Samita Nandy (York University)

Third Space of Post-Feminism: A Reflection of Feminist Theory in Cybersociology

 

This paper examines feminine gender in the postmodern era of cybernetic culture. Contemporary literature in cyberfeminism exhibits the proliferation of disembodied sexual beings.  While the image of this perceptual existence justifies the reality of virtual gender, the inherent politics of imagination may manifest its myth as well.  To this end, the fugitive character of disembodied spots of sexuality contributes towards a "dual politicization" of feminist knowledge, thereby (dis)empowering cyber-females in the process.  In this paper, I shall reflect upon post-feminist movement as a configuration of social imagination. Drawing upon Linda McDowell's critical thoughts on spatializing feminist theory, I shall further unfold the political features embedded in utopia and heterotopia of contemporary feminist movements and the subsequent negation of image in cybersociological memory.  Highlighting sexual "difference" from the postmodern thoughts of Michael Foucault, this paper not only emphasizes how the third wave of feminist knowledge "fabricates" power but takes a flight from postmodernism as well.