the Female Body GOVERNING

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lori reed
active in the constitution of gender and family, the formation of Internet
addiction, as it traverses through the bodily presence of Sandra Hacker,
displays the “public response to a visible transgression of cultural norms
of unitary subjectivity” (Stone, p. 29). Thus, in a broader sense, the
formation and mobilization of Internet addiction can be viewed as
implicated in current debates and tensions surrounding individual
and collective selves, (virtual) communities, and physical bodies, in
the negotiation of a perpetually forming and transforming Internet
technohabitus.
Technologies of Dis-Location:
Subjectivity, Resistance, the Unruly Woman
Sandra Hacker’s situation offers a slightly different perspective on
the process of “becoming an addict,” the cultural materialization of
Internet addiction, and the ways in which defi nitions of “normal” and
“appropriate” Internet use are imbued with traditional gender ideals. In
spite of much outside encouragement, Hacker refuses to call herself an
“addict.” Instead, she demands that her behavior be seen as a rejection
of the traditionally feminine domestic role, and as a statement that
child care and housework are not solely the responsibility of women.
Hacker’s spectacular “case” provides the tantalizing opening for The
Maury Povich Show:
Povich: Today we are going to meet people who admit they are
addicted to their computers. . . . They neglect their housework and
jobs, drive their spouses away, or lose custody of their children. Take
Sandra Hacker. She spent hours in chat rooms while her family lived
in squalor and her children played in their own excrement. . . . [She]
got her reality check when she was accused of being addicted to the
Internet. . . . She was arrested, put in jail, and she’s currently on
probation for child neglect.
When asked, Hacker tries to explain that her husband shares equal or
more responsibility for the household mess and unsanitary conditions
the children lived in:
Hacker: We were separated. I was gonna go out of town and ask
him if it was okay. I’ve never been away from the family. . . . And
he said okay. I went to Chicago. . . . I was there for a day. He called
me . . . and said that if I didn’t come back home he was gonna call the
police for child abandonment because I left the state. So I drive