Zoe Sofia "Virtual Corporeality: A Feminist View" In Cybersexualities; edited by Jenny Wolmark; Edinburgh University Press, 1999 (pp. 55-68) In this discussion of Virtual Reality, Zoe Sofia examines how computers process information through the narrow but powerful mode of information abstraction. In the VR microworld, more specifically, the body and its full range of senses are largely abstracted to the dominance of the visual. Connecting this abstraction to patriarchal epistemology, Sofia argues that the system of signification founded in Platonic rationality inflicts violence through its construction of rigid body boundaries and definitions of self. In this paradigm, a specific type of male body represents a universal and normative definition for the comparison and exclusion of other genders, races, and classes. She compares this visual method to the linguistic technique of synechdoche: "Synechdoche is what allows the disembodied, alienated, objective rationality of a certain gender, class, ethnicity, and historical epoch to be vaunted as universal, while other styles and components of ratioanlity - such as embodiment, situatedness, emotion - are ignored or dismissed as non-rational." (p. 57). By connecting Platonic signification to misogyny, therefore, Sofia is also able to claim that the visual abstraction in VR is inherently a violent and misogynistic practice. She concludes the essay by suggesting "Virtual worlds and bodies offer a pleasurable fulfillment of the defensive and ultimately misogynistic fantasy of escape from earth, gravity, and maternal/material origins." L.E. Fazen