1. what connections have you seen among all the imaginative representations of gender and technology that we’ve looked @?
Metropolis, The Handmaid’s Tale and Watchmen are actually more different than I thought they would be going in. They all seemed vaguely “sci fi,” but they are really different. What they have in common is how important the technology of the medium and the genre is in constructing representations of gender. The technical elements were all just as important, if not more so, as the actual content and narrative.
2. how do these works contribute to your understandings of gender, technology or the relations between them?
I liked the “what if?” component in each of the works. The worlds represented were all very different from our own, and some elements of gender were very different, but some were surprisingly similar. Especially in Watchment, I found that gender relations weren’t that different even though capes and masks were involved. It highlighted for me how ingrained some aspects of gender are, when different technologies which exist in the world portrayed don’t make that much of a difference.
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 way the small groups have been working. I’ve worked with some new people and some people I knew well already, which is a good mix, and I like the repetition of the same groups. It helps keep the conversations somewhat consistent.
4. what concrete suggestions do you have in particular about wordpress functionality? (Laura and Anne have started a log here….)
The only thing that’s been annoying me is how when we log in, it goes to the admin page, and then we have to go back to the main site and get back to where we were. But I guess I could just log in as soon as I get to the blog and that wouldn’t be such a big problem.
5. what has your experience been with posting and receiving on-line commentary on your papers?
I’m not sure if I’m supposed to respond, like treat it as a comment on a blog post? The comments online have been helpful, but I just don’t know if I’m supposed to take it the same way I would comments written at the end of a paper I turned in, if that makes sense.
So I was just minding my own business and biding my time until work when I found an article about a robot named Adam which supposedly just made the first autonomous scientific discovery by a robot. While I don’t have the time to percolate over the meaning of it all, I thought that I’d post this up here and see what other people think. This is an article on the robot on Lab Spaces and this is a webpage on the BBSRC (“Bioscience for the future.”) site where it actually shows the robot in a video and pictures. I found it particularly interesting to note that I had to go through a series of sites with pictures of humanoid robots before I actually got to see the real Adam. For example, this one on Gizmodo. Also, the next scientific robot that they want to make will be called Eve.
I’ve created some virtual versions of myself in preparation for class on Monday. I hope you will do the same. Think about how you would like to represent yourself to the class. Here are some places where you can make virtual versions of yourself. To save them, you can take a screen shot. On a mac, I use the Grab utility and take a selection. If someone has PC instructions for capturing a selection, that would be great.
Places to make these:
- Meez
- Create your own superhero
- Doppelme
- Simpson you
- Abi-station (I used to use this for everything!)
- A video with even more options
1) I suppose the connection I viewed first was the ambiguity of the future of technology and gender’s relationship. All four representations had an open ending for the reader/audience which does give a sense of possibility in that the interaction between gender and technology can be extended further. Also, some divisions of technology seem to be the cause of a dystopia for a lot of the works. I see a parallel with this in today’s world, our love-hate relationship with it and our frustrations when technology doesn’t work…to the extent that it is a big disappointment.
2) Before this section we had really only spoke about the contributions of technology to life and even specific persons’ lives. I think this section really showed the limits of those contributions and the lack thereof…technology was the villain in this section and I liked this different view since the world we live in is predominantly technology positive.
3) I really enjoyed working with different people in small groups and then sharing those thoughts with the rest of the class. The exercises within the groups were great too…everything seemed to have something rich to contribute. I particularly like when we get into groups where everyone has something in common like when we split up into major groups or favorite watchmen character.
4) I seem to only be able to post by logging out and then logging in again. It would be nice if there was a button where I could just add a post directly.
5) So far posting has been very easy and viewing the comments have gone well.
As we were talking about the “take-home” message of watchmen on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but get frustrated. It seems there are so many conflicting ideas. When I finally get a grasp on what I think Moore is saying, there’s always an instance that negates it. It seems like an endless cycle of hope and despair. And then I got frustrated with myself for thinking so hard. Can’t I just read a graphic novel for fun? Pretty pictures are always nice to accompany text…I didn’t expect to be thinking so hard about a comic book (which does grant my respect to them).
