Blog Post for Module 6: Cyberfeminism and Social Justice

         I find it pretty profound to be considering the implications of cyberfeminism as we are in a heated election season here in the U.S., culminating on Election Day: Tuesday, November 4. And as we’ve discussed in our course recently, as it relates to meme culture, the Internet has a significant effect on any election—I would argue worldwide. I’ve felt that heated discourse more recently because I currently live in northwest New Jersey, and there is a fierce gubernatorial campaign going on here. Similarly, in Virginia, there is also a gubernatorial race happening between Democrat Abigail Spanberger and her Republican opponent Winsome Earle-Sears. However, sadly, what seems to be at the center of the campaign in Virginia is trans rights. Winsome Earle-Sears has been running much of her campaign on the subject, spreading dangerous, hateful rhetoric. Here is a recent AP article about the subject. Furthermore, trans rights, in addition to the exclusion of race as a consideration, are at the forefront of questions surrounding cyberfeminism.

It is my understanding that cyberfeminism as a concept attempts to envision the Internet as a space separate from the patriarchy we suffer under in the “real world.” However, as Trevor Scott Milford and Izabella Scott examine in their respective pieces, cyberfeminism has limitations. Unfortunately, the Internet is not immune or protected from the biases, misogyny, and bigotry of the outside world. Though, I see the concerted efforts on the parts of various movements and groups to create spaces, which are free from those horrors. There are numerous platforms and projects dedicated to cisgendered women and LGBTQ+ communities. And often because of that visibility, trans youth are unfairly targeted and bullied online. J.K. Rowling’s tweets, for example, which at least in part only gained traction because of her celebrity and the Internet, have represented some of the worst outcomes of Internet usage and “things going viral.” Also, cyberfeminism and perhaps some of the aforementioned advocacy groups sometimes fail to address issues of race. Scott observes, “Cyberfeminism resisted easy definition and, as the manifesto showed, there were multiple iterations and conflicting notions of what it was—and was not. By 1997, the movement was running into trouble. Haraway and Butler’s texts had called for the dissolution of gender and racial hierarchies, but it was increasingly clear that cyberfeminism had failed to address race at all.” By the same token, feminism has led to problems with TERFS (trans exclusionary feminists). Both ideas confirm it seems to be difficult to create spaces designed to be completely infallible. Though I am still unclear what prevents people from being inclusionary.

Moreover, the issues with cyberfeminism speak to problems with class, especially in America. There is still an unknown percentage of the U.S. without Internet. Of course, local public libraries are expected to provide their patrons access to computers and Internet, but all that is dependent on patrons themselves being able to gain access. This access can be limited to someone’s geographic location, but also includes their ability to simply get to a local library. Also, if someone has never been on the Internet before, the process can be extremely overwhelming and leave the user frustrated. We’ve seen that many times with elderly people who do not use the Internet. They often feel like because it is not as easy as people make it out to be, they usually just give up and go on with their life as usual. They (said frustrated elderly people) feel they do not need the Internet, but if they felt it (the Internet) was easy to embrace and learn, perhaps they would not feel that way. While literacy in general has been a hot topic, and unfortunately one that has been politicized with the recent rhetoric on immigration, using the Internet itself is a form of literacy— a digital literacy. And for those reasons cyberfeminism itself is exclusionary. As with all forms of Internet usage, it relies on the user for complete engagement. Algorithms track us yes, and psychology is constantly implemented by artificial intelligence and programmers to get users to “buy more,” or simply use an application longer. And so, I posit that cyberfeminism itself attempts to apply the tenets of feminism to a space that is inherently patriarchal, colonial, segregated, and therefore incredibly limited in the context of its ability to be truly inclusive. The texts we read this week explain that the Internet was initially created by and for men, though Scott mentions Ada Lovelace.

Scott includes an important pull quote here writing, “‘Cyberfeminism presents itself as inclusive, but the cyberfeminist writings assume an educated, white, upper-middle-class, English speaking, culturally sophisticated readership,” Wilding and Maria Fernandez wrote in the book Domain Errors: Cyberfeminist Practices.’” This is not to say there is no such thing as inclusive spaces on the Internet. On the contrary, the freedom and experimentation of the Internet have allowed for the creation of many communities, which otherwise would not have existed. In regards to political activism, it has rallied people to protest together, for example. But it has also led to many acts of violence; a uniquely antifeminist ideal. While Donna Haraway’s notion of the cyborg as a metaphorical concept does still hold resonance even today, the idea that we can break down binaries sadly does not exist. The various “cyborg-ian” dualisms and in-between spaces that Haraway envisions are contingent upon human participation, and right now the humans are unfortunately caught up in too many political crises. And the Internet is an ongoing reflection of our shortcomings.

