Subject: Re: gender: the internet is my bitch
From: Matthew Sanders (sanders@monsoonmedia.com)
Date: Fri Nov 05 1999 - 00:05:30 CST
>On a not so related note....
>Now that I've got the internet, I've got "someone" to do my grocery
>shopping for me, to provide me with sexual stimulation, to remind me
>when to send cards or presents to my loved ones, to tell me what kind of
>presents to buy--all that domestic and sexual and relational work that
>used to be the domain of women in general and wives in particular.
>For years I've been bitching to my male co-workers that I, too, would
>like a wife--someone to deal with all that non-work stuff for me the way
>their wives do for them.
>It seems like a good deal (the internet "wife," not a human servant!),
>especially for women. Then I remember how earlier domestic tech
>innovations were supposed to free women, but then housekeeping standards
>were simply raised and other female social rituals institutedto suck up
>all that extra time. Still, this internet as personal assistant does
>seem to drive towards a more level gendered playing field, as long as it
>isn't priced out of a gendered salary range and doesn't make people's
>personal information available in ways that might be inconvenient or
>dangerous.
Define inconvenient or dangerous. The downside of any degree of
connection is the fact that it can and will be abused, in some shape or
form (let's ignore any argument around just what is abuse, for the
moment). The reality is that being involved with these entities allow a
lot of movement for anyone who really wanted to put in the time and
effort to mess with you. The level of security in a lot of online
services is pretty distressing. The greatest protection you have lies
simply in anonymity. With millions of customers out there, the chances
that you'll be affected are fairly minimal.
That isn't really what bothers me about this `personal assistant'
scenario, though. The Internet is not a real realm of human interaction,
at least not in the sense that is provided by actually going to your
bank, or to the store, ect. Not that we're a really communal society
anymore anyway, but doesn't this remove a level of human contact from
even _more_ of our everyday lives? Isn't relationship and community an
important part of life, period? I'm all for power and ease for the
individual, but I think there is a gradual distancing effect occuring
here. Perhaps some of our lack of willingness to compromise with others
stems from an environment in which we are increasingly in control to a
silly level of detail.
-Matt
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