Loosen your bra straps and take a deep breath-you're about to embark on the most sumptuous, estrogenic journey ever taken through online culture. Thousands of smart, opulent, and entertaining salons await you in cyberspace, and this book will escort you to the best of them. On your way, you'll meet some of the sharpest, baddest, raciest Net Chicks who've helped shape the feminine energy now flooding the Internet.
Last spring, I finally got my very own connection to the World Wide Web, the booming new region of Cyberland, where people combine bright pictures, sounds, videos, and text to create their own virtual playgrounds that the rest of us can visit. Up until then, my only means of getting on the Web was by nudging one of the Wired folks (the magazine was upstairs from my office) to scooch away from their desk for a few secs while I checked something out. I was extremely anxious to surf the Web from my own turf and anticipated a whole slew of vibrant electronic pages that would bring me the latest on everything that interested me: new zines, fashion, gossip, the latest in health news, book reviews, astrology, travel ideas, women's issues, Melrose Place updates . . . but first I needed some hints as to where the most happening Webspots were. So I scurried down to a well-stocked bookstore and asked the nerdiest looking clerk if he could recommend the best Internet guidebook for chicks. "For chicks?" he asked, with a dumbfounded stare. He suddenly became irritated, as if I were challenging him with a preposterous request. He didn't think there were enough girls online to warrant such a book, but he was sure I'd find something suitable in their large selection of Net books.
Not enough girls online? This guy was obviously clueless. First of all, I had just heard a statistic that said America Online and Prodigy each had close to 40 percent female membership. That would mean almost two million women using those two services alone. And, even if I hadn't been informed of the numbers, I knew that at least half of my friends were now online, and most of the women I admired-and there are a lot of them-were pioneer grrrls on the Net.
While leafing through the store's three jam-packed shelves of Internet guides, none of which pointed to intelligent or glamorous grrrly Websites, a thick steam began to ooze out of my pores. How dare that nerdboy think there weren't enough of us chicks interested in the Net. And how dare he be right about the merchandise: I couldn't find one book, out of what looked like hundreds, that pointed to anything I would have found in Sassy or Mirabella. Totally deflated, I went home and halfheartedly decided to see what I could find on my own. At least I could expect some cool stuff on music and comix-I had already visited those types of sites via others' modems. After looking up words like travel and art in the various search engines and finding a couple of semi-amusing pages, I remembered an email message I'd received from an Australian woman, Rosie Cross, with whom I had been corresponding for some time. In the note she had told me about a Webzine she was starting called geekgirl. My stomach fluttered while I quickly rummaged through my old e-letters. I was psyched to find not only geekgirl's address but also some information about another online magazine called Urban Desires.
I thought about the discouraging words that bookstore dweeb had spewed as I tapped the long Web URL into its proper space. But before I had time to glower over his rotten-ass assumption, I was looking at an adorably femme screen full of women talking about cyberfeminism, overcoming computer phobia, and the empowering feel of a modem, and even an interview with alien-abduction Schwa artist (and friend) Bill Barker, who mentioned my zine, bOING bOING, in his conversation. That did it. I was hooked. After geekgirl, I moseyed on over to Urban Desires, and the vivacity emanating from their pages almost knocked me over. Wow! So much color and fashion and mod humor and inspiring articles. The best thing about Desires is that it goes on forever-I don't think I ever have read the whole thing.
Like any cool Website, Urban Desires links you to other happening spots, which link you to even more hip stops. By following this domino trail, I came across a bunch of women's "Personal Home Pages," Websites created by chicks who use the space to share their photos, memoirs, gossip, likes and dislikes, art, and favorite links. Nosy by nature, I loved these personal sites the most.
I'm not sure what led to what, but within a matter of months I had the equivalent of an address book's worth of Websites saved in my Netscape program. Was I the only one who had garnered such a large collection of grrrlish URLs? And with so many over-the-edge chicks creating lavish parlors on the Net, and even more hip women just surfing for the gems, as I was, shouldn't we all know how to find each other? Most importantly, who were these bold, brazen women staking a claim in cyberspace? I wanted to find out.
Hence Net Chick, the only guide to stylish, post-feminist, modem grrrl culture.