Digital Culture and Sociology

1. Digital Culture and Sociology Geeks and Girls DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

2. about today • Wajcman, Judy. 1991. Feminism Confronts Technology. Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press. • Cyberfeminism • Borsook, Paulina. 2000. Cyberselfish. A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian World of High-Tech. London: Little, Brown and Company. • SEMINAR: Misbehaving discussion girls geeks DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

3. mapping the field critique of science critique of technology cyberfeminism gender problems DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

4. The world's first electronic digital computer was developed by Army Ordnance to compute World War II ballistic firing tables. (1947) Eniac computer DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

5. NEO- I thought you were a guy TRINITY- Most guys do The Matrix I DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

6. feminist STS Wajcman • Debate on Science (older, more developed) / Debate on Technology (first steps) • Evolution: • Discovering hidden women • Why women haven’t accessed those fields • How to gain access (neutral view) • Questioning S or T • Is a feminist S or T possible? DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

7. feminist STS Wajcman A QUESTION: What is it like being a girl at ITU? (19, 22) • Scientific knowledge as patriarcal knowledge (5) • The woman and nature discourse (6) • What are “feminist” values? What is “nature”? (9) • If women were in control, what would happen to technology? (13) • Not only production of technology interesting, also use, consumption, etc. (24) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

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9. background: cyberfeminism • Unified, essentialist identity (Enlightment) is problematized (Hall) • “The invention of homosexuality”, an identity that came into being at a particular time (Foucault) • Discourse not only describes but also defines(Foucault) • Cyborg Manifesto. Vs binary thinking and epistemology: animal/human, organism/machine, idealism/materialism. Tecnology fundamental. (Haraway) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

10. cyberfeminism Bell (reader) “As a concept, it covers feminist simulations of technology, most literally through debates about power, identity and autonomy and the role of new technologies in the transformation of these characteristics. It thus considers the role of women in new technological industries such as the World Wide Web and the Internet.” (285) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

11. some cyberfeminist theorists • Sadie Plant- Similarities between CMC and female consciousness (webs of difference), transcendent female subjectivity • Claudia Springer- cyberfeminism is not liberatory, hardwired/phallic women don’t change culture. Rejected love = violence • Nina Wakeford- Internet as playful, free space, renegotiate identity, performance, no male technophobia DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

12. gender in cyberculture Bell MAIN QUESTION: Can cyberspace create a new space for rewiring the gender- technology relationship? • IT yet another area where women are excluded • Lack of access to technology and machine skill: ineptitude • Cyberspace as unsafe place • Difference between “online feminism” (furthers RL) and “online cyberfeminism” (engages with technology itself, nerd/geeks, grrrrrls, replicunts, viral readings) i.e. Plant DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

13. Problems of cyberfeminism • Too often techno-female representations reinstate stereotypical genderings (Springer) • Virtual environments and gender bending, steterotypical role models • Distance from RL identity seen as dishonest: “Julie” (Stone) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

14. Gender Turing test - What do you do when you are really angry? I AM- M / F (male /female) I POSE AS- M / F (male /female) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

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16. geek ideology Borsook Revenge of the nerds?What is a nerd? Are you? • hacker definition (p. 90) • simplistic view of state (p. 93) • philosophy connections (p. 97) • sexuality: nerverts (p. 100) • dehumanized view on life (p. 110) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

17. misbehaving "Well-behaved women seldom make history." --Laurel Thatcher Ulrich misbehaving.net is a weblog about women and technology. It's a celebration of women's contributions to computing; a place to spotlight women's contributions as well point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca

18. complementary bibliography • BUTLER, J. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. • PLANT, Sadie. 2000. “On the matrix: cyberfeminist simulations”. In Bell, David / Kennedy M. Barbara. The Cybercultures Reader. London: Routledge. • SPRINGER, C. 1996. Electronic Eros: bodies and desire in the postindustrial age. London: Athlone. • SPRINGER, C. 2000. “Digital Rage”. In Bell, David / Kennedy M. Barbara. The Cybercultures Reader. London: Routledge. • STONE, A.R. 1995. The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. • WAKEFORD, N. 2000. “Networking women and grrrls with information / communication technology: surfing tales of the www”. In Bell, David / Kennedy M. Barbara. The Cybercultures Reader. London: Routledge. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 10 – Susana Tosca