Narrative #3: “The Un-gendered Utopia” and “The Same Old Gender Stuff”

My group did our analysis on page 305-309. Through out the entire section there was one underlying idea that Cynthia Selfe was trying to get across. This was the idea that today we look at technology as creating a society in which gender has no affect on what you are able to do and how you are treated, but in reality technology is just reinforcing old traditional beliefs on gender roles. In each paragraph Selfe uses examples of where in our lives today technology reinforces the traditional roles. Many examples are such that of commercials showing men using and building computers. Others are commercials showing men using computers and TVs and the women and children just watching the man. These examples show that even though the idea is to create a genderless society with technology, even our commercials are reinforcing the previous gender roles, not eliminating them.

In Cynthia Selfe’s essay she states “Men use technology to accomplish things; women benefit from technology to enhance the ease of their lives or to benefit their families” (p. 308). With this statement Selfe is making the conclusion that men have personal and work related uses for technology, where women only use technology to make things easier in their life, or improve the lives of their family. I will readily agree with this statement due to its relevance in my own family’s lives. Using computers as the example in my home, my father uses a laptop for a multitude of things. First being managing his business, second, and consuming probably just as much time or more, is his personal uses. Whether it is watching YouTube videos of motorcycle races or researching our next ride location, it is for personal use. On the contrary, my mother uses her laptop strictly to save her time with her work so that she has more time to complete tasks at home. This shows that in my life technology is used for two different reasons between two different genders. Not only do my parents have different uses for their laptops, but the fact that my father, who had very little reason for a new computer, got one before my mother, who had a lot of reasons why she needed her own computer, also shows the role that gender has in the uses of technology.