Processed Lives: Gender and Technology in Everyday Life [Paperback]

Melodie Calvert (Editor), Jennifer Terry (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415149320 | ISBN-13: 978-0415149327 | Publication Date: April 3, 1997

Considers how the terms of gender are embodied in technologies, and conversely, how technologies shape our notions of gender. The contributors explore the complex territory between the lust for, and the fear of, technology, commenting on the ambivalence women experience in relation to machines. Discussing topics such as embryonic fertilization, the virtual female, networking women, the sexuality of computers, surveillance systems, UFOs, and the emancipation of Barbie,
rocessed Lives offers a provocative, visually rich critical approach to th multifaceted relationships between masculinity, femininity and machines. Contributors: Barbie Liberation Organization, Ericka Beckman, Lisa Cartwright, Gregg Bordowitz, Sara Diamond, Judith Halberstam, Evelynn Hammonds, Kathy High, David Horn, Ira Livingston, Bonita Makuch, Margaret Morse, Soheir Morsy, Liss Platt, B Ruby Rich, Connie Samaras, Joya Saunders, Julia Scher, Andrea Slane, Mary Ellen Strom, Christime Tamblyn, Nina Wakeford.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Processed Lives focuses on technology's interaction with the social concept of gender. Much of the book deals with the technology of cyberspace--not surprising, given the subtitle's pointed reference to everyday life, which for most people concerned with cyber matters means something to do with the Internet.

For example, the editors chose Nina Wakeford's essay on feminist networking and interaction on the World Wide Web, as well as excerpts from videos produced by teenage girls in a gender and technology workshop. Although the emphasis is on online interactions, all forms of technology are fair game. Judith Halberstam's insights into the effects of public bathrooms on gender views will certainly raise eyebrows as it raises questions.

Other essays take on embryonic fertilization, surveillance systems, UFOs and "the new technologies of race." A group calling itself the Barbie Liberation Organization does some home transplant surgery between G.I. Joe and Barbie that defies easy description.

This collection isn't limited to traditional verbal discussions. Included are visual works by several artists, including Ericka Beckman's images from the film Hiatus and Joyan Saunder's and Liss Platt's excerpts from the experimental videotape Brains on Toast--a satirical examination of theories on gender and sexuality. Don't expect a comfortable resolution at the end, either, but it's long past time for people to be asking the essential question in this book: who actually benefits from technology, and why?

Review

Processed Lives analyzes the interrelations of gender and technology.It considers how the terms of gender are embodied in technologies and, conversely, how technologies shape our notions of gender..
–Bulleti of science, Technology & Society/ October 2000.

Processed Lives...contributes new theoretical and practical insights about the experience and understanding of these technologies.
–Signs, Autumn 1999

...this book offers a provocative, visually rich and playful critical approach to the multifaceted relationships between masculinity, femininity and machines.
–Parachute

Catalog Blurb.
–Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, Oct. 2000

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (April 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415149320
• ISBN-13: 978-0415149327
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,456,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Collection of Cyberfeminist Art + Theory, June 4, 2000

By 

sidney eve matrix - See all my reviews

This review is from: Processed Lives: Gender and Technology in Everyday Life (Paperback)

Twenty-three contributors explore the questions: How exactly do technologies produce bodies (and subjects) that are recognizably raced, gendered and sexualized? How can technology be used to transform cultural conceptions of gender, sexuality, and embodiment? And less explicitly: What do cyberfeminist engagements with technoscientific discourses look like? Volume includes examples (and analysis)of work by female techno-artists creatively interpreting the intersections between desire, the body, science and machines. Notable essays by Margaret Morse and Sara Diamond on virtual gender, and by Lisa Cartwright and Evelynn Hammonds on imaging technologies and the production of racial and gendered norms. Together these artists and theorists consider "the complex territory" between pleasure/desire and fear/suspicion of technoscience and cyberculture from a number of feminist perspectives.