“Meme Magic” and the Imaginary Spaces Where Rhetoric Lives, Thrives, and Destroys

          I will begin by sharing that this module has really pushed my understanding of how memes function, generate value, and generally influence our cultural and political landscapes. I recently begun making a list for a performance poem I’m writing. The list is of things that did not exist or rather were not as popular before the year 2012. Through that list-making process, I’ve been trying to connect to a time in perhaps all of our lives when certain “things” were just not in the forefront of our collective consciousness. I began by identifying trends like “matcha latte,” “everything bagel seasoning,” and “oat milk.” But where I was really trying to go was connecting with a time when Trump was not the President, and the word “pandemic” was not in my vocabulary, amongst other things. Nevertheless, I was fascinated while reading the texts for this module to also make the connection between the way memes have gained traction, to say the least, following this period I’m emphasizing of the early 2010s. And also, how memes themselves have led to some magical identity in which they (the memes) hold all this power over us, and we are just humble servants through our abilities to constantly “like” and “share.”

The history of the meme is rich. I learned from Alexis Benveniste’s article in The New York Times that Richard Dawkins coined the term in his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene.” However, I’m still left with many “what came first… the chicken or the egg?” type questions. In other words, would this emphasis on mimetic rhetoric let’s say, have been as popular or successful if not for the proliferation of the Internet and social media? Sparby’s article also got me thinking further about the “gender divide” for lack of a better term, or the ways in which memes have fed into misogynistic rhetoric and influenced the 2016 and likely 2024 Presidential elections.

Separately, I came across an article published by CNN just a few days ago entitled “Is the Male Gaze Back?” I was not able to read the whole thing because I’m not a paid subscriber. But after some searching I realized this topic of the “male” and “female” gaze has in fact come roaring back, and I think the current political landscape is very much to blame. Nonetheless, the topic is fueled by memes and digital rhetoric. Here’s a Yahoo article that tries to comment on the subject. The meme below with Wolverine is from that article. I wanted to include it here as an example of how misogynistic rhetoric gets propagated by the horror that is “anti-woke” movement. Ryan Milner also references the same “male gaze” in relation to 4chan, writing, “Phillips (2012) finds the male gaze predominates 4chan, and reddit’s similar reputation for misogyny came out during the Violentacrez debate. Both reddit and 4chan were prone to gender antagonisms.” Furthermore, I remember watching in horror the sound bites of Trump saying “grab them by the…” and feeling completely disgusted. One question that comes to mind though, is how much digital rhetoric or rather memes are to blame for the same misogynistic rhetoric? This seems to be crux of Derek Sparby’s article as well as he unpacks the Hillary Clinton meme phenomenon. Though the same or similar trends occurred with Kamala Harris’s campaign.

When I think about natural disasters and namely wildfires like the ones in Pacific Palisades, California, I also imagine that memes have a “wildfire” like quality to them, which I guess is also shared by anything that has the ability to “go viral.” I’m uncertain of where the term “viral” originated as it very much relates to “meme magic” and this otherworldly ability of memes and the like to spread like wildfire. But these “viral” trends, posts, and so on, do have a “sick” quality to them. In the same way I also think about compulsions or the compulsive nature of certain individuals, the sharing of memes has become a collective compulsion. And I also wonder how many people have been sucked into this compulsive sharing culture and compromised their values in the process. Regarding Douglas Eyman’s notion of “The Rhetorical Situation,” we are very much living in a meta-hypermediated-rhetorical-reality. I believe this is the “situation” Eyman is trying to unpack. Eyman highlights Steven Krause (1996) writing, “[Steve Krause] develops a theory of immediacy to articulate the idea of the Internet “as both an example and a generator of immediate rhetorical situations” (77). Eyman continues writing, “An approach that implicitly follows Krause’s construction is the move to see the rhetorical situation in ecological terms, thus allowing a given situation to exist within complex networks of interaction that are more fluid than traditional media would allow” (77-78). This reference to the “ecological” although literal, very much reminds me of the “wildfire” nature of “viral” sharing that I’ve previously mentioned. Though I’m not sure understanding the “rhetorical situation” as an “ecological” one allows us any more power over mitigating the issue, if the goal is to improve the current conditions. The Internet by design is still somewhat of a wild-west landscape, and there’s very little room or even opportunity to contain its power, and in that way, it is certainly of the occult. Though as Krause suggests, if the Internet is a “generator of immediate rhetorical situations,” what happens when the memes share the title of the “generator?” And how much of a role do users, consumers, or rather people, otherwise play?

