(Re)defining the Gendered Body in Cyberspace: The Virtual Reality Film |
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Authors: | Rocío Carrasco |
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Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Filología Inglesa, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spainrocio.carrasco@dfing.uhu.es |
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Abstract: | The contemporary interaction of the body with information, computing, and communication technologies in Western societies has contributed to a change in our understanding of the concept of the human being, while implying that old ideas surrounding corporeality need to be rethought. It is contended here that the virtual reality film, with its focus on cyberspace, offers opportunities for understanding the complex relationship between gender and information technologies and creates spaces in which the gendered body can be reconsidered. Films like The 13th Floor, The Matrix, and Johnny Mnemonic display digital media and virtual subjects that mirror our complex relationship with technology. The present paper proposes three different ways of representing the interaction between humans and technology: “the penetrated body”, “the cyber-body”, and “the simulated body”. This distinction responds to a hierarchy in which some categorizations are more transcendent than others, and confer different degrees of flexibility regarding the redefinition of the gendered body in the texts involved. |
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