Selfe's Essay

Part A:
“Computers, in other words, are complexly socially determined artifacts that interact with existing social formations and tendencies-including sexism, classism and racism-to contribute to the shaping of a gendered society”, (306) says Cythia Selfe, in her essay titled, “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution”. The section my group did consisted of talking about the gender gaps between technologies. Women held their own jobs when all of the men were away at war, but once they returned, the women were forced to quit, and stay at home. As far as technology goes, this took away from some equal learning opportunities for women. “Men use technology to accomplish things; women benefit from technology to enhance the ease of their lives or to benefit their families” (308). Now that women were out of the work force, they used the computers to benefit themselves and their families at home, while men had this opportunity, along with being able to use it in the workplace. Selfe explains that technology may have been more originally targeted for men, “Computer games are still designed for boys; computer commercials are stilled aimed mainly at males,” (306). Overall, Selfe feels that technology still falls under a class, that class being sexism. Although she does not say so directly, she feels that technology is definitely segregated and one sided towards males, and women don’t have an equal opportunity to work with this technology, the way men do.

Part B:
In Selfe’s essay, she proposes the idea that , “The Un-gendered Utopia story encourages educators to see and understand computers as educational allies that can support efforts to create new kinds of educational and economic opportunities for students-regardless of gender,” (306). Selfe is saying that technology may not be as threatening as it comes off to be in the educational stand point. She’s saying that if teachers can accept computers as “assistants” then they can work together to provide more equal opportunities for students, no matter what gender or background they come from. I believe that if technology is viewed as the enemy, we’ll be stuck in a permanent time warp; we need to accept the present time and what’s in store for our future. The more years that go by, the more technology will grow, so shouldn’t we get use to it now and not let it be an enemy?