hello world!

Hi, I’m Solomon Lutze, sophomore at Haverford College. I’m going to preface this by saying that I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out a pseudonym before I decided that I really don’t expect to need to insulate myself from anything I say here. Watch me accidentally say something inflammatory in this very post to destroy this illusion.

Things that drew me to this class. The only class I’ve had so far where gender was an explicit and important topic was my writing seminar last spring, which focused on the history of black women in the U.S. Our teacher talked about how “history” often meant “white men’s history,” “black history” meant “black men’s history,” and “women’s history” meant “white women’s history.” It was fascinating to me, and more than a little embarrassing when I realized that I’d just taken what I was fed in history classes without really questioning the roles of non-whites or non-males, let alone any of the other important groups (I’d start trying to name them but I’d feel bad about any I left out). I feel like a lot of what I’ve learned about technology has probably been from a male perspective whether I’ve known it or not, and it would be interesting to see it in a different light.

I’m a computer science major, mostly because I like computers. More generally, however, I’m very interested in technology as a whole. It has always seemed to me to be a very natural extension of humanity. Technology as a way that people define themselves, or technology being used to help people create an image of themselves that they like, fascinates me, and I’m excited to see how this class can illuminate those subjects.

So, I suppose to summarize, my questions are: What impact has gender had on the way technology has been developed? How do we consider technology a part of gender today? How do we establish our gender using technology? How does the internet affect our perception of ourselves as gendered human beings, and of both genders and sexes?

I’m sure there are other questions I have, and I’m sure I’ll come up with more. Generally, I’m excited for this class because the two subjects in its title are both subjects that are really interesting to me, and I look forward to working with all of you.