| This dissertation calls for expanding the scholarship on gender and the Internet to include weblogs and utilizes examples from women's weblogs from Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan to understand the role the Internet plays in these women's representations of their everyday lives. Weblogs mirror the Internet's culture of self-disclosure and community, are designed for audiences, and, in addition to providing a space for established voices to be heard, create spaces for new voices. These new voices, or cyberconduits, are cyberfeminists who advocate for social justice on a local level, act as knowledge conduits by using digital media and technology such as blogging, and connect with activists on a global scale.;To this end, this author uses Political Web Sphere analysis (Schneider & Foot, 2002) to form the basis of an examination of weblogs produced by women from Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq. This dissertation also explores the usefulness of analyzing weblogs within the frameworks of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998), Gender Performance Theory (Butler, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999), and Rhizome Theory (Braidotti, 1994; Deleuze & Guattari, 1983, 1987). Community of Practice (CofP) focuses on social interactions and place. Judith Butler's notions of performativity assist in understanding how cyberconduits perform and subvert cultural gender roles and rules. Rhizome theory helps to understand how the cyberconduit transforms her world while remaining true to her roots. |
