discussion7

Online performances gender blogs gender bending and cyber sex as relational exemplors

Computer-mediated-communication (CMC) scholarship examines how partners employ online communication to create and maintain relationships (Stern, 2008). In addition to other concerns, CMC research examines the Internet as a gendered space. Such an interpretation of the Internet suggests that the medium itself might play a role in the construction of online gender identities as well as provide a social context for gender construction in the enactment of online relationships (Ridgeway & Correll, 2004).

Current theorizing distinguishes gender as a social construct (Wood, 2009). Given that the Internet has been identified as a tool that shapes social reality, a viable relationship between the two constructs appears reasonable. Researchers argue that the relationship between the Internet and gender is fairly complex as the technology of the medium itself is gendered (Bailey & Telford, 2007), but it provides a new space for gender to be performed (White, 2003).

A Gendered Medium. From a historical and cultural perspective, the use of technology has been predominantly male-governed; socialization of women for domestic work limited their need for technical expertise. As recently as 2000, in a sample of 185 users from 84 U.S. families, men reported spending almost twice as many hours per week online at home as women (Kayany & Yelsma, 2000). Because of these inequities, technological advancements can be viewed as masculine tools of power (Bailey & Telford, 2007). Despite steps to increase equity, men continue to dominate in specialized fields of technology such as software design (Anderson & Buzzanell, 2007)—making the Internet a male-occupied space. Liberal feminists argued that because of female exclusion, technology reflects a patri ← 302 | 303 → archal hierarchy that produces tools of oppression detrimental to women (i.e., pornography; Podlas, 2000).

However, in the more recent era of technological growth, women comprise an increasing percentage of the Internet population. Since 2001, male versus female access to the Internet has reached parity (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2004). The data regarding relational use of online technologies is especially interesting. The 2000 Pew Internet and American Life project reported that women use the Internet to maintain relationships more than men. Among 713 college students, women were four to five times more likely than men to use social networking websites (Tufekci, 2008). Women report more Facebook “friends” than men and report spending more time on Facebook than men, regardless of the size of their networks (Acar, 2008). Another recent survey of college students documented no differences between male versus female reports of the amount of time spent online communicating with romantic partners (Sidelinger, Ayash, & Tibbles, 2008). Furthermore, women and men spend equal time playing online games (Williams, Consalvo, Caplan, & Yee, 2009). Contemporary feminists view these multiple measures of online equity as indicating that the Internet can provide a space for women’s empowerment and agency, given that it provides “unparalleled mechanisms for widespread dissemination and communication” (Bailey & Telford, 2007, p. 244). For a detailed review of the research on women’s versus men’s use of the Internet, see Royal (2005).

A Gender Performance Space. Some scholars have argued that both male and female users communicate online in ways that “replicate and disrupt” established gender practices (Anderson & Buzzanell, 2007, p. 32). Thus, the Internet can be viewed as a space with liberating potential, where gender can be performed in new ways; innovative identities can be imagined by online representation (White, 2003), and gendered scripts can be re-conceptualized through use of language in online discourse (Bruckman, 1993; Kelly, Pomerantz, & Currie, 2006).

Although the “anonymity” argument has been severely critiqued (e.g., Boler, 2007; Kennedy, 2006), scholars have long recognized that the anonymity of the Internet allows for the creation of complex identities (e.g., Kuntsman, 2008) and thus gender can be experienced outside the rigid binary system without facing social repercussion. Furthermore, the ever-changing nature of the Internet and the ability to freely navigate through different online cultures permits the fluidness of gender to be realized and experienced (Bailey & Telford, 2007). Such experimentation typically challenges mainstream conceptions of gender.

The Internet, as a medium of mass communication, provides a space in which gendered social issues can be given widespread attention. Information-giving and interactional sites allow engagement and discussion of ideas outside the hegemonic gendered discourse. Also, it provides a forum for voices that are often overlooked or silenced in society (i.e., lesbian teens). Additionally, the Internet allows for networking and establishing a sense of connection necessary for movements ← 303 | 304 → attempting social change. For example, the materialization of modern feminism is “marked by the emergence of networks and contacts which need no centralized organizations and evade its structures of command control” (Bailey & Telford, 2007, p. 259). From this viewpoint, the Internet is a space of liberation for gender to be performed, conceptualized, and theorized about in desirable ways.

Performative Theory and Gender on the Internet

The previous discussion described the Internet as providing a space where gender identities can be enacted and performed in new ways. Based on this depiction, Butler’s theory of gender performativity (1990) can provide a framework for interpreting the research on CMC and gender. The theory argues that humans create gender identities through expression and performance (Wood, 2009). Butler makes a clear distinction between biological sex and gender: whereas biological sex is a mere accident of birth, gender is produced and maintained through cultural discourses. Humans enact gender via multiple modes of expression (i.e., communication) within societal inscriptions of gender as performed through words and actions (Menard-Warwick, 2007). Performative theory posits that gender is not specifically something humans have, but rather, something they do (Menard-Warwick, 2007). Gender is an active expression of identity and an outward performance (Bell, 2006); the central claim of the theory states that without the performance of gender, there is no gender (Wood, 2009).

Purpose and Preview

A large body of research exists on gender and CMC—too large for full review in this chapter. To provide the reader with a reasonable sampling of the research, including topics of both popular and scholarly interest, we review three lines of research and interpret the findings via performative theory: gendered blogging, gender-bending, and cybersex. Our research for this chapter included examining public and scholarly discourses on CMC and gender performance as well as viewing online performances of gender.

Gendered Blogging

Because identity arises from “publicly validated performances,” bloggers enact gender identity through blogging (García-Gómez, 2009, p. 613). Blog authors present their performative gendered identities through both visual and discursive means (van Doorn, van Zoonen, & Wyatt, 2007) as they form relationships with those who read their blogs.

Weblogs or Blogs

Weblogs, more popularly referred to as blogs, are “frequently updated websites where content (text, pictures, music, etc.) is posted on a regular basis and dis ← 304 |