This essay assignment asks that you research a specific technology or technological process (past or present) and make an analytical argument regarding its relationship to gender and society.
Topics: Bloomers
This is not a book report. Be selective about the descriptive information you include and provide citations for all such information. The bulk of the essay should be composed of your analysis of the way in which a specific technology evidences and interacts with gender in society.
Through the course of analysis, your essay must perform the following:
- Define what makes your object of study “technology” if it may not be traditionally conceived of as such.
- Employ two or more key concepts to frame your argument, including but not limited to gender, feminism, patriarchy, assigned sex, biological determinism, social construction, femininity, masculinity, transgenderism, intersexuality, intersectionality, work, reproductive labor, the feminization of labor, sexuality, data feminism, algorithmic sexism/harm, online governance, sex work, performativity, etc.
- Provide relevant historical context (cultural, economic, political) that structure the emergence of this technology.
- Explore the material conditions of the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of this tech as is relevant. For example, consider the extraction of raw resources for its production, labor chains associated with its assembly and design/development, the social dynamics of its retail, consumption, distribution, and the geopolitics of its disposal in intersectional terms.
- Analyze the way in which the design, development, content, and use of the tech is a sign or expressionof larger tensions regarding gender relations in society.
- Evaluate if and how this technology perpetuates, challenges, and/or transforms gender relations.
You may want to consider the following questions to help structure your argument:
What are the gendered dynamics of the tech’s design and deployment?
How does examining this object surface marginalized gender histories of use/design of tech or patriarchal cultural in tech industries?
What ideas of femininity or masculinity are embedded into the operational system of the technology itself? How has technology been coded as masculine, feminine or non/post-gendered? Has this coding `been naturalized? Has it provoked backlash?
What are the intersectional gendered dynamics of the content and use of this technology?
What gendered or gendering signals does the tech emit culturally?
PLEASE NOTE: This is an analytical essay with a research component: you must research a technology/technological process you wish to examine and cite at least eight reputable academic outside sources to support your analysis. You may also cite course materials. Your essay must have a clear thesis articulated in the opening paragraphs, and the body of your analysis must present evidence supporting the conclusions at which you will arrive. Your thesis must build upon that outside scholarship with your own original argument: you may not simply summarize or reiterate someone else’s research or conclusions.