Eve Shapiro, in her "Gender Circuits" book, states that, "As tech-savvy modern individuals in North America we have a tendency to think of technology as always moving society forward" (49). This is something called, "Technological Progressivism." Shapiro defines this as a paradigm that suggests all technological innovation produces beneficial social changes (49). Shapiro says that, as a society, we don't always see the harm that technology is doing us, only the forward motion that technology sometimes takes us. I think that Shapiro is correct when she says that technology follows a "social climate" (50). Technology follows time periods, and in one of her examples, Shapiro uses birth control to illustrate how technology is shaped by "social climate". At the time period that the birth control pill was invented, women were at one of their toughest struggles in history. This was during civil rights, women's rights, and abortion policies. Women were already feeling suppressed, and when the birth control pill came out, it was only intended for women because "pregnancy was a woman's issue" (50). Technology followed women in this time period of hardship and put yet another burden on their shoulders. This also shows the gender bias within the medical field of scientific research and technology.
The AIDS video that was posted on our class blog relates to what I was talking about when I mentioned the gender bias within our healthcare system. I know that this video was about AIDS in general and the lack of treatment for the illness. But if we read deeper into this video, we can break it down and criticize it just by the visual content that it reflects. When I first watched it, I immediately noticed the woman in the bed, rather than a man. Now, I don't know if I noticed this because I'm a women studies major, or because it's true, but I immediately thought of the gender biases within our world, and worst of all, in our healthcare system. This poor woman went 90 days without medication which could save her life to represent (to me, atleast) the general population of women when it comes to getting health care. We could be dying, and we are still not a priority in the healthcare system, just because we are female. This connects to my point earlier about technology following women's hardships. The birth control pill followed societies climate and issues of the time. I think that all of this is a bit far fetched, but if you really break it down, like I did, you can relate it all in many ways.
I like the fact that you point out how in the AIDS video, the victim is a woman. I noticed that too, and I noticed that she was also an African-American woman. I think the video was pretty moving, but by using a woman of color, it might sort of just reinforce the common misconception that AIDS only happens to minorities, and not to the precious upper-class white people. I think there should be more examples of AIDS affecting everyone, of all races and genders.
ReplyDelete