A Cyberspace Guide For The Modem Grrrl
“Net Chick: A Smart-Girl Guide to the Wired World” (An Owl Original, $19.95)
Until recently, the vast cyberplayground known as the Internet was pretty much an all-boys club. Guys dreamed up the thing; guys dominated its space.
Well, hold onto your mouse, fellas. Legions of brave, new “cybergrrrls” are increasingly invading this macho on-line world and transforming it into chick cyberheaven.
And Carla Sinclair, the plugged-in editor in chief and co-founder of bOING bOING, a pop-culture magazine for the techno-savvy, recently pulled this new female-friendly Net world together in one book.
“Net Chick: A Smart-Girl Guide to the Wired World” (An Owl Original, $19.95) not only gives on-line addresses for Web sites of interest to women but also works as a primer, introducing the computer novice to the wild and woolly digital jungle.
Breezily written and illustrated with hip graphics, “Net Chick” bills itself as “the only guide to the stylish, post-feminist, modem grrrl culture.” The book includes interviews with pioneer female hackers as well as information on chat rooms, news groups, on-line shopping malls, personal home pages and a wealth of other information.
A glossary instructs would-be female computer “warriors” in the language of the Net and computer “Netiquette.” Chapter sections tell what can be found on the Internet pertaining to sex, fashion, music, entertainment, and more.
Sinclair reveals in the book’s introduction that she only got hooked on the World Wide Web - the electronic universe of computer sites - last spring. She became inspired to write her book when a “nerdy” bookstore clerk condescendingly told her there weren’t any Internet guidebooks for “chicks,” because women don’t access the system.
Pshaw, thought Sinclair. She knew about studies of America Online and Prodigy that showed each has almost 40 percent female membership. That’s about 2 million women. But he was right about one thing, she says: There were no guide books specifically geared to female computer users. She took care of it.
Sinclair writes: “Being a Net Chick is about having a modem. It’s about being a grrrl with a capital R-I-O-T. It’s about using your keyboard to navigate through the thousands of worlds floating in cyberspace. It’s about being empowered by your access to and knowledge of the Internet.”