Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!
GIST
![Anne Dalke's picture Anne Dalke's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-39.jpg)
Welcome to "GIST": A Course about Gender, Information, Science and Technology, offered in Spring 2011 @ Bryn Mawr College. This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing, and may take some getting used to. The first thing to keep in mind is that this is not a place for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts." It's a place for thoughts-in-progress, for what you're thinking (whether you know it or not) on your way to what you think next. Imagine that you're not worrying about "writing" but instead that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking, so you can help them think and they can help you think. The idea is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours.
We're glad you're here, and hope you'll come both to enjoy and value our shared imagining of the future evolution of ourselves as individuals and of our gendered, scientific, technological world. Feel free to comment on any post below, or to POST YOUR THOUGHTS HERE....
![ekthorp's picture ekthorp's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-866.jpg)
Class Notes 2/16/2011
Today we began class by Mirealla going around the room and saying everyone’s name. Then we outlined the prepartions for next class, which included, readings for Monday, video for Wednesday, scheduling writing conferences.
1. The Science and Technology of Information
Reviewing two articles from Monday’s readings:
Katherine Rowe (English Prof.)
![Hillary G's picture Hillary G's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-790.jpg)
Class Notes for February 16
Gender and Technology – Class Notes for February 16, 2011 by Hillary G
Katherine Rowe:
- Raised idea that there should be unpredictability in communication within information
- Noise depends on the observer while information depends on context
- Is the presence of “meaning” the only difference between noise and information?
Paul Grobstein:
![Anne Dalke's picture Anne Dalke's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-39.jpg)
where we are now
Today, as we concluded the first section of our course (which highlighted the ways that technology "remakes gender"), Liz asked each of us to share a comment about "where we are." These are the responses I was able to record (I'm missing a few, and may have misrecorded others, so feel free to edit or add).
We are...
embracing confusion
nothing is ever simple
expectant
ambiguity, anonymity
binaries are bad names
lost in transit
processing
impatient
floating
clift diving
educative
learning
observing, evolving
looking for....?
![Franklin20's picture Franklin20's picture](/exchange//files/images/SerendipStudioAvatar.png)
Television and Gender Construction
With how busy and stressed I have been this past week, I have not had time to transform my influential technology musings into a paper that I was satisfied with (so I will be doing the last three). However, here is a brief post of my initial thoughts:
![Amophrast's picture Amophrast's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-856.jpg)
Notes from Katie Baratz Dalke's Lecture
These may or may not be easy to follow, but this is what I took from it.
“In the spirit of disclosure”
(Not So) Karyotypical
How can we use the story of intersex to improve care of patients and parents?
Intersection of science, medicine, and lived experience?
Why do we use the language we use?
Why is it important for medicine to know why and if there are differences between male and female?
- Afraid that if you told intersex people that they were intersex, they’d turn suicidal and/or lesbians – pretty much the same thing back then
![Hillary G's picture Hillary G's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-790.jpg)
Class Notes February 9, 2011
GIST Class Notes from Wednesday, February 9, 2011 by Hillary Godwin: Self-Shaping Technologies
We began by acknowledging that Monday would end the first section of our class, “The Science and Technology of Gender: Making and Re-making Ourselves.” Most of the class was centered on asking provocative questions, rather than necessarily finding definitive answers.
We then began discussing categories:
- Many students in class agreed that we as human beings are biologically inclined to make and use categories as a way to make sense of the world.
![rubikscube's picture rubikscube's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-870.jpg)
Class notes for Monday, February 7
GIST class notes for Monday, February 7
Go around the room, introduce your neighbor, say what portion of your body would you be willing to “put under the knife?”
- most of us say no surgery, specifically no cosmetic
- a few people willing to have LASIK eye surgery
- would only have surgery if medically necessary
“showcasing our diversity” - new avatars
![vgaffney's picture vgaffney's picture](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/bfc843972a4d87fb522edaa00ba14a61.jpg?d=https%3A%2F%2Fserendipstudio.org%2Fexchange%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2FSerendipStudioAvatar.png&s=85&r=G)
Class Notes: February 7, 2011
"Under the Knife"
Intro: Paper guidelines and learning each other’s names activity:
![kgould's picture kgould's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-228.jpg)
Plastic Surgery as Performance Art?...
