Gendered Bodies And New Technologies

In this era of ubiquitous information flow, heightened mobility and limitless consumer convenience, human interaction with new technologies has become increasingly seamless. In the process, the human body is effectively and steadily reduced to just another interface, or a “second life”, so to speak. What is easily forgotten during this translucent transaction is that being human also necessarily implies being embodied. In other words, to constitute a body in its non-negotiable physicality is still what it entails to be human (amongst other things). To live daily in and through the complicated and dynamic intersection between “mind” and “body”, psychology and physiology―also known as embodiment―is what makes us human.

This book looks at the representation of the body in culture from a feminist perspective. Subjects covered include bodybuilding, cosmetic surgery, and cyberculture.

The new edition of Gender Circuits explores the impact of new technologies on the gendered lives of individuals through substantive sociological analysis and in-depth case studies. Examining the complex intersections between gender ideologies, social scripts, information and biomedical technologies, and embodied identities, this book explores whether and how new technologies are reshaping what it means to be a gendered person in contemporary society.

Gender Circuits explores the impact of new technologies on the gendered lives of individuals through substantive sociological analysis and in-depth case studies. Examining the complex intersections between gender ideologies, social scripts, information and biomedical technologies, and embodied identities, this book explores whether and how new technologies are reshaping what it means to be a gendered person in contemporary society.

The Gendered Cyborg explores the relationship between representation, technoscience and gender, through the metaphor of the cyborg. The contributors argue that the figure of the cyborg offers ways of thinking about the relationship between culture and technology, people and machines which disrupt the power of science to enfore the categories through which we think about being human: male and female. Taking inspiration from Donna Haraway's groundbreaking Manifesto for Cyborgs, the articles consider how the cyborg has been used in cultural representation from reproductive technology to sci-fi, and question whether the cyborg is as powerful a symbol as is often claimed. The different sections of the reader explore: * the construction of gender categories through science * the interraction of technoscience and gender in contemporary science fiction film such as Bladerunner and the Alien series * debates around modern reproductive technology such as ultrasound scans and IVF, assessing their benefits and constraints for women * issues relating to artificial intelligence and the internet.

Technology has the power to shape lives, identities and futures. Experiences of technology vary, however, between women and men. Gender profoundly influences how technology is created, used and changed. The essays in this book discuss gendered practices in a wide range of technologies and technical milieus. Various sociotechnical arenas where definitions of masculinity and femininity are constituted, enacted, or put on display are explored: work places, schools, museums, and homes. The authors examine feminist political practices to influence technical change, as well as recent efforts to reconceptualize the relationships between gender and technology.

Body Politics in Development sets out to define body politics as a key political and mobilizing force for human rights in the last two decades. This passionate and engaging book reveals how once-tabooed issues, such as rape, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive rights, have emerged into the public arena as critical grounds of contention and struggle. Engaging in the latest feminist thinking and action, the book describes the struggles around body politics for people living in economic and socially vulnerable communities and covers a broad range of gender and development issues, including fundamentalism, sexualities and new technologies, from diverse viewpoints. The book's originality comes through the author's rich experience and engagement in feminist activism and global body politics and was winner of the 2010 FWSA Book Prize.

"Technologies of Gender builds a bridge between the fashionable orthodoxies of academic theory (Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, et al.) and the frequently-marginalized contributions of feminist theory. . . . In sum, de Lauretis has written a book that should be required reading for every feminist in need of theoretical ammunition—and for every theorist in need of feminist enlightenment." —B. Ruby Rich " . . . sets philosophical ideas humming. . . . she has much to say." —Cineaste "I can think of no other work that pushes the debate on the female subject forward with such passion and intellectual rigor." —SubStance This book addresses the question of gender in poststructuralist theoretical discourse, postmodern fiction, and women's cinema. It examines the construction of gender both as representation and as self-representation in relation to several kinds of texts and argues that feminism is producing a radical rewriting, as well as a rereading, of the dominant forms of Western culture.