Relationship between Feminism and Technology - Essay Example

In terms of genderization, feminist theories took a turn from studying female accessibility to technology, to examine the processes that developed technology as well as its female constitution. Presently, the feminist outlook on technology and the digital era is positive unlike its counterparts in the 1980s reflecting a marked change in feminist theories of technology.

De Lauretis seems to emphasize the aspect of sexual difference throughout the paper as the concept was a prominent element of feminist writings during the 1960s and 1970s. Sexual difference is the idea that reinforces the differences between male and female, man and woman, as it creates a categorization that is an artifact, not of biology or sociology but of discursive constructs. De Lauretis has pointed out several limitations of the term ‘sexual difference’ which include its restriction on feminist critical thinking and recuperation of radical feminist thought to the bounds of one’s master’s wall (2). Then the author articulates the concept of gender as relating to technology as represented in various forms.

McGraw’s paper on essentially “feminine” technologies explains rather a novel concept of the term from a feminist perspective (13). Here, McGraw explains how certain female possessions such as bras, closets, collars, and bathrooms are “feminist” technologies because of their utility to women. While the word technology may engender necessarily male artifacts, McGraw explains how recognition of such things used predominantly by women will help us understand the technologies that were used previously. This will help us to expand our thinking of technology as not necessarily a piece of gadget that is electronic or digital but that is of use to a particular section of the target users. In turn, this realization will help individuals to understand technology as not only comprising male-oriented objects but merely anything that has been of utility to a section of the populace. This is why they are important because they also seek to point toward the faulty system.

Oldenziel’s paper is a sort of response to McGraw’s stand on feminine technologies (38). Oldenziel talks about masculine technologies and why they are important. Here the paper s focused on cars and automobiles and generally the overt love for cars by boys. Oldenziel explains how their fondness for cars is the result of economic and social constructs characterized by consumerism. Males love cars because of how information has been communicated to them. Such an affiliation between an automobile and a male individual is thus a result of a consumer process that begins from production to marketing to finally consumption. Read More