Cyberfeminism Inersects Writing Research: Studies in Digital Rhetoric

Hocks, Mary.  "“Cyberfeminism Intersects Writing Reseach: Studies in Digital Rhetoric." Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action. Kristine Blair, Radhika Gajjalaand, Christine Tulley. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2008. 235-253.

Mary Hocks’ “Cyberfeminism Intersects Writing Reseach: Studies in Digital Rhetoric” is a discussion of the ways in which cyberfeminism can be integrated in the classroom through various assignments involving technology, and also discusses issues and concerns related to digital rhetoric and opportunities for further research and study in these fields. The article begins with Hocks’ discussion of cyberfeminism, including the history of the term, and her discussion of digital rhetoric and what this term encompasses. Hocks discusses cyberfeminist postmodernism and the ways in which we, as instructors and practitioners of cyberfeminism must understand that “cyberfeminism can also reproduce the White, middle-class feminism that has dominated academia since the second wave” (236). Hocks also discusses the ways in which digital rhetoric is studied by scholars in terms of classrooms and “virtual spaces on the Web” (237). Again, throughout her article, through a discussion of her own new media projects and class syllabi (as well as others’ class syllabi), Hocks links cyberfeminism, digital rhetoric, and the practice and teaching of these topics in the classroom, while making an important point about what cyberfeminism and cyberfeminist approaches must do: “To be done well, cyberfeminist practice must advocate for gendered and other embodied identities in a politically committed way that creates progressive change” (237).


I found this article enlightening in many levels, from Hocks’ discussion of the definition and evolution of terms like cyberfeminism and digital rhetoric, to her discussion of taking a cyberfeminist approach to a class that discussed feminism and technology. I feel that this article is important to my research project for several reasons. First, as I have continued to research online communities, I continuously become more interested in the ways that gender works within these communities. Additionally, I would certainly consider myself a cyberfeminist as well as a feminist pedagogue (perhaps a cyberfeminist pedagogue). I am still learning more about the issues surrounding cyberfeminism in terms of rhetoric, usability, and design. I have decided to focus my project on online communities more on gender, race, and multiculturalism, and I plan to take more usability and design research into account. For these reasons, Hocks’ article is extremely interesting and is applicable to my project from a feminist perspective.