2010/01/01 by Susanna Paasonen · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Digital Games and Media #Art, Technology, and Culture #Cybernetics and Technology in Society #Manifesto #Feminization (sociology) #Feminism #Gender studies #Sociology #Aesthetics #Art #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1057/9780230109995_4
openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The first wave of cyberfeminism—various projects, publications and debates—came in the 1990s. The artist group VNS Matrix, inspired by Donna Haraway’s 1985 “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” authored their own cyberfeminist manifesto in 1991; 1 Sadie Plant first theorized the feminization of culture through digital networks and complex connections; 2 artists, scholars and activists investigated the meanings of bioengineering and technoculture 3 and the three biannual Cyberfeminist Internationals (1997–2001) organized by the Old Boys Network (OBN) brought together a mix of people interested in such developments. Combining theoretical speculation, science fiction and artistic experimentation, cyberfeminism became a “brand name” and an umbrella term for a range of practices that did not necessitate identification with feminism. In fact, the cyberfeminists of the 1990s often defined themselves through their differences from and rupture with, rather than connections to or legacies of, the “second wave” as well as the general category of feminism. 4 With the exception of Haraway, whose manifesto has been well remembered, this tended to involve a certain lack of critical dialogue with the traditions of feminist thought, and feminist investigations into computer cultures and digital technologies in particular. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.