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Digital Dualism And The Glitch Feminism Manifesto

It is interesting to consider how digital technology is becoming a huge part of human sexuality. Is Russell saying that orgasms are like glitches of the body?

Glitches remind us of the artificial nature of the digital world. They encourage us to return to the physical world.

We are so used to instant gratification in the digital realm. Glitches hinder this and force us to wait, often leading to frustration and restlessness. Maybe there is a lesson in patience to be learned from glitch. It is interesting to observe how the universe seems to fold in on some people when their Internet stops working for thirty seconds.

Is Russell speaking literally and saying that we should use glitches in our technology as opportunities to get down? I’m not quite sure how to interpret what she is saying. Maybe she means that our reactions to glitches, like losing your shit when the rainbow-wheel-of-death appears over Photoshop, can reveal deep insights about our selves, like realizing we’re impatient, impulsive monkeys.

“two selves, operating in isolation from one another, rather than one continuous self, two sides of a vivacious equation looped together in a continual narrative of daily living and human existence” (Russell)

Woah dude…

So the glitch is the equivalent of foreplay when watching porn…

Glitch Feminism turns the idea of a glitch on its head. Since our current social system is already severely messed up, ideas that challenge it should not immediately be considered wrong. I think she proposes this as some sort of revolutionary thought when it’s a pretty obvious idea. Although I agree with the values of Glitch Feminism, she may be romanticizing it a little bit. Maybe not though. I’m not sure.

 

 

 

Glitch Feminism & the Queer Error

Legacy Russell’s article Digital Dualism And The Glitch Feminism Manifesto grabbed my attention with the proclamation that “The glitch is the digital orgasm.” In the digitization of today’s hook-up culture, this idea seems less abstract than others, but still was hard to totally agree with at first, because orgasms are associated with extreme pleasure, and glitches usually come hand in hand with interruption or frustration. However, the explanation of this theory made the concept become clearer to me, because the build-up of an orgasm and the glitch share the same stutters that incite the anticipation of something pleasurable- like the buffering of a video. Furthermore, both initiate an escape from conservative learned structures- both of how to conduct ourselves in our daily lives and on the internet and computer programs. While the glitch addresses the medium of the software that constrains our digital activities, the orgasm unearths the unspoken sexual desire that everyone experiences but is told not to freely talk about. The article emphasized the fact that “the glitch is the catalyst, not the error,” which destigmatizes the idea of the glitch as a sign of a faulty system, and shifts one to the realization that the existence of the system itself is the real issue due to the power structures in place.

The concept that really rocked my world was that of the glitch’s role as the split between our digital life and our real lives… I often think about how our lives are constructed through our online personas, and wonder how connected or disconnected these identities make us from our true selves. The glitch forces someone sucked into the Internet back into the real world, and allows a brief period of reflection on their actions and existence. This links back to themes of sex especially when a person watching porn experiences poor Internet connection or buffering. It makes one consider the position of their own desires and pleasures, either as purely online fantasies or part of their identities as sexual beings. I also think Russell’s coining of the term “Glitch Feminism” brings a plethora of new possibilities to feminism and art, and that the medium of the glitch is a perfect tool because it reflects the need to deconstruct the patriarchy that we often accept as the standard structures in place.

The article Queer/Error: Gay Media Systems and Processes of Abjection by Chad Parker and Jessica Rodgers also brought up many deep questions about the term queer and its relation to glitch. They point out that “Queer Theory itself constructs queerness as a kind of error” by defining the it as “whatever is at odds with the normal” (211). This claim privileges mainstream society’s definition of what is and is not “normal,” and constructs the “queer” outside of the acceptable realm. This may lead to a negative connotation to queerness, just as glitches are usually seen as negative occurrences. I think that this makes glitch the perfect medium to disrupt heteronormative societal values, because a glitch artist takes back these two alienated concepts- the queer and the glitches- and flips them on their heads to prove a point about their ability to create positivity and fight against the real hegemony in place.