Reading Response #6
I have always believed in the power of technology to lead our society in the right direction. I accept, even hope that there will always be change, knowing change is essential to growth, and I understand when I see resistance to change, as beliefs and comfort zones give people a sense of stability.

The book Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies: A Review
addresses this issue, and more. Chapter 16 Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution Images of Technology and the Nature of Change: by Cynthia Selfe states, “we remain decidedly undecided about technology and change…we fear the effects of technology, and the potent changes that it introduces into familiar systems.” “Because our culture subscribes to several powerful narratives that link technological progress closely with social progress, it is easy for us – for Americans, in particular – to believe that technological change leads to productive social change.” She focuses the issue further by adding, “…existing social forces actually work to resist change in connection with technology; how they support the status quo when technology threatens to disrupt the world in any meaningful way.” So now, according to Selfe, it is because of these narratives that I believe technology leads to productive social changes.

The powerful narratives she discusses in this chapter are:
The Global Village and the Electronic Colony.
The Land of Equal Opportunity and the Land of Difference and,
The Un-gendered Utopia and the Same Old Gendered Stuff.

Because the first two narratives are written as support for the third and the subject of the third narrative it is the focus of this chapter of the book in Part III: Ethical and Feminist Concerns in an Electronic World, it seems appropriate to give a closer consideration to the narrative of The Un-gendered Utopia and the Same Old Gendered Stuff. This narrative is the belief that computers, and computer technology is gender blind, allowing students the same opportunities regardless of gender. Selfe quotes a study showing “Computer games are still designed for boys; computer commercials are still aimed mainly at males; computing environments are still constructed by and for males.” I have to admit, I hadn’t realized the truth in this observation because it fit a familiar and comfortable narrative.

I believe she allows her biases to overcome her reason when she opines, “we might have to learn how to understand people outside of the limited gender roles that we have constructed for them in this country, that we may have to abandon the ways in which we have traditionally differentiated between men’s work and women’s work in the market place, that we may have to provide men and women with equitable remuneration for comparable jobs, that we may have to learn to function within new global contexts that acknowledge women as Heads of state as well as heads of households.” She reveals her own limitations in the third person when she writes, “we find ourselves as a culture ill equipped to cope with the changes that this Un-gendered Utopia narrative necessitates.”

When a highly educated writer uses inflammatory language such as, “It takes energy and careful thinking to create a landscape in which women can participate in roles other than those of seductress, beauty, or mother; and in which men don’t have to be bikers, or abusers, or rabid techno geeks, or violent sex maniacs.” I am offended that someone would believe these limits of men or women exist, and the society I live in does not believe this. If a woman believes she can’t participate in a role other than seductress, beauty, or mother, she needs help, she is not healthy, and it is not a cultural problem. I admit to being a biker, I have no problem with it. I am not an abuser, I am not a rabid techno geek, I am not a violent sex maniac. I have never had the slightest urge to be, or in Cynthia Selfe’s words, “have to be” any of these things.

Her bias and intention was apparent upon my first reading of this text. I was shocked and offended by her misandry. I was surprised by the anachronistic views of an educated person (even for a 10 year old book). When she quoted Andrea Dworkin I was reminded of her feminist mindset, “All personal, psychological, social, and institutionalized domination on this earth can be traced back to its source: the phallic identities of men.” Cynthia Selfe’s description of herself is revealing, Nomadic Feminist Cyborg Guerilla.

The countering strategy I used was Arguing the Other Side. I believe her biases overcome her reason in her vision of gender inequality and gender roles. I also used Uncovering Values in researching and defining values that were undisclosed and undefined.