{"id":5177,"date":"2015-02-18T16:13:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T16:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/?p=5177"},"modified":"2015-02-18T18:16:03","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T18:16:03","slug":"man-woman-machine-gender-automation-and-created-beings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/2015\/02\/18\/man-woman-machine-gender-automation-and-created-beings\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, Woman, Machine: Gender, Automation, and Created Beings"},"content":{"rendered":"

We welcome intern Giorgina Paiella, an undergraduate student majoring in English and minoring in philosophy and women\u2019s, gender, and sexuality studies. In her new blog series, \u201cMan, Woman, Machine: Gender, Automation, and Created Beings,\u201d she will explore treatments of created and automated beings in archival materials from Archives and Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n

We love stories of animation. Over the centuries, humanity has certainly not tired of works that engage with creation, artificiality, and the relationship between animator and animated. It\u2019s in our myths, our movies, our television shows, and our literature\u2014from children\u2019s narratives to infamous novels. As a writing intern in Archives and Special Collections at the Dodd Research Center this semester, I plan to examine technology magazines, the children\u2019s literature collection, alternative press \"giorgina2\"<\/a>publications, and other archival materials that explore the rise of automation and various iterations of automata and reflect upon how these representations can inform inquiries about gender, humanity, personhood, and our increasingly intimate relationship with technology.<\/p>\n

For my first post in this blog series, I\u2019m going to explore the trend of incorporating issues of gender into a discussion of scientific discoveries, which I have identified in several early technology publications. I read the second issue of the science and science fiction magazine Omni, <\/em>a publication that founder Kathy Keeton created in 1978 with the intention of exploring \u201call realms of science and the paranormal, that delved into all corners of the unknown and projected some of those discoveries into fiction.\u201d As I searched for themes that would be relevant to my research objectives, I was fascinated by the frequency at which language relating to second-wave feminism contributes to the dialogue about scientific and technological discoveries.<\/p>\n

This is not entirely surprising, especially considering that the issue was published in November 1978, an era of burgeoning feminist activity. Some of these references were more explicitly linked to women\u2019s issues than others. One article describes the computer revolution as \u201ccomputer lib,\u201d a clear nod to the women\u2019s liberation movement, commonly referred to as \u201cwomen\u2019s lib.\u201d A short news headline details the development of a birth control pill for dogs, so \u201cfido can have sex without fear.\u201d The description that follows reads like a parody of the female birth control pill introduced in the 1960s: \u201cthis planned parenthood for pups is dispensed by veterinarians for about five cents a day and is claimed to be 90 percent effective in stopping estrus (heat) in bitches of all sizes and descriptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another article within this issue of Omni <\/em>discusses papers and novels that speculate on the scientific and cultural possibilities of a longevity pill, including Jib Fowles\u2019s \u201cThe Impending Society of Immorals\u201d and Albert Rosenfeld\u2019s Prolongevity<\/em>, which cites over 500 scientific papers in its bibliography. The article also describes an assignment given to thirty-one students at the University of Houston in the department of future studies to predict how a longevity pill would alter society. Their collective prediction utilizes the same alarmist dystopian rhetoric adopted by opponents of the birth control pill:<\/p>\n

One year after the introduction of the antiaging pill, traditional religions warn against death control a campaign similar to the earlier crusade against birth control; the economy is destabilizing as employees desert their jobs; government has moved in to monopolize distribution of the pill; and the divorce rate is increasing. Ten years later, organized religion is disgraced and disbanded, virtually everyone is taking the pill, divorce rates soar, the economy is staggering because of an increase in absenteeism, and all dangerous sports are phasing out as people everywhere reorient themselves to the quest for physical immortality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The concept of life extension is, in fact, a centuries-old trope, but this article demonstrates the way in which existing gender debates became interwoven into discussions about technological advances. Continuing on the topic of longevity technology, the author explains that \u201cuntil now it was necessary for post-menopausal humans to die and get their bodies off the scene to make room for the new arrivals.\u201d \"giorgina3\"<\/a>Of course, we\u2019re not simply talking about post-menopausal humans, but rather post-menopausal women. The objectification of women\u2019s bodies is also far from a new phenomenon, but notice the language: they must \u201cdie and get their bodies<\/em> off the scene\u201d to make way for \u201cnew arrivals.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The rise of mechanization and speculations on new technological possibilities amplified ideas regarding the mind\/body dualism and the disposability of bodies\u2014particularly female bodies. Another article, \u201cThe Changing Shape of Women,\u201d recounts findings from a study conducted by Berlei, the leading manufacturer of women\u2019s undergarments in England at the time. The company describes changing trends in female body measurements, with a sample of over 4000 British and American women revealing taller frames on average, smaller breasts and hips, and thicker waists, more generally described as a \u201cstraightening of their curves.\u201d Berlei cites poor eating habits and hormonal abnormalities from food additives as potential \"giorgina4\"<\/a>explanations, but whatever the cause, \u201cthe traditional hourglass shape is no longer symbolic of today\u2019s women.\u201d When tasked with describing their average customer, the company states, \u201csomething rather like a thick-ended broomhandle\u2026one might even say they\u2019re becoming man-shaped.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what does this have to do with created beings like automata, cyborgs, and robots? Existing cultural views often inform the characteristics and treatment of these beings, and attitudes toward embodied human females can therefore provide insights into female technological portrayals, and vice versa. For example, a female automaton can reveal something that would perhaps not be readily apparent about the expected appearance, behavior, and roles of human women. Similarly, the body of a female cyborg can call attention to attitudes regarding female bodies and their biological processes. I aim to keep these blurred boundaries between man and machine\u2014or perhaps more accurately, woman and machine\u2014in mind as I continue to work through the archives.<\/p>\n

– Giorgina Paiella<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We welcome intern Giorgina Paiella, an undergraduate student majoring in English and minoring in philosophy and women\u2019s, gender, and sexuality studies. In her new blog series, \u201cMan, Woman, Machine: Gender, Automation, and Created Beings,\u201d she will explore treatments of created … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,251,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5177"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5192,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions\/5192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-dev.lib.uconn.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}