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Abstract

This piece of work is a response to the following question: ‘Critically assess the importance, or otherwise, of Donna Haraway’s “manifesto” for early twenty-first century feminists’. Based on Stein and Plummer’s outline of queer theory in their essay, “I can’t even think straight”: “Queer” Theory and the Missing Sexual Revolution in Sociology (Stein and Plummer 1996). This piece compares and contrasts different aspects of queer theory (sociological, ideological, political and ontological) with Haraway’s ‘manifesto’ in order to investigate the possibilities of a cyberqueer theory: to ‘queer’ (as a verb) the ‘cyborg’. Whilst attempting to interrelate both the notion of the ‘cyborg’ and ‘queer theory’, this piece explores feminist issues concerning gender, sexuality, identity, representation and the body. Ultimately, the piece argues how feminism might benefit from cyberqueer ideas in rethinking through these issues whilst being aware of its material ramifications.

Author Biography

Esperanza Miyake completed a first degree in English and related Literature at the University of York and continued on to a Masters degree in the same field. “Halfway through, I realised that I would be more at home in Women’s Studies and thus gathered my belongings to be welcomed under the wings of the Centre for Women’s Studies in the same university. Now I have found my second home in Lancaster University where I am currently researching corporeal lesbian sexuality and musical experience”. ‘My, is that Cyborg a little Queer?’ was her first essay in Women’s Studies, and the beginning of her ongoing academic and personal journey into feminism and women’s studies.

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