I suppose my overall opinion of watchmen is that it takes itself too seriously. Shouting images of violence, hate, and prejudice at me through the pages does not make me want to think harder about the blood that is out of those pages around me. Humanity is rough enough as it is without adding more roughness in the pages of an illustrated novel. I think I would have liked watchmen a little more if there was a disclaimer written before the text…almost like Mark Twain’s prologue in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
NOTICE
PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance
This notice makes me want to dig deeper into the text just because I’m told not to. This must mean that I can take away very rish messages from the text. Just the title WATCHMEN and the bright yellow cover art grabs my eye like a biohazard sign that I should take caution around. I know Huck Finn is very different from watchmen but the take home message from me to Moore is just to be subtle.
Zuska pointed to a book that accompanied an exhibit of technology used in the home and office that affected gender norms or otherwise served to maintain them. It’s called Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office
I saw that Sarah posted a site that explores gender in contemporary ads. There are some really interesting ads there. As someone who skips through ads on tv and who doesn’t read a lot of “women’s” magazines, I am missing the message that many of these ads send. Often when I see one, I’m particularly taken aback. I have been known to write companies that have offensive or even just stereotypical ads. 🙂
In class today there was some talk about the difference between erotic, or simply attractive, poses for males and females. While doing research for my last paper about the male gaze I came across this very interesting web essay that actually compares images of women and men in typical advertisement poses. The essay itself focuses mostly on the way that females are posed in relation to the viewer of the ad, and what part of the woman the camera may be focusing on or emphasizing. But the essay also makes a point about the difference that exists between the way men and women are portrayed, and the images of men in poses that are typically female, semi-erotic ones were very striking to me.
If the topic of representation in advertising is interesting to you, I would recommend the site Gender Ads. This site has compiled many images from advertising of both males and females, and put them in categories to analyze the portrayal of the genders. It is worth noting that there is a lot more on there about the sexualization of females than the sexualization of males, and this goes back to a question that I think was asked today but never really answered. How are males sexualized by images in the media? What portrayal of men is erotic? Is it the Fabio image that Sugar Spice wrote about a good example of this? (personally, I have always found this Fabio image to be ridiculous and not at all sexy, but that’s just my opinion.) It seems like everyone always talks about representation of females, and while I think this happens because there is just a lot more sexualization of females than males in mainstream images, there is still a lot that could be said about the sexualization of males.
Rosie the Riveter’s experiences,
replayed in today’s economic climate
(this piece is by a BMC alum….)
While we were discussing the “comic book for women” thing in class today, I thought of a comic book I’d 
read over the summer called, “Birds of Prey.” Birds of Prey takes place in DC’s Batman universe and revolves around three of DC’s lesser known females, Black Canary, Oracle, and Huntress.
The reason I’d recommend this for anyone who takes this class and is a fan of comic books, is that it’s an interesting blend of action and interpersonal relationships (very few of which are actually romantic). The clashing of the opinions of the two main females Dinah (Canary) and Barbara (Oracle) is according to the creator, Dixon: “Oracle … is very “means to an end” oriented. She sees that sometimes you have to kill to save lives. She’s not comfortable with that but accepts it… That pragmatic aspect of Babs’ character, contrasted with Dinah’s more idealistic approach, is at the heart of this book.”
Also, Oracle remains one of my favorite DC females. Formerly known as Batgirl, a “run-in” with Joker left her paralyzed, in a wheel-chair, and unable to interact with much of the outside. Instead of crumbling, she took up the job of Oracle and became the coordinator for superheroes, becoming a “net goddess,” if you will.
I enjoy this comic series, and am always willing to talk about it with anyone interested.
Note: I firmly recommend NOT watching the discontinued TV series of the same name.
Notes on what actually happened on day 19
Weeks ago, hlin told us about the practice of foot-binding.
This morning I came across this image of Rancho boots that reminded me instantly of this old practice:
Although it has been reported that
“Special Shoes For Bound-feet Women Now A Thing Of The Past, seems…
not so.
