emerging technologies facilitate

women in developing countries (Gajjala and Mamidipudi 1999). Cyberfeminism does not rely
exclusively on traditional principles found in other feminist theories’ strands like liberal

feminism, which mainly revolve around the idea that the oppression of women is linked with

unjust discrimination (Jaggar 1983). Rather, cyberfeminism ‘explores the ways that

information technologies and the Internet provide avenues to liberate (or oppress) women’

(Rosser 2005:17). Its’ perspective is woman-centred, and the role of technology is arguably

empowering given the status of women in the digital future, which is considered a feminine

world where zeros overcome the ones’ order (Plant 1997) in terms of power relations. Although

cyberfeminist critics don’t deny that ‘there are hierarchies of power embedded in the very

construction and design of the Internet’ (Gajjala and Mamidipudi 1999:15), cyberfeminism

recognises the potential of the Internet to empower females despite these impediments.

As Gajjala and Mamidipudi (1999) argued cyberfeminism doesn’t include women

using Internet technology for activities like internet shopping or general browsing which

contradicts cyberfeminists’ beliefs of empowerment. What makes cyberfeminism different to

other strands of feminist theories is the optimistic approach regarding technoscience which is

no longer seen as patriarchal (Plant 1997). However, as Wajcman (2004) argued, although this

optimism is beneficiary the relationship between women and technology needs to be carefully

assessed.

3. Applications of cyberfeminism

3.1 The non-empowering effects of using technology for women

Cyberfeminism is applied within various areas, such as work (Scott-Dixon 2004) or

feminist politics (Everett 2007). Rosalind Gill (2005) warned about women’s actual use of

digital technologies, which for a lot of females from developed Northern European countries

is mostly represented by e-mail checking, home shopping or health information which are

deemed as depressing and not at all empowering. A similar attitude can be observed in
Harcourt’s (2000) work, who claimed to use the internet for family and marital communication

as well as work. Her use of technology consists of e-mail exchanges in which she admitted

investing ‘much emotional and creative energy’ (Harcourt 2000:693), an attitude which hardly

translates to empowerment but rather is a facilitator of communication.

Furthermore, an element which is very rarely referenced within cyberfeminist practices

is the ‘intersection of gender and race’ (Daniels 2009:103) which can result in a uniform

meaning of digital technologies for all women. As Gill (2005) argued it is important not only

to label technology as a factor of positive or negative change, but also to pay attention ‘to social

relationships in which technologies are embedded’ (ibid.100). Although technology is no

longer deemed as inherently masculine and critics like Plant (1997) argued about the potential

existence of gender equality in cyberspace, this optimism is not shared by everyone.

Gill (2005:100) referenced Haraway’s (1985) framework who warned that ‘the

categories of ‘race’, class and gender should not be thought of as existing independently of

technoscience but rather as constituted in its practices’. It is important to consider this argument,

given that often cyberfeminist practices tend to use old feminist principles that assume that all

participants are white, educated women, who usually have an upper-middle class background

(Fernandez and Wilding 2003). These kinds of participants are mostly found in developed

nations where there is a higher incidence of people owning computers and Internet access

(Norris 2001) compared to people from developing countries who might experience uneven

effects of these technologies. An example of these effects was illustrated by Millar (1998) who

argued that although Chinese women working in factories or Indian women working in call

centres have access to technology, using it is closely linked to economic necessities rather than

empowerment.
3.2 The liberating effects of cyberfeminism for women and its’ problematics

Assuming that all females use technology and the internet for rudimentary activities

would take the merit of the innovative ways through which women instrument their lives with

the help of internet technologies (Daniels 2009). Critics like Harcourt (2000) viewed online

technologies as a vital way of tackling gender inequalities and considered the internet as a place

where communities can feel empowered. Contrary to the views of Gill (2005), this section

brings forward instances when the cyberspace acted as a ‘tool to be picked up and used by

women for empowerment’ (Daniels 2009:108) in difficult situations. Furthermore, the section

will discuss why such examples can transform in problematic situations by portraying universal

problems in inherently ‘women issues’.

Online communities referred to as ‘pro-ana’ were formed by women to represent a way

of reciprocal non-judgemental support to tackle abnormal eating behaviours (Daniels 2009).

The empowerment of these groups is represented by the possibility of members to confront

general beliefs of anorexia which are considered false, such as the fact that starving oneself in

order to look like a celebrity is not a criterion to be diagnosed (Fox et al. 2005), but rather it

has to do with the mental state of the person. The peer-support available which is facilitated by

technology gives the participants a sense of control of their bodies (Daniels 2009) which might

be challenged in real life by people who do not share similar experiences like parental figures.

