Ann Bartow, Virtual Women
Comment by: Danielle Citron
PLSC 2009
Workshop draft abstract:
In most contexts, women are less visible and less present than men in the performing arts, and in any commercial enterprise that exploits creative copyrightable endeavors. Female creative output commands less attention and less money than the creative works of men, and women are less visible, and receive less compensation than male counterparts when they collaborate in the production of creative works with men. Male writers, male singers, male visual artists, male actors, male directors and producers, male composers, male architects, and other male authors of almost any form of copyrightable work dominate the cultural terrain, and acquire and control a substantial majority of the financial resources that creative works accrue. This gendered phenomenon is observable in real space, and mirrored in cyberspace. The only exceptions are contexts in which women function as commodities for consumption. This paper will focus on one of them: Online periodicals that chronicle on the lives of celebrities. It will then chart the consequences that the norms created by these periodicals have for all women.