Justine Cassell has written a short essay available here arguing that fears such as those about girls using social networking sites arise “in part because people are fearful of women becoming empowered as technology users and producers.” She writes:
There are, of course, equivalent moral panics about boys and technology (boys taking cues from violent video games and planning attacks on classmates, for instance); these panics tend to paint boys as aggressors and victimizers rather than victims. The stories about boys focus on their power and the damage they can cause to society. The stories about girls focus on their weakness and the damage that society can cause to them.
She also posted another essay here talking about the disjuncture between the fact that girls use many computer technologies even more heavily than boys, but are far less likely than boys to pursue careers in the computer sciences.
Both essays via aTypical Joe, who writes:
When I chose television production as a career in the early 80s, I was under the very mistaken impression that it would be a gay-friendly occupation. All those sensitive portrayals on-screen did not translate into sensitive understanding off-screen from the production crew.
I took to saying then (and please forgive me my stereotyping based only on my experience from way back when; I’m thinking it’s changed since) that the television production culture was more akin to the car-mechanic culture; and as such equally pin-up, macho and male.
Now I’d say that goes doubly so for IT. Ask me nicely and I might explain why one day. Suffice it to say now that I think IT has a lot to learn and could benefit greatly from taking on some of the ways of the library (a historically female occupation I hasten to add).
–Ann Bartow
