Internet Dating, Cyberstalking and Internet Pornography: Gender and the Gaze

Abstract

Chapter 5 argued for two broad directions in tackling the question of developing more solidly theorized approaches towards gender in computer ethics. One line of study involves undertaking empirical studies and analysing these in terms of theories from feminist ethics as in the empirical study reported in the preceding chapter. Additionally there is a clear need to turn the spotlight onto known problems in computer ethics and to reanalyse these from the point of view of a more thorough gender analysis than has usually been made, grounded in aspects of feminist theory. This is the approach taken in this chapter in relation to Internet dating, cyberstalking and Internet pornography and in Chapters 7 and 8 in relation to hacking and privacy respectively. This direction is particularly pertinent in relation to problems which involve the body, privacy violations physical or otherwise of bodies and bodily spaces, watching of and gazing at bodies. This is because of the long standing tradition, prevalent in Western philosophy, of associating bodily matters primarily with women rather than men. There is a tendency for advocates of cyberculture, from roboticists to cyberpunk science fiction writers, to ignore and even deny the primacy of the body. This reflects a turn to the virtual, which, at its extreme, sees the body as mere ‘meat’ (Adam 1998).