Reading Responce #6

Kyle Barclay
English 100

Reading Response #6



Cynthia Selfe, author of “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution Images of Technology and the Nature of Change,” talk much about how technology is impacting the world simplifying lives, yet, creating potential fears. In this article, she creates three separate narratives. In her third narrative, she explains in general, that males are more likely to use technology than females. “In such a landscape, women use technology within a clearly constrained set of appropriate settings: to enrich the lives of their family and to meet their responsibilities at home—as wife, as mother, as seductress, as lover; within a business setting, women use computers to support the work of their bosses—as secretaries, exclusive assistants, and loyal employees,” says Selfe. Women are not as suitable to use technology compared to men. “Men, in contrast, use computers at home to expand their personal horizons beyond current limits—for excitement, for challenge, to enhance their own private lives as explorers, pioneers and builders,” she states. This is the “Un-gendered Utopia” story that Selfe lays out. Depending on which gender you are will determine how you use and learn new technology. In the revision part of this story, people fear this stereotype that men use computers more than women. People want to be equal, but are they ready to make that change? As Americans, we are still very stereotypical of how we see gender and no one can tell when people will be ready to make a change in how we look at others.

In Selfe’s article, she gives little reasoning on why we see others the way we do. By focusing on what women do and what men do, Selfe overlooks the deeper problem of why we make these stereotypes in the first place. People see a woman and think: “She isn’t into computers,” is completely false. Every one of my friends who is a girl uses a computer constantly. Guys, on the other hand, might not even use a computer as much a girl now days. It differs now than it did a long time ago due to that our society has changed so much. Overall, women and men are more equal in how we view and work with technology.

I chose to use Uncovering Values counter argument because I felt as if the Arguing the Other Side wouldn’t work as well. By using the uncovering values counter argument; I was able to point out that Cynthia Selfe overlooked the idea of why people stereotype one another. I was also able to point out that she was more wrong than right due to that society has changed drastically since this article has been written.