Cornelia Sollfrank on 28 Aug 2001 16:47:21 -0000


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Re: [oldboys] Re: maria fernandez/suhail malik on cyberfeminism


hi pauline,

tnx for 'speaking for someone else'... 

yes, maria is on the list, but maybe she is on holidays or so. i hope she will also take the opportunity to comment.

>First of all, her points 
>re-emphasize Haraway's and presumably go along with cyberfem's 
>'non-natural' use of technological tools; 

ok

>second, I think it's clear from 
>everything's she's saying that she thinks the story ain't over - as it were 
>- but yes, that there's a frustration there at the lack of specificity 
>regarding what are broadly understood as its aims, and the 'backpeddling' 
>on the feminism half of its name; 


good that it's not over otherwise we had to ask ourselves what we are doing on this list;-)
(maybe we have anyway, oe esp. because it is not over)
there is a tradition within obn discussing the understanding of politics. (see also mute #13)
and the main question is if something (like cf) can have a political concern if there is not clearly formulated goals; if there can by a different understanding of politics than an intentional, which clearly was the feminism of the 70s. for me it makes much more sense to rethink strategies and tools than just replacing one goal by another and using the same strategies to try to reach them. but there will also be a section at the conference talking about what the hell is it that ties obn together? i dont know if we have the goals on our banners afterwards. maybe some have their goals already, just on very tiny banners?

>third, I think she's trying to reclaim 
>for something-like-cyberfeminism a far more diverse understanding of what 
>'cyber' might be in the global economy - to bring in all the far flung 
>female identitities which Haraway brought into the equation. Fair cop, no? 
>Can't *that* be a contribution, from a practitioner whose 'medium' is text? 

it is at least a starting point. as you all might know already we are having the third international conference this year in december, just working on the call, and this will be exactly the right place to talk about utopias, understanding of politics etc. and to present more profound ideas of cyberfeminist politics i.e.


>When she talks about careererism, well, that stuff is so personal that the 
>single term cyberfeminism just becomes too big an umbrella to really 
>categorise the who and the why, but it's fair to posit it as a worry: even 
>if it only functions to be shot down, including by those who may think 
>careererism is a useful political strategy.

that feminists accuse each other for only being feminist of career reasons is an old tradition, as old as the fact that proclaiming to be a feminist /cyberfeminist does harm to your career. it doesn't lead anyone anywhere and mostly shows personal envy. to make a serious topic out of it you have to be honest about female competition which is a complete taboo, still. and one should take into consideration that not everyone wants to go into the arena and take the risk to be publically beaten up. and if you do so, is it just for career reasons??

anyway, i finally had an inspiration for a domain name for my new homepage:

www.cyberfeminist-career-center.de


i think it is really funny:-)

best, c.



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