November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

Gender-Bending in Cyberspace

(Page 5 of 5)

September/October 1998
by Sherry Turkle 
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Having literally written our gender-swapping online personae into existence, they can be a kind of Rorschach. We can use them to become more aware of what we project into everyday life, and the ways those projections affect others. This means that we can use the virtual to reflect constructively on the real.

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Indeed, in my experience, life in cyberspace can provide very serious play. We take it lightly at our risk. And in my research I have found that people who cultivate an awareness of what stands behind the screen personae they craft do best in using virtual experience for personal transformation. Those who make the most of their life on the screen come to it in a spirit of self-reflection.

Sherry Turkle is a professor of the sociology of science at MIT and a licensed clinical psychologist. She is author of Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (Simon and Schuster, 1995).

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  • rock chew 9/10/2008 10:49:28 AM

    NIL

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