It is important to recognise that such problems are not exclusively for women and men

too suffer from isolation and stigmatisation because of eating disorders, accounting for 10% of

people affected by anorexia and bulimia and for 25% of people suffering from binge eating

(Weltzin et al. 2005). Cyberfeminism shall be diffused in a way that it truly reflects its'
theoretical framework, and not be transformed in a gender issue as in cases like the one

described earlier men only recently began to receive research consideration (Robinson et al.

2012). Consequently, it would be important to focus less on empowering a particular gender

and to devote more attention to the universal person who is suffering from eating disorders.

Internet has provided women with temporary possibilities of changing identity which

can have important psychological and social benefits (Turkle 1997). To elaborate, Daniels

(2009:110) linked this idea especially to the concept that ‘racial oppression is linked to

embodied visibility’, an aspect which is absent online. Considering that online mediums

facilitate the suspension of visibility, it can be arguable that cyberfeminism is liberating to

women also due to its carnivalesque nature, as the temporary suspension of time (while online)

facilitates certain experiences that would be deemed as impossible in the real world (Bakhtin

1965), but existent in the cyberspace.

As online environments do not consider racial difference (Hansen 2006), they act as the

perfect mediums for oppressed women. This is particularly important, because racial

discrimination results in negative outcomes such as diminished academic self-concept or

negative indices of mental health (Bernard et al. 2017). Among African Americans, these

effects eventually can lead to the impostor phenomenon which implies a host that feels

intellectually incompetent despite evident success. Similar to research among eating disorders

which was discussed earlier, this issue has been conceptualised as a ‘women issue’ and only

recent studies (Kumar and Jagacinski 2006 and McGregor et al 2008) made it relevant to both

genders. This is particularly worrying as for African American men the portrayal of negative

character stereotypes such as aggressivity or poor work ethic are widely spread (Bernard et al.

2017), and internet technology has the potential to alienate them if employed efficiently.
 Going online is not necessarily liberating only by switching identities, but also by

strengthening social identities in terms of race, gender and not ultimately sexuality (Daniels

2009). Examples that illustrate this idea include the use of information technology by young

women whose identities are partly formed online (Mazzarella 2005), or by women who don’t

identify themselves as heterosexual such as QLBT communities. The latter use online

technology to educate themselves (Bryson 2004) about a subject which is still considered taboo

in contemporary society. However, it is increasingly important to recognise that it is not only

women who suffer in this instance. The role of technology is vital for both lesbian women and

gay men, who are likely to suffer from gender nonconformity that can result in greater

depression rates or suicidal behaviour for gay men (Skidmore et al. 2006). Both groups are

highly stigmatized and are targets of verbal and physical abuse (Skidmore et al. 2006), but find

in online mediums like forums the ideal environments to socialise because they don’t stick to

fixed moral positions when employing sexuality (Masanet and Buckingham 2015), and thus

facilitate open discussions.

4. Conclusion

To conclude, this essay used cyberfeminism theory to conceptualise both the oppressive

and empowering effects that internet technology can have on women (Rosser 2005) by

applying its’ principles to practical examples. The essay acknowledged the limitations of

cyberfeminism, as using online technologies doesn’t always translate to empowerment, an idea

based on the example of Northern European women using the internet exclusively for e-mail

checking or home shopping (Harcourt 2000), activities which are not liberating.

Although it was important to question this attitude, it is not sufficient to presume a

uniform distribution of digital technologies for all women (Daniels 2009). Thus, throughout

the essay were referenced instances which exemplified how information technologies can be
empowering to women, either as educational means (e.g: QLBT communities) or as platforms

to combat misconceptions about certain health problems (e.g: eating disorders) or

discriminations (e.g: racial or sexual).

Even though cyberfeminism is still a ‘developing feminist theory’ (Rosser 2005: 19),

going forward it serves as an important theoretical framework to explore how technology

oppresses and more importantly liberates women. However, in order to recognise its’ validity

it is important to question how issues that are frequently described as ‘female problems’ affect

men as well. As discussed, men too are affected by eating disorders (Weltzin et al. 2005) or

racial and sexual discriminations (Bernard et al. 2017, Skidmore et al. 2006) due to unjustified

stereotypes. Considering that very few studies are concerned about these issues, the difficulty

in the future would be to find ways to employ technology, as a powerful tool that avoids fixed

moral positions on sensitive subjects like sexuality (Masanet and Buckingham 2015), for the

benefit of everybody.

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