Abstract
As we live in a culture where “everything can be commodified, measured and calculated and can be put in the competitive market for sale, detached from its roots and purpose,” there is need to redefine our humanness in terms of the changing nature of science, technology, and their deeper impact on human life. More than anything else, it is Information Technology that now has tremendous influence on all spheres of our life, and in a sense, IT has become the destiny of our life. And this is where the real trauma lies. On the one hand, our being in the cyberspace opens up new and exciting horizons before us; on the other hand, we ourselves are changed and transformed in the process. The virtual world transforms human users to a problem-solver technocrat. The speed at which Information Technology is changing the way that youth around the world are socializing, playing, and researching, it is the common practice now for a 15-year old to go home and update their MySpace page, followed by playing online games, or looking up the new trendy YouTube video. These forms of technology are often the topic of adolescent conversations as YouTube, blogs, e-magazines, Face book, MySpace, iPhones, and iPods dominate the commercial and social networking market. Some researchers refer to this phenomenon as ubiquitous technology drawing attention to the fact that ubiquitous technology acknowledges the speedy adoption of day-to-day use of technology as a global phenomenon. In this background, this article aims at revisiting the question, “What is to be human in the era of Ubiquitous Technology?” From a feminist perspective, one can still redefine the boundaries between femininity and masculinity in the context of IT and its impact on our lifestyle and thought style. While examining the ways in which our definitions of “woman” and “man” are shifting in this new communication environment, Elizabeth Lane Lawley observes that we cannot fix a single center from which the experiences of women with computer and communication systems can be viewed and that such fixity would only serve to deepen inequities rather than exposing and removing them. She finally submits, “It is possible to use new theoretical perspectives on the shifting boundaries of gender definitions to rethink a previously deterministic view of the effect of new technologies on society, and particularly the effect of those technologies on women. While the gradual absence of the subject from the field of Artificial Intelligence leads to the invisibility of feminine care along with social and relational nature of man, some feminists dismiss the biological sex distinction on such issues and encourage females to ‘imitate man’ and to become more aggressive, assertive and dominating” (Lawley 1993). What are the possible impacts of this new technology on the so-called feminine traits of our human nature? How far our definitions of “woman” and “man” are shifting in this new communication environment? This is what this article seeks to explore.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alcoff LM (2005) The metaphysics of sex and gender. In: Feminist interventions in ethics and politics. Rowman and Littlefield, USA
Bhasin K, Nighat SK (1994) Some questions on feminism & its relevance in South Asia. Kali for women, Delhi, pp 4–8
Boden M (1970) Artificial intelligence and natural man. Basic, New York, pp 463–483
Brosnan M (1998) Technophobia. The psychological impact of information technology. Routledge, New York
Butler J (1990) Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge, New York
Chatterjee P (1990) The nationalist resolution of the women’s question. In: Recasting women: essays in colonial history. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, pp 233–253
Chaudhuri M (2005) Feminism in India. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6475354/Feminism_in_India
Derrick J, Myna T (2011) Video games and violence. Online available. http://www.socsci.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/stpp4C03/ClassEssay/videogames.htm. Last retrieved March 2011
Durrant W (1935) Story of civilization: our oriental heritage. MJF Books, p 401
Gomez R (2000) The hall of mirrors: the internet in Latin America. Curr Hist 99(634):72–90
Green L (2002) Communication, technology and society. Routlege, London, pp 171–190
Harraway D (1991) A cyborg manifesto: science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century. In: Simians, cyborgs and women: the reinvention of nature
Harding S (1986) The science question in feminism. Cornell University Press
Hooks B (1989) Talking back: thinking feminist, thinking black. South End Press, Rowman and Littlefield, USA
Jaggar A (2001) Feminist Ethics. In: Encyclopedia of ethics, vol 2/e. Routledge, New York, pp 528–539
Johnson V (2010) Women and the internet: a micro study in Chennai, India. Indian J Gend Stud 17:151–163
Keller EF (1985) Reflections on gender and science. Yale UP, New Haven
Lawley EL (1993) Computers and the communication of gender. Available online at http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html. Last consulted 12 May 2011
McDermott RF, Kripal JJ (2003) Encountering Kali: in the margins, at the center, in the West. University of California Press, Los Angeles
Nayar P (2004) Virtual worlds and politics in the age of cyber technology. Sage Publications, New Delhi, pp 280–281
Nicholas FG (1997) The yogi and the goddess. Int J Hindu Stud 1:2
Perry R, Greber L (1990) Women and computers: an introduction. Signs J Women Culture Soc 16(1):74–101
Roszak T (1994) The cult of information. Berkeley U. Berkeley, Berkeley, p 233
Spivak GC (2007) Moving devi. In: Other Asias. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 195–197
Status of Wonmr, Status of women in indian society: a socio-historical perspective. Online www.jstor.org/stable/3516124. Retrieved November 2011
Stepulevage L (1999) A technologist in the making: days in a girl’s life. Inform Comm Soc 2(4):399–418
Sugirtharajah S (2002) Hinduism and feminism: some concerns. J Fem Stud Relig 18(2):97(8)
Tamborini R, Eastin MS, Shalski P, Lachlan K, Fediuk TA, Brady R (2004) Violent virtual video games and hostile thoughts. J Broadcast Electron Media 48:335
Turckle S (1988) Artificial intelligence and psychoanalysis: a new alliance. Daedalus 17(1)
Turckle S, Papert S (1990) From hard drive to software: gender, computers, and difference. Signs 16(1):128–129
Ute F (1995) Men of honor: a social and cultural history of the duel. Cambridge
Valentine E (2009) Gender differences in learning and achievement in mathematics, science and technology and strategies for equity: a literature review. In: Psychological foundations of education for pre-service teachers EDCI 4124, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Wajcanon J (1991) Feminism confronts technology. Polity Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Barua, A., Barua, A. Gendering the digital body: women and computers. AI & Soc 27, 465–477 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-012-0371-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-012-0371-9