Gender and Technology Spring 2009

1. what connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked @?

It’s been really interesting seeing the agency of gender. In Metropolis, Maria had a lot of power, and seemed to be the primary motivator of the workers. In The Handmaid’s Tale, it was a society centered around women but no one actually seemed to have any power. And in Watchmen, I wasn’t sure WHAT connections to draw between gender and power; certainly sex was used as a weapon, and sexuality, but I wasn’t sure who was powerful or where that tied into gender.

I think the big thing is that gender and technology are both used as tools in these stories, and that depending on the shape of gender, which technologies are useful, and how they are used, changes. For example, in HmT, the shape of gender says that women shouldn’t use anesthetics for birth; this is just one of the ways in which gender and technology interplay in these stories.

2. how do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?

In terms of gender and technology, I think The Handmaid’s Tale had the biggest impact on me, and it was interesting seeing a society in which the very methodical control of both could wholly paralyze civil liberties. It makes me speculate as to how each attribute can be manipulated in order to affect the other, and demonstrates some rather frightening conclusions.

3. any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of?

I did like the small groups. I actually really liked the dynamic created by splitting up into groups by major, though maybe I just liked my personal group. If we’re to do random groups, I think they should be switched with some regularity. I do question whether Watchmen was really informative for the purposes of gender and technology; though I got more out of it than I expected to., I just believe there are probably other texts more worthwhile. Otherwise, I think things have been great, and it’s been really exciting talking about these works.

4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….)

I’ve had a few issues posting pictures directly to the page recently (as opposed to in a link), but I think I’ll survive – I haven’t looked into it deeply enough to even know if I’m going about it correctly.

1. what connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked @?
i think the biggest connection i’ve seen is the idea of a utopia vs. a dystopia. in the handmaid’s tale, it seems like in order to have a perfect society, humans have to deny themselves of any emotional connection and essentially mechanize themselves into machines. in watchmen, an attempted utopia is only created by wiping out a population of humans. it seems like the idea of a utopia is somehow connected to the idea of blending technology with humanity.
2. how do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?
i think reading the handmaid’s tale was especially interesting and it helped further my understanding of the relations between gender and technology. it was a hypothetical society where women became birthing machines and although it seems extreme and disturbing, it also has some truth in it: for example, women are sometimes seen as solely for reproductive purposes. reading and watching these extreme scenarios helped me understand some of the underlying relations between gender and technology in our own reality.
3. any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of?
i am still happy with having small group work because it helps us flesh out ideas and have discussion more effectively and efficiently.
4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….)
i don’t really have any suggestions. i’m still getting used to using the blog and if you’re unfamiliar with it, it can just be really confusing sometimes, but that’s not necessarily due to the functionality.
5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers?
it’s a little weird for me to post my papers online and receive on-line commentary as well, just because i feel self-conscious about my writing, but it also makes it more informal, which can be nice.

1. What connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked at?
There is always a choice as to how to use something i.e. either in a good way or a bad way (the interpretations of these ways are loose). However, in Metropolis, The Handmaid’s Tale and Watchmen, we see how the misuse of technology, a creation of mankind, can lead to dire problems in maintaining our current way of life. The misuse of technology is the reason why the workers wanted to revolt in Metropolis, why the Republic of Gilead was set up with its laws in The Handmaid’s Tale and why war was a turning into a probability in Watchmen. These dark futuristic or alternate versions of reality could be interpreted as a commentary on the way mankind might be headed. However, there appears to be a possibility of redeeming ourselves or creating a better life at the end of all three so there is the possibility of changing and learning from experiences.

2. How do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?
I see that machines are predominantly used by men in Metropolis and Watchmen and that women, as other people have pointed out, can be considered a technology used by men in The Handmaid’s Tale. I’m not sure what the other relations or significant gender-technology themes are.

3. Any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of?
I’ve enjoyed working in the same small group for a particular topic as we can have deeper conversations on each meeting. I also like that we had groups mixed with each other – it helped the dynamic of the conversation by bringing in other viewpoints.

4. What concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality?
I was wondering if there was a way to view the number of comments we’ve made just like we’re able to see the number of posts we’ve done. Also, it would be helpful if there were more options to format our writing or maybe a link to look up HTML code so that we can format it ourselves.

