Re: Error in "What do you think?" (long)

[Jim Purcell <jimpur -at- MICROSOFT -dot- COM>]

Nancy Hoft inquires:

        Snipet Two -- Question:  What do you think of the word
"forbidding"?

        "Computers and networks are, as Dale Spender (1995) notes, an
        environment of privilege-created by privileged white men and
used
        mostly by them-and those environments are quite often forbidding
to
        women and people from disadvantaged groups."


Virginia Link responds:

> The Dale Spender snippet in the "What do you think" post is an example
> of
> how things quoted out of context can be misinterpreted.  <snip>
>
> The people reacting to the paraphrase of Spender's thoughts would not
> have
> assumed she was being racist or sexist if, I believe, appropriate
> context
> had been included. <snip again>  Thus we have accusations that
> Spender's comment was sexist and racist (and anti-computer), when,
> most
> likely, she was trying to analyse why the industries associated with
> computerization were/have been/are white/male dominated (<ducking!>)
>
        <snip 3>  I know Spender's political perspective,
> herstorically speaking.  She was probably trying to address historical
> gender-, race- and class privilege in the computer-related industries
> by
> analysing the roots of computerization.  That's what radicals do: try
> to get
> to the ROOT of the perceived problem....
>
When I read the original passage, my first thought was "the Internet
seen through pomo-colored glasses." Context or no context, the burden of
this passage is that women and disadvantaged (presumably poor and
minority) groups are intimidated because computers are an affluent white
male thing. While anyone can see that affluent white males have more
opportunities to become comfortable with computer technology, does it
necessarily follow that other people, almost by definition, somehow find
this technology "forbidding"? If so, it's awfully hard to account for
the many talented and technically sophisticated women most of us work
with every day.

Even if the statement were true, what would be the point of saying it in
a book on teaching technical communication? If a disadvantaged woman
signs up for a TC class, presumably she is unaware that she's out of her
element. Why is it the TC teacher's job to make her doubt her abilities?


Jim Purcell
jimpur -at- microsoft -dot- com
My opinions, not Microsoft's

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