Biography

Born 1951, Netherlands

Education as a teacher and programmer; Karin Spaink is an author and has published seven books on various subjects which all have something to do with the transistory object which we call "body": sexuality, health, questionable therapies, cyborgs, etc. She spends up to eight hours a day in the network; as a result of her homepage, she is currently the defendant in a law-sult filed by the Scientology cult.

Quotes

Karin Spaink
Cyborgs

"... the really big trouble with dichotomies is that they're hierarchical. It's mind over matter, culture over nature, male over female - there is always one dominant category. And the dominant one is always the starting point, the touchstone, the norm. It needs no explanation; it is the opposing, non-dominant one that needs description and that deviates from the rule. (...) What constitutes a woman? Dichotomies deal with essential, all-encompassing statements about both their poles. They claim to refer to core characteristics, and force a choice. You can't belong to both poles. (...) Sex and gender had become recursive terminologies. It was on this scene that Haraway's cyborg made her entry. Basically what she said was, Stop it. Don't use this theoretical "us", "women", "females". Let's not talk about categories, or rather, but let's disqualify them. (...) Let's find a new perspective, a being that is both male and female, man and machine, nature and culture, mind and body. (Beast during the weekends, man during the week, and hybrid every day during lunch.) I'll present you some practical examples of what a cyborg might do, think and want." (instalment)