In the spirit of this module, I would like to share several memes and posts:

 

 

Please note this was my first post on this blog (from back in August) and somehow it was lost through all my edits to this page! I had to re-upload it because I still want it on the blog. Kindly scroll to view my posts on the most recent module including module 3.

Bienvenidos friends!

I’m so glad you found my blog. My name is Sara Barenfeld. I’m a Ph.D. student in the English department at Stony Brook University and this is my very first semester here. I’m also a recipient of the Dr. W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship. 

I’m really proud to hold initial and advanced interrelated degrees exclusively from publicly-funded institutions. I hold a master’s in English from Montclair State University, a master’s in education from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a bachelor’s in journalism and English from CUNY Baruch College.

Most of my work can be found on never ending grocery lists, to-do lists, lunchbox notes, and doodles far and wide. Some of my other work has been published or is forthcoming in Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine, Union Spring, Lilith, Please See Me, The Elevation Review, and The Jewish Advocate, among others.

My current research interests involve early 20th-century British and Irish literature, postcolonial theory, and motherhood studies. Though I am also deeply interested in poetry and poetics, inclusive pedagogy, and the public humanities.

As far as hobbies, I have a special interest in all forms of art and Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. I enjoy going to museums and one of my favorite pieces is “The Dinner Party” (1979) by Judy Chicago. If you are not far from Brooklyn I recommend seeing it at The Brooklyn Museum where it is on permanent display. One of my favorite musicians is Ani DiFranco and I’m a near lifelong fan of the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls. As an aspiring scholar of poetry and literature, my love of both are endless and I hope I can share some of my favorites and recommendations on this blog.

Here’s a little more about me courtesy of my department’s page.

This is a blog I created as an assignment for a multimodal rhetoric course called WRT 614 Multimodal Rhetoric in fall 2025 at Stony Brook University (SUNY). The instructor for the course is Dr. Cynthia Davidson.

I hope you enjoy my blog! My first official blog post should appear simultaneously with this landing page under “posts and writings and such,” so please feel free to check it out and stay tuned for more posts. If you’d like to connect and talk further about some of my ongoing research don’t hesitate to reach out through my department’s page for a current CV.

 

P.S.–I would like to share a song that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It was released during the pandemic.

Hi folks, this blog post is a mash-up of responses to the following three prompts. Dr. Cynthia Davidson authored these prompts as part of the ongoing graduate course WRT 614 for which this blog is designed. Here are the original prompts for your convenience:

1A. Write a point of view (POV) narrative of your own that demonstrates some of the concepts, pleasures, and/or anxieties that arise from these readings.

4. Consider the current information gathering controversies of the day such as the one described in Petula Dvorak’s article on Virginia governor Glen Youngkin’s campaign to gather information from apps women use to monitor their menstrual cycles. While the social and legal implications of this are profound, can you relate this attempt to regulate bodies through information of data to Hayles’ work on posthumanism?

5. What real life stories can you relate to Hayles’ ideas in her article, especially about flickering signification and changes to the way we experience presence and information? Have you had experiences that make you feel that presence has changed due to the changes in the ways that we experience reality? How have you responded to these shifts, if you are aware of such?

Below is my response: 

One area of inquiry that initially sparked my interest in pursuing a doctoral degree in English related to these underlying questions: Why does society continue to demonize menstruating bodies and how is that depicted in modernist literature? From accusations of medieval witchcraft to the early modern era to the “red tents” of the Old Testament described by Anita Diamant, I’ve never quite understood why “Aunt Flo,” as some would call it, continues to be an area of controversy. I’m pleased to see Petula Dvorak’s 2023 Washington Post article entitled, “Gov. Youngkin wants to open the flow of information — about periods” included in a prompt for this module’s discussion. Virginia governor Glen Youngkin’s campaign to gather information from apps women use to monitor their menstrual cycles enraged me. In early 2024, Youngkin’s administration essentially lost, and he signed a bill (S.B. 754) protecting the privacy of reproductive and sexual health data collected by digital apps. However, I’m not convinced this fight is over, and such a topic emerges in arguments put forth by N. Katherine Hayles’ work on posthumanism.

