Subject: gender: mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird...
From: Please type your name here (mailbox-name@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Thu Nov 04 1999 - 15:05:24 CST
Damn, I'm glad we're talking online again!!!!!
But I haven't received any responses from my goofy survey:
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~sverhoef/gendtech.htm
It's just a dumb little goofy thing--fluffy and light, not intellectually
taxing, and I'd really appreciate anybody/everybody's feedback.....
(please :-)
______________________________________________________
Now on to the meaty debates . . .
supaflu design studio wrote:
> what would you consider to be "the male mind" susan? you put the red flag,
> can you go on? is it male experience, the experience of maleness, the
> social history of maleness or is it something genetical and biological...
My general response to your questions would be: yes.
But those questions, I feel, are at the crux of our investigations as to how
negotiable / intransigent gendered identity is.
And I'm afraid my background in these academically structured debates is not
sufficient to grant me familiarity with the position Jane references...
and Jane wrote:
> i'm a little tired of feminists arguing that
> women adopt the male gaze or male mind to gain subjectivity in a world that
> objectifies them. i mean, like, duh.
>
It's not "like, duh," to me. Is that like the criticisms I remember hearing
about women who "act like men" and embrace a "male" value system to get ahead
in their endeavors? I'm not exactly sure how women would adopt the male gaze
or mind. And how successful would their strategies be?
What's male? What's female? Well, for one thing, they're culturally defined
/ constructed categories into which we're constantly placed.
My question is to what extent could a female adopt a male subjectivity? or
vice versa. I think that the experiences--both biological and social--shape
male and female subjectivity. And when you put on the other's mindset, and
say, "I'm gonna concentrate on perceiving things as a ________," you're
limited to the extent that as you do that, the folks, institutions, etc. that
you interact with will generally still treat you as a member of the group you
have heretofore been recognized as, so your intentions are foiled by
stubbornly persistent reception practices and conventions.
The new technology aspect of this 331K course would invite us to examine
gender crossing on the net, where your physical body is not apparent. But my
initial musings were prompted by the production of commercial TV, where more
regressive paradigms tend to dominate.
Susan
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