I did a very small project a little while ago in French class on a modern performance artist.
In my Googling, I found ORLAN.
She is a French performance artist, photographer, sculpter, and--perhaps most notably--used plastic surgery as an artistic medium.
Not only does she alter her own appearance (to take on the features of women in famous paintings), but she also turns the OR into a stage, using props and costumes and other actors to make a theatric show. She also uses local anesthetics in order to stay awake during the surgery, to perform.
![Hillary G's picture Hillary G's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-790.jpg)
Unconscious Cognitive Associations
In my Cognition class we recently had to take Implicit Association Tests (IAT), which examine participants’ unconscious beliefs/attitudes by measuring their reaction time using word/image associations with categories. There are several association tests, some of which include Sexuality (measuring one’s preference toward gay people vs. straight people), Gender – Science (measuring associations between gender and preference for science vs. liberal arts), Age (young vs. old), and Race (light-skinned vs. dark-skinned).
![anonymous123's picture anonymous123's picture](/exchange//files/images/SerendipStudioAvatar.png)
Women in the Military
Historically, women have been considered unsuitable for military combat. Some early involvements of women in the military were nurses who would attend to soldiers during combat.
Female participation in the army differs from country to country; only a few actually allow women to serve in active combat positions while others are restricted to certain positions. In the US, women have assumed male pseudonyms and concealed their gender in order to enlist and fight, as early as the Revolutionary War. Nonetheless, there is general opposition towards the idea of women fighting as equals with men.
Opposers to women in military argue both physical and psychological reasons as why women should not be allowed to fight in combat.
![kgould's picture kgould's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-228.jpg)
The Turkle Test: Robots Mimicking and Comforting?...
In this blessed age of the Internet and the constant alerts and updates that we can subscribe to--if we dare--I found a recent article/blog entry on Discover Magazine's website concerning Sherry Turkle (in our reading this week) called "The Turkle Test" which researchers hope to use to build sympathetic "listening" robots that mimic human body language and provide comfort to those who just need someone there to talk to.
![Amophrast's picture Amophrast's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-856.jpg)
Common or not?
If these "alternative" genders and sexualities in the animal world are so common, then why is it that I've never heard of them before?
![MissArcher2's picture MissArcher2's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-732.jpg)
The How and the Why
Since I did not post this past week due to note-taking, I wanted to share that last night, I went to the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ to see Sarah Treem's play The How and the Why. I really enjoyed the performance--I thought the writing, acting, and the set were fantastic. The play was definitely relevant to the ideas of gender and science that we are exploring in this course, as it was basically all about what it means to be a female scientist. Rachel, the younger character, is meeting Zelda, the biological mother who gave Rachel up for adoption, for the first time.
![Oak's picture Oak's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-640.gif)
Catagories in Computer Science
After we talked about gender categories in class, I found myself thinking about this interesting speculation on the nature of computer programs used to store information about marriages.
![phreNic's picture phreNic's picture](/exchange//files/images/SerendipStudioAvatar.png)
why gender
Whether or not we are favorable to categories, they are so fixed and basic to our culture and every day lives that we treat them as immutable facts. And maybe the need for categories is something basic to humans as a way to make sense of the world. But the categories themselves and their implications and applications are of our own making. If this is the case, then maybe the question shouldn’t be, are categories good? But why these categories? We will never live in a gender neutral world, just like we have never and will never live in a world (biologically speaking) of binary genders. Maybe if these categories held less sway and were as fluid as the people they collect, we would come to rely less on gender as an indicator of traits and potential.
![MSA322's picture MSA322's picture](https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/files/pictures/picture-868.jpg)
Labels, should we keep them?
Labeling and categorizing are often perceived with negative connotations. We've discussed in class and most of us agreed on keeping the labels, acknowledging that they are flawed. I believe that language plays a huge role in defining things and in helping to explain and elaborate on the meaning of these "labels." Although labeling could be seen as stereotyping and can be disadvantageous to society, without labels we cannot communicate the existence of something such as sexuality. I do believe that labels exist for a reason, and they can be good in that they make something "known" to us. The labels that we have are too few to include all the variations of sexuality because of the spectrum that we have.