Fembots, Cyborgs, and Female Avatars Alike

Abstract

Gender, Bodies, and Technology Conference Roanoke, Virginia April 22-24, 2010 Approximately three years ago, motivated by the desire to learn from each other's feminist scholarship, faculty and graduate students affiliated with the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Virginia Tech (VT) began meeting to explore the innumerable ways in which gender, bodies, and technology converge and collide. One of the many positive outcomes of these discussions was this invigorating, forward-thinking Gender, Bodies, and Technology conference, where topics ranged from the social implications of servile fembots to radical artistic envisionings of female avatars. That it gestated in a Women's and Gender Studies Program may be unsurprising to those who already appreciate the field's interdisciplinary nature and non-hierarchical approach to pedagogy. In an era where academia too often prioritizes elite intellectuals with highly specialized knowledge, however, it was refreshing to be reminded just how beneficial interdisciplinarity and scholarship from all levels can truly be. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One rarely returns from an academic conference thinking, How fabulous! But the conference planning committee's decision to include myriad forms of art throughout its three-day course elicited exactly that response. The multimedia plenary Bodies in Time featured powerful video, poetry, political commentary, performance art, and even banjo and ukulele playing from extremely spirited members of VT's English, Music, and Art departments. Lucinda Roy's poem Quite Contrary, Pretty Maids All in a Row was the very definition of menopausal moxie and provided a humorous, liberating counterpoint to the many oppressive issues discussed all day. A number of intermediary spaces were also devoted to art that explored the nexus of gender, bodies, and technology in a more abstract manner than the thesis-driven papers, which allowed conference participants to ruminate about similar issues in more sensual ways. Teresa Ascencao's brilliant interactive video installation, Consuming Her: Sensory Explorations of the Female Nude on the Silver Screen, was one such work. By creating a mosaic image of Audrey Munson (Hollywood's first leading lady to appear fully nude) comprised entirely of miniature movie clips of other celluloid sex symbols, Ascencao illustrated how the movie industry fragments and reconfigures women to fit a fictionalized ideal of femininity. Viewers are invited to touch Munson's body, and each time they do, an audio clip of one of these starlet's voices begins to play, revealing her vulnerabilities about fame, beauty, and seduction. The interactive element replicates how cinema consistently thwarts desire. Viewers need to keep a safe distance to maintain the illusion--if you get too close, the fantasy dissolves before your eyes--and ears. The most poignant plenary was that given by Jennifer Terry, an associate professor of Women's Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Titled Woundscapes of the 21st Century: Gender, Technology, and the Figure of the Damaged Veteran, Terry's talk was a harrowing analysis of American war culture and its devastating effect on society. …