My early understanding of how my body “works” came about in relation to understanding life and death. From a religious perspective, many of us are taught that our bodies are simply vessels on Earth. Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, or the concept of the “soul” or not. When we come to terms with grief and loss, we are often told that despite something dying, “they (or their spirit) are still with us.” And so, it is my understanding that it is not uncommon for people to be taught early on that our bodies are actually fairly unimportant. We are “put on Earth” for a brief time, and we should “make the most of that time,” but our bodies are an unfixed entity. The body ages, it wears, it experiences physical pain, and then miraculously recovers. Moreover, what many value above the body is rather the mind. Since the concept of the physical body for many is fleeting, it is the mind, which is viewed with fewer limitations.

So, if we accept that our bodies are just that: bodies, or external pawns or vessels, how is that idea challenged or complicated by the virtual and metaphysical? When I read the writings for this week on Slender Man and Second Life, I was immediately taken back to my early memories of playing 1990s and 2000s computer games; most notably, The Sims and The Oregon Trail. Before that, I was obsessed with my Barbie dolls. I loved the idea of imaginative play and the notion that I could do or saying anything, but it wasn’t me actually doing it, right? If Barbie said something mean, it was Barbie who said it–not me. If I “died” of cholera in The Oregon Trail, it wasn’t my fault that I didn’t pack enough rations. And if my Sim character lived in a home with no furniture, well it was at least partially the Sims fault. These types of seemingly simple shifts from “presence to pattern” and the relationship between the “physical world and embodied experience,” as Hayles would explain, I posit plague our present existence.

Regarding posthumanism, Hayles asserts that the body itself is essentially entangled or intertwined with information systems (73). For one, the various algorithms on social media are often scary. I argue they affect women disproportionately simply because there is an added element of tracking as it relates to the female reproductive system. Medical tracking technology exemplified by the Apple Watch or the Oura ring, is able to tell women they’re pregnant often before they know or realize. And that data is not secure. Similarly, I recently bought a piece of clothing online that was technically part of the maternity line at Old Navy, and almost immediately I was flooded with ads on social media and beyond about early pregnancy. These types of examples are extremely common. Despite the failed efforts of Youngkin’s administration to access women’s period tracking apps, I could almost argue that he does not even need to publicly claim he will do that. In other words, our data is already being tracked by major corporations. It is already not private. And so, in considering Hayles’ claims and my early understandings of the body, one could argue that our bodies have never been our own. However, technology, data mining, and information systems have added an entirely new dimension to the “human” experience. On dating apps, you can in theory misrepresent yourself entirely. Any portal or platform via the Internet or application allows humans to experience the other worldly at their fingertips.

Nevertheless, women’s bodies in particular have been a battle ground for autonomy and control. Because women are typically inherently born with the ability to act as gestational carriers for future human life, men and their respective governments feel compelled to control female bodies. But, it is the female body and often menstruating body that continues to be demonized, perpetuating further beliefs of misogyny and terror. These tropes feed into harmful ideologies and discourses as it relates to women who are unable to have children or choose not to procreate. Similarly, this inherent value on procreation prevents women from taking ownership and control over their own bodies in various settings. Beyond that, women’s healthcare is underfunded and severely at risk. Not to mention the (devastating) overturning of Roe v. Wade. Women are often not believed for their pain and under-treated for conditions like endometriosis. So, as much as we have the ability to act beyond ourselves in

games like Second Life, the physical experience of the body, and in this case the female body, is emphasized in healthcare and we cannot avoid it as a topic of discussion and sadly, controversy.

I would like to end by sharing a brief anecdote about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. If you are unfamiliar with her story, it is truly devastating. She suffered from a bus accident during which a metal pole penetrated her womb and pelvis. As a result, she was unable to have children and for much of her life she was unable to walk. Because of the accident and a bad case of polio. In March of 2025, I had the privilege of visiting her childhood home (now museum) where she painted many of her masterpieces. On display was a diary entry and drawing of her body as she understood it after the accident. I’ll let the words speak for themselves. But I’m curious, how do you understand these complicated concepts of our physical bodies and information systems as we experience them? Is there a way that the virtual universe allows for freedom from the confines of our physical bodies? Do you agree with my understanding and interpretation of Hayles’ arguments (73-88)?