I have been reading some of this work in connection with ideas about how
many men partly construct their sense of a masculinized identity through
their professional discourse and practices, and Turkle notes that there
seem to be at least culturally favored dispositional differences between
men and women in terms of whether they interact with the computer in a
predominantly analytical and planned-in-advance, structured fashion or in a
more "intimate" and quasi-interpersonal way. There is much more to the
contrast than this, and I think there is definitely an element of gender
distinction to it.
Eugene noted that he would not interact with a computer as he would with a
person, but there are many people who, at least in some important respects,
do this, and prefer it, and come to good results and insights by doing so.
Many biologists would not try to get "a feel for the organism", but rather
take a distanced and objectified relation to it, but Barbara McClintock
famously did work in this way, and quite successfully (a Nobel prize for
genetics). These are not solely gender issues, though gendered identities
as defined within various communities play an important role; many males
also resist dominant notions about distancing and privileging formal analysis.
These issues may be worth considering as an aspect of your project. JAY.
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JAY L. LEMKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/index.htm>
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