英文摘要 |
In a patriarchal society, women's consciousness of sexuality is often oppressed. How does the cyberspace enable women to seek sexual autonomy and liberation? Qualitative method is used to analyze data in this research. The researcher took part in a WWW-based adult chat room for more than a year, and used the message text as research data. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven female users to understand their experiences in the chat room. Limited private conversations permitted by the website manager were collected to analyze the patterns of interaction between men and women. The results show that the internet provides women a look into the erotic world, to express themselves differently from the real world, and to build up self-confidence by gaining attention from the opposite sex. On the other hand, women had to deny their presence in the adult chat room to avoid bad reputation, and to bear men's sexual harassment. Women have to follow the gender 'scripts' and norms even more strictly or they will be punished by getting verbally attacked or insulted. The gender norms in the chat room are not much different from those in real life. Men still siege the power to ask questions, to decide what to talk about, to initiate flirting, and to give suggestions and advices. These interaction patterns reproduce the power hierarchy, with males in the dominant, and females in the subordinate, position. |