5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers?
I’ve been able to post and view comments without trouble. I just need to become more regular about it 🙂

1. what connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked @?  The most striking thing to me about each of our imagined spaces is the exaggeration of gender/technology stereotypes or roles in them. In ‘Handmaid’ and ‘Metropolis,’ there were groups of underprivileged people who didn’t have access to the technology for betterment, or were exploited by it.
2. how do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them? I think these play to an inherent fear of technology that some people have, and thinking that the ultimate negative environment is one where technology is the ruling aspect. I’m not saying I don’t agree with this, but it seems relevant that it shows up so often. Technology taking over is like our new Cold War.
3. any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of? I really like the small group work and the few recent writings on the board (even though I know it’s time consuming, I find it very helpful). I would also like some more hands-on stuff, but I have no Idea how that could be worked in.
4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….) I don’t really know enough about it to make a concrete suggestion, but I’m still having trouble with spacing and line breaks. I entered the code manually and it reverted back when I posted. Maybe a more streamlined or explained system of tabs and buttons.
5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers? I like it mainly because it gives me a chance to see the comments before I’ve had my physical paper back. I also like seeing the comments on other people’s papers and reading things I never would have thought of. If our papers are posted online, it definitely makes sense for the comments to be as well.

And… my Meez and Supervillain, Anathema. I never wanted to be a hero; I always wanted to be the misunderstood revenge-bent villain. I made these on different days and I think it’s interesting that, despite how different the styles are, they’re both wearing shades and have raised eyebrows. I guess this is my signature facial expression/setup?

1. what connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked @?

In all the books/movies we have looked at, it seems like we can never reach utopia. One person’s loss is another person’s gain. We can only reach abnormal/impaired utopia, or in other words, dystopia.

2. how do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?

Even though we looked at worlds far different from ours, it seems like gender and technology are very strongly interconnected. It seems like technology can be destructive, if intended, towards gender construction/deconstruction. I noticed how in the books we read like Watchmen and The Handmaid’s tale, women weren’t part of the action much – it revolved mostly around the male characters.
3. any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of?

I really liked the small groups – groups of 4 seem just right to me.
4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….)

I wish we could find our comments more easily, the way we can find our posts. It would be great if, when we click on any person’s name, a list of the comments made by that person showed up along with his/her list of posts. I also wish the ‘Site Admin’ page was more user-friendly.
5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers?

They have been pretty good so far – no bad experiences. 

I did not get much out of this third quarter. I had seen this relationship before and wanted to explore more contemporary connections between gender and technology.  The works did not contribute to my understanding of gender, technology, and the relationships between them.  They just reaffirmed the past, but not the present for me.
3. any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of?

The small groups have been fine, but I would like to do some more hands-on activities. I enjoyed the colorful post-it note one that we did at the beginning of the semester.
4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….)

WordPress has been great, but I wish there was a button on the blog site that said write a post or write a paper. With everything on the page I always get lost trying to find the log in button or admin button to get to wordpress. I wish there was a more direct way.
5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers?

It’s been great! I like having a conservation outside of the classroom via the comments on the posts.

1. What connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked at?

I’ve noticed an emphasis on the relationship that both of these things have to imagined and real political situations. My paper dealt with this in a slightly roundabout way, but each of the three sources seemed preoccupied with the idea of a particular mandated relationship between the two being in some sense fascist, and thus dystopic. This emphasis on political realities (whether it be Reagan’s America, or the Porn Wars, or industrialization and militarization) makes it clear that the context in which gender and technology are considered together is primarily the context of power and politics.

 
2. How do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?

I suppose they contribute in the sense that they make clear what I articulated in the previous question. More easily consumed than academic writing, they provide an imaginative window into the concepts which we have been studying all semester. In content as well as in form they streamline ideas which have been percolating all semester.

read more…

1. what connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked @?

In every one of the media we looked at, a society is featured that is utopic in appearance, but otherwise is a dystopia for those trapped within it. I felt that this was interesting, because it almost implies that the workings or combinations of gender/humanity and technology lead ultimately to dystopia. I’m not entirely sure that should be the message of this section…

I’ve also noticed that with some works, the question of keeping “true to the source” is often less important than making a movie that will sell in Hollywood. As a result, the roles of women and men tend towards the more stereotypical.

2. how do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?

As noted above, I feel that just looking at the examples we watched or read in class, we can infer that many people believe that the influence of technology is destructive, especially when it is closely linked to humans.

3. any other feedback about how the class has been working the past three weeks, w/ all the small group work we’ve been doing? are there other things you’d like to be doing in class that we haven’t done yet, or that you’d like to do more of?

I have enjoyed the small groups, because I feel that often in a large group discussion (or even with the panels) that people get lost in the conversation, and therefore not everyone can speak. I do feel that meeting in small groups and then forming back into the whole class to discuss the conclusions is important, though.

4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….)

The organizing of pictures around words is especially difficult when trying to include a caption along with a picture. Other than these issues with resizing and moving (which are more an annoyance than a problem), I’ve enjoyed using WordPress.

5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers?

It’s very satisfying to post papers and have them be right there for easy access. I’ve really enjoyed the online feedback, and the fact that my friends who are interested in these topics can read mine and others’ papers.