Sterling on Feminist Steganography
Google serendipidy produced a little essay by Bruce Sterling on Steganography and Feminism:
I have returned from Italy, where I was hanging out with Linux free software guys. Some of them were Communists. One always hears the weird allegation that Linux users are Communists, but this is the first time I ever met any real ones.
In Italy's unique political circumstances, the Communists are "the party of honest government." Whereas the current Prime Minister, Silvio "The Cavaliere" Berlusconi, is a sinister media monopolist who hangs out with half-reformed fascisti. Then there's that Le Pen guy, in France. And in sweet, kindly Holland, a gay right-wing xenophobe has been shot dead by an animal- rightist. You know, in Europe, life is hairy this season.
People in Italy (who rather like cyberpunk books for their spooky, noir aspects), always have me figured for some kind of stiletto-toting, chrome and matte-black conspirator. Little knowing that the most sinister things I do are (a) eating taco chips and (b) sitting in front of a Macintosh moving my fingers up and down.
This reputation, however, likely accounts for brief Italian encounter I had with some Eastern European cyberfeminists. It seems that these ladies had read a recent speech of mine at the Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference, where I publicly stated that I "admire women" and like to see them take "a public role in public life."
They were thrilled to see a technologically knowledgeable American male acknowledging their humanity. These ladies have some security problems.
Mind you, these aren't heavy-duty, with-it, Cornelia Sollfrank style cyberfeminists. Those cyberfeminists are sophisticated, learned Eurofemmes in brainy-glasses, who hang out with Australian performance artists and know how to use real computers. These cyberfeminists were dainty little dissident peaceniks. They're from one of those "former" countries.
posted Thu 9 Oct 2003 in /issues/crypto | link
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