There is a Female Bodyguard theme reoccurring in the narrative circulating around the emerging legend of The Hacker as the Cowboy of the virtual landscape.The female; always connected with the notion of the body, (what Case calls "The Meat"); is problematic is these environments where all bodily contact is either hazardous or just part of a lesser reality than the virtual one; mere RL.

The emerging of the female torpedo, as an icon within the Cyber punk novel, portrays the falling stock of bodily activity and bodily functions. Physical interaction and physical power thus becomes a less attractive prospect to the male, the eternal protagonist who now invests in a landscape where the body, ideally, is void. Hence the increasingly overtake of the physical territory of the female: and just like teacher s wages go down when women enter the profession; and just like real estate prices fall when people of color buy real estate near by: the physical stock falls in value. It is soon to become a quaint source of spectacle: much like agriculture.

This said, the woman s newly found utilitarian position as protector of the man s helpless body as he logs on; does not mean that the woman is free from physical flaws; as she is in great need of alteration and repair. They are not at all unlike their Victorian predecessors in their surgically altered bodies, cut to fit the corsets, nor their more recent silicon-enhanced and Photoshoped counterparts:

Molly of course, has had endless surgery: the most auspicious one being the covering of her eyes by silver shaded glass. They are screens, on which she receives edited information rather than gathering it by seeing. Her own gaze is aborted: ownership and aggression by way of looking still the territory of men.

Ms. Trinity has been upgraded by way of red pills and some RAM-busting downloading: yet she is not "The One": working stiff Keanu Reeves is. Trinity therefor is never heard yelling, "I know Kung Fu!" because her skills are irrelevant. Her main objective is to find a boyfriend: indeed one chosen for this virgin hacker (never seen in front of a keyboard) by no other than Fate itself. This means that no technology; no societal development can alter the task of Trinity or any other females: to function as accessories for the men when they choose to enjoy the virtues of the flesh, the good old one. Ms. Switch is altered too: she is the one individual in the film that doesn t wear all black at all times; and there is a reason for that. Women in popular culture are never friends, but only girl friends, or moms in which case they are dead. Switch therefor is the woman who is not the girl friend of the hero (but of a lesser character in the film), and she must look different as to prevent the audience to get mixed up. There is a reason all of Charlie s Angels have different haircolors.

I believe David Croneberg may be aware of all these things as he makes the world famous Allegra Gibson: genius computer game creator, a bitchy, irrational (You killed my pod! You killed my baby!), least favorite ex-girlfriend of anyone watching. In Croneberg, women are menacing creatures given to sudden and inexplicable body functions, a charicature of a similar if less overt stereotype presented in society at large. That he should make a woman the entryway into a virtual world can only end in distaster, or as in eXistEnce, death for the man. It is exciting. We are disappointed when the genius behind the event we just experienced turns out to be a white male. Where there was transgression there is naught, and Allegra Gibson turns out to be just another girl friend. The twist comes when this girl friend shoots the male genius in the gut and leaves.

In fact, such is the twist behind the real Internet as well. As opposed to the myth of the hacker, the real hacker, or cyber cowboy, may very well be a cowgirl. Gender is effectively bypassed on the web: You never can tell who is behind the online moniker.