Feminist Theory – Van Zoonen

In patriarchal culture, the way women’s bodies are represented as objects is different to the representation of male bodies as spectacle. Gender is performative – our ideas of femininity and masculinity are constructed in our performances of these roles. Gender is ‘what we do’ rather than ‘what we are’. Moreover, Gender is contextual – its meaning changes with cultural and historical contexts. Van Zoonen disagrees with arguments that the internet, being based on collaboration, is a technology that is true and close to women and femininity. These views are too simple and based on the idea of an essential femininity, whereas there is a rich diversity of ways that gender is articulated on the internet.