The Clitoris and the Joystick: Play, Pleasure, and Power in Cyberspace

The increasing popularity of digital games and number of women who play them make considerations regarding the representation and roles of females in technologized playgrounds ever more relevant. This book considers how the female body has been simulated in cyberspace and digital play environments. It argues that players can play against the technological impulse to annihilate the organic through an awareness of Gestell. Following an analysis of the opportunities and costs associated with deriving intense, immersive pleasures from playing with machines, Bertozzi argues that females must participate much more actively in the playing and building of videogames.