%0 Journal Article
%T A Techno-Passion that is Not One: Rethinking Marginality, Exclusion, and Difference
%A Linda Vigdor
%J International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology
%D 2011
%I The Open University
%X Contemporary portrayals of the gender-computing relationship are limited in their perceptions and constructs. Dependent on overly generalized subjects (girls and women not much interested in computing) and a singular and all-consuming notion of what constitutes a passion for technology, girls and women are cast asuninterested bystanders or moral critics of computing. To varying degrees, girls¡¯ and women¡¯s disinterest is explained as an outcome of their techno-passion gap.Highlighting three women digital artists¡¯ technology stories, I develop an alternative story that plays out in the marginal spaces of artists¡¯ practices, performances, and reflective marginality. I begin with a broad and brief overview of three common gender-technology stories and elucidate some of their limitations. My focus turns to a mainstreamed educational and popular narrative that ¡®girls and women just aren¡¯t that into computing¡¯. I argue for an alternate story that finds value in marginality and a web of ambivalent passions and ethical commitments that drive an artist¡¯sinterests in technology.
%K Difference
%K gender & technology
%K computing
%K marginality
%K performance
%K situated
%U http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/112/243