Also turning up in this morning’s Times was a discussion about the difficulties of creating artificial intelligence, which ends
although it eventually may be possible to design sophisticated computing devices that imitate what we do, the capability to make such a device is already here. All you need is a fertile man and woman with the resources to nurture their child to adulthood. With luck, by 2030 you’ll have a full-grown, college-educated, walking petabyte. A drawback is that it may be difficult to get this computing device to do what you ask.
So tell me: why build an artificial brain? Is it in order to get something more malleable or capable than what we already have?
Anne says she disliked the novel, but that it provided a rich opportunity for analysis and that what she really wants to understand why “you” (the students) like things like this. It is a great opportunity to think about the relationship between the media and the message.
What are the expectations of the graphic novel? What does it do/how does it manipulate our experience?
What is the relationship between gender and technology in this novel and of the medium itself?
(I’m reacting to that from the perspective of comics written for girls–horrible).
How is the book about adolescence or speak to adolescence?
The layering of the narration–critiquing the story as it tells it.
We look at the example of the second page of Chapter 3. The news vendor speaks while the story of from the comic book “plays” in the background or in parallel. There are 3 levels. The comic book, the boy reading the comic, we are reading the comic that the comic appears in. We have our heads buried in our own fictions. The Watchmen is asking us to simply be conscious of that. Also complicated by the book is the sense of what’s right and wrong.
How to read a graphic novel according to Sally Jupiter?
I’m in eroticized graphic novels. These should be read in the moment, in the context of what’s going on in the world. I’m very nostalgic about the past, but I also censor it. I’m frustrated with the apathy of today’s youth.
According to the Silk Spectre:
Attend to the relationship between characters.
According to Moloch:
The novel might trick you into believing things. Don’t trust everything that you read. Enjoy your youth while it lasts.
According to Dr. Manhatten:
This book is not my concern. I’m very self-centered. I’m the ultimate male adolescent fantasy. The book is my biography and it’s the way the I really see the world. The shifts in time and place are what my life is made of.
As the psychologist:
I was deeply engaged in attempting to uncover the many layers of violence and perversion. I was interested in its harsh take on masculine perversion. The quest to “fix” the text only makes us more obsessive.
Ozymandias:
The text is too sentimental. The book is a cautionary tale. It wrongly emphasized the impact of individuals. I’m dismissive unless you can make money off of the form.
Comedian:
I wouldn’t suggest reading the book. It’s another form of trying to escape a reality that we refuse to accept. There is no point to reading the book. We’re just going to repeat our mistakes.
Night Owl/Dan:
Secret love of comic books. There is some good left in the world. Sometimes you need to indulge your inner adolescent/child.
Rorschach:
Reading the novel is a distraction.
Where does self reflexivity take us? Half the characters tell us not to read the novel. What are the characters fighting for? If Rorschach and the Comedian don’t believe there is some good in the world, then why do they fight? Is Rorschach’s view of the world, that there is a right and wrong and that wrong should be punish, the message of the book? Does this book empower you, give you a way to write your own story? The ending is not black and white. Who wins? The presence of so many perspectives prevents you from identifying with any one character.
We lack control over the process of changing the world.
Alexandra just led me to a 2003 book of Andy Clark’s called Natural-Born Cyborgs,which is MORE than relevant to our various linked projects. Some passages from the introduction appeared in a short piece published in Edge: The Third Culture.
OMG. I have to credit Feministing the blog because it’s made of WIN. Absolute win. Especially for linking to THIS.
Which brings up an important question about gender and technology. If in a public forum one cannot name genitals as what they are, what’s the use of having them in the first place? It kind of reminds me of Gilead with the “shapeless dress” type thing and a bit about watchmen. What was most interesting about Watchmen was the directness with which things like rape and “downstairs” were addressed. I think we joked in class about the whole “night owl can’t get it up without help from a superhero costume” bit, but it was a frank discussion of things that are often glossed over. Gross? Perhaps. Vulgar? Possibly. Honest? Hell yes. Perhaps conversations about genitals would prevent things like… say misunderstandings? Majority of Women have a vagina. Majority of Men have a penis (if they have more than one, I don’t want to know). Is that so hard to say?
