Who's been occupying my e-space?

I’m a bit confused by this idea of women not having a place in the world of technology since so much of my personal experience seems to contradict such an image. I work at a newspaper with a nearly-entire female staff, who all have significant computer experience. I have female friends who are graphic designers, computer programmers, CAD engineers, database operators, video editors and secretaries – who can do powerful, diverse and complicated things with computer hardware and software. (Not to mention being surrounded by women at BGSU who are highly proficient in their knowledge and teaching of technology.)

So, I have to question how this prevailing cultural stereotype connecting men and computers ever started. After all, women have a long, long history using technology especially around the home, so I’m not sure why venturing into the realm of computers should seem so daunting or so foreign. I have spent much of the past year teaching my 68-year-old mother how to use e-mail and Microsoft Word. She is somewhat hesitant about using the computer, often remarking that she does not want to “mess things up” by pushing the wrong button. I try to re-assure her that it just takes practice, and it’s really not much different than if I was learning to use the sewing machine or a double boiler. But the stereotype prevails.

With that said, though, I can understand how there is a desire to create a safe e-space for women’s communication and scholarship. Much of the negative or harmful interactions that take place in society – diminishing or silencing women’s voices – undoubtedly are carried over into cyberspace via technology. Hawisher and Sullivan propose the application of Foucault’s heterotopia onto spaces designed for just such a purpose – “countersites where culture is represented, contested and inverted.” (173). In my other class this semester, we have been reading women’s utopias in various genres (plays, sci-fi novels, etc.) I had not considered the power of a utopia, or heterotopia, created on a web site, and yet it seems highly appropriate especially if one wishes to reach younger generations of women. Sadly, the consensus from class is that the utopias created never seem to achieve the liberation, equality or success for women that they are attempting. But I don’t think that should stop us from trying to create more heterotopias on the Internet! It can only help in breaking down that myth that is preventing women’s voices from being heard in cyberspace.

And what do you think?

As a journalist, I have been sent many times on the dreaded "Man on the Street" assignment (sorry, it's still called that) where you go to a busy streetcorner, mall, post office, etc. and ask various people what they think about an issue. Although sometimes you meet well-informed, articulate people, most often the answers you receive are a clear indication of why higher education still has its work cut out for it in America.

So it is with this cynical attitude that I often approach forums such as public chatrooms, call-in radio shows, etc. Opinions generated so often do not have any research, let alone much thought, behind them. Thus, I was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of postings in the Community Buzz section of BlackPlanet.com. Unlike many social networking sites that include superficial conversation (if not worse), I read some good discussion that took place about weighty issues.

Banks claims that "[such] can happen when students and other writers genuinely do have the right to their own language: they claim the right to speak, take the space to do it, and become invested in doing it thoroughly and effectively, and develop rhetorical savvy" (83). That is exactly what I witnessed on this web site. The Community Buzz section invites readers to post a link to an interesting news story, and then comment on it. Other readers will also read the article and comment on it. (You'd think this was a class assignment!)

The articles ranged from a story on the new black governor of Massachusetts to the top 10 myths about blacks to why black women date men who are "thugs". The responses were filled with words and phrases of African American language, as Banks noted. The interesting and informative postings covered topics such as stereotypes, social identities, political activism, images in advertising, roles of white people and more.

When we hear the call for instructors to encourage their students to be aware of the rhetorical actions taking place via technology, we can be assured that this web site is addressing that need. I would have liked to suggest that composition classes undertake a similar assignment of reading, posting and responding - but it looks like these people are already doing this for fun!