Webliography

Webliography- Carla Crago

Is a cyborg queer? Discuss the critical thinking on the intersections between sexuality and technology.


1. Stern, Steven E, Handel, Alysia D. “Sexuality and mass media: the historical context of psychology’s reaction to sexuality on the internet” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2372/is_4_38/ai_84866946/ November 2001, date accessed 9th September 2010

This article is from the Journal of Sex Research, which is published in Australia by the Health Care Industry. The authors are professors in Psychology. The information is scholarly as it’s recent, and is written by experts in their field. The page is set out like a forum, with a box for users to post comments and opinions. It’s important to not get distracted by the opinions posted, as the information is not usually accompanied with references. The focus should be on the text in the article in order to maintain a good University standard of research.

The source focuses on the internet as a technological medium that encourages sexual pursuit in its users. This is reinforced through visited websites with sexual themes to intense on-line sexual interactions in chat rooms. The relationship between sexuality and the internet is viewed from a broad, historical perspective. The article examines the contrast between the internet and other previous technologies and asks the question: is the internet different from other technologies when it comes to the expression of sexuality? Pornography is addressed as being a function of advancement in the sexualisation of the cyborg. Another important aspect of this source is the idea of isolation and anonymity on the internet, which encourages users to embrace sexualities without the evaluation of others. Once social cues are removed a new environment is created where cyborgs can freely express themselves. The information is valuable to the ‘guiding’ essay question as it is important to understand the relationship between sexuality and technology historically before starting to write on the topic of ‘queer’ cyborgs.


2. Miyake, Esperanza “My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?” http://www.bridgew.edu/SoAS/jiws/Mar04/Miyake.pdf 1st March 2004, date accessed 11th September 2010

This essay is not only a valuable source of information, but it is also a pleasure to read. The author takes on a first person conversational tone beginning the piece with “I was nestling some popcorn between my legs whilst watching Blade Runner recently, a film I always watch with much delight”. Miyake provides examples of the relation between the body, sexuality and technology with examples from this science fiction film. The author, Esperanza Miyake has a Masters degree from the University of York in English and Literature, which reiterates the credibility of her writing. The essay is clearly cited and footnoted with relevant sources. Despite the somewhat casual tone of the essay, some crucial points are raised concerning the integration of body and machine. Foucault’s theory of power as producing things and generating knowledge and discourse is challenged. Miyake writes that in the cyber world subjects interweave within and without this grid of power, with no one holding the power, only exercising it. Miyake also details sexuality as coming from the body. This could be related back to the ‘guided’ essay question by reflecting on Miyake’s belief that gender is a costume, emphasised by on/ offline masquerade. It is possible to be a man one day, a woman the next, and a dildo-using sheep the following day, according to the essay. This represents the obscurity of sexuality on the internet which transforms the cyborg into ‘queer’ (verb).


3. Lawley Lane, Elizabeth “Computers and the Communication of Gender” http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html April 1993, date accessed 11th September 2010

This essay is not an ideal scholarly source as there is very little information available on the author Elizabeth Jane Lawley. The only background material I could find is that she is a student at Edith Cowen University in Perth. Her level of expertise on the subject is not as trustworthy as a person of higher authority in their field of study. The source isn’t recent either (1993), compared to the other works I have found. It is a source worth mentioning though because it deals with the concepts of theorists/ writers such as Judith Butler, Donna Haraway and Marshall McLuhan. The notes and references at the end of the page also indicate a high level of research. The focus of the essay is on escaping into the virtual world and becoming a consciousness manifested on the network, independent of the physical body. Lawley maintains the notion that technology keeps gender the same (a man is still, biologically, a man) but sexuality is interchangeable. It is necessary when citing this source to know how to differentiate between the terms gender and sexuality. Gender is more frequently asserted in the essay but doesn’t relate to the ‘guiding’ essay question. Another point Lawley makes is that the internet allows, and even encourages women to become sexually assertive in a way that does not put them physically at risk. A quote which stood out in relating technology to sexuality is “there is danger in predicting the future in a straight line”. This refers to cyborgs as not needing to follow a straight, set pattern for technology use, but rather to adapt and experiment with other options of representation.


4. Hollinger, Wendy. “Something like a Fiction: Speculative Intersections of Sexuality and Technology” http://books.google.com.au/books?id=QKMS9j6I7GcC&pg=PA140&dq=sexuality+and+technology&hl=en&ei=ZqmJTN7nE4-avgOdwM22CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sexuality%20and%20technology&f=false 2008, date accessed 10th September 2010

This chapter is an appropriate source to cite in an essay as it has been published very recently (2008) and the author is an acclaimed writer in the field of English and Cultural Studies. Veronica Hollinger received her BA from Marianopolis College in Montreal and then travelled to Newcastle (UK) to complete her Masters in Education. This source can be used to address the ‘guiding’ essay question as it deals with the role of technology in the reconfiguration of sexualities and genders. It references an award- winning essay by Wendy Pearson on reading science fiction queerly, as well as discussing “sextrapolation” as a new wave science fiction. A positive aspect to this chapter is that Hollinger deals with technology as a whole rather than specifying just the internet. The source constructs an instrumental theory based on the common sense idea that technologies are “tools” ready to serve the purposes of their users. There is a quote worth noting down relating to cyborgs and sexuality as follows: “we created the machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it...” It relates back to the ‘guided’ essay question emphasising the way our body is being controlled by the machine and sexuality is manipulated.


5. Keneally, Laura. “Virtual Identities- Cyborgs” http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Virtual_Identities_-_Cyborgs 8th October 2004, date accessed 10th September 2010

This is not an ideal source to reference in an essay as the information is too simplistic and focuses primarily on women. The ‘guiding’ question asks for a discussion about cyborgs, so the material should include information relating to both men and women. The author, Laura Keneally is a student at Edith Cowen University which (like the source stated previously) doesn’t make her writing entirely credible. The essay is published on an encyclopaedia site which reinstates its unreliability as a source. The footnotes however, allude to a range of other useful sources. The material itself deals with Donna Haraway’s ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ which is a crucial component to answering the ‘guided’ question. The article also refers to a number of queer theories and contrasts them to Haraway’s dominant ideas. Keneally underlines the power of sexuality which comes from the body. She believes it is the body that will become subject to and of cyborgian cultural construction. Her points are relevant to answering the ‘guided’ essay question as they can be challenged or reinforced.