TECH-195 Student ID Number 11
Analyze the scholarly debates over technological determinism. What have these debates revealed about the nature of technology, its evolution, and its impact?
The history of the United States has evolved alongside a long chain of companies predicting market changes based on consumer needs. This particular country's population, is highly varied and predicting what is most marketable across a large number of subcultures and social classes has proven to be one measure of what makes a technology successful. For historians, this is known as an Internalist approach. Internalists might often examine the role of individual inventors and borrow from theories of sociology (Nye 56). However, the notion of technological determinism …show more content…
Technology's development is often adhering to social norms. This can be readily demonstrated through tracing the development of what is considered “female” or “feminist” technologies, for they often provide rich exceptions to technological determinism or internalist dichotomy. These technologies lie outside of social norms, and mainstream analysis of technologies history. Feminist technologies, will be distinguished from Judith Mcgraw’s “feminine” technologies. McGraw defines feminine technologies as technologies associated with ‘biology’ and anything associated with Western domestic roles. In contrast, feminist technologies can be considered as any sort of manufactured product that requires innovation and skill to make, while still giving some groups of women a feeling of reclaiming spaces where their power was not part of dominant discourse. This difference can be seen in the role of certain artifacts and the social values and norms that dictate their …show more content…
This is found in the profound phenomenon of Western medicine medicalizing women’s bodies. The personal vibrator, has a unique history originating in the medicalization of women’s bodies during the turn of the 19th century. With victorian era values surrounding sex were still prevalent in the western world, doctors began to invent new conditions, (which are not valid DSM diagnoses today) that resulted from sexual frustration (Maine 5). Markedet to mostly white upper class women, who were indoctrinated with “lie back and think of england” mentalities when it came to the bedroom, the treatments for hysteria change according to what doctors were willing to treat, and profit off of. When manually treating hysteria with what was colloquially known as a pelvic massage, took too long, the practice of using water cannons, and shock treatments proliferated. The advent of the wind up vibrator however, was not for personal use, but medical use. Durrent the advent of homes becoming electrified, this opened up a new marketing opportunity to those sexually frustrated. This jump from the medical to private sector, is the key to realizing how that this tool, originating from draconian restraints in medicalizing sexuality, becomes symbolic for personal liberation in the 60’s. In the archeological context, it is
Analyze the scholarly debates over technological determinism. What have these debates revealed about the nature of technology, its evolution, and its impact?
The history of the United States has evolved alongside a long chain of companies predicting market changes based on consumer needs. This particular country's population, is highly varied and predicting what is most marketable across a large number of subcultures and social classes has proven to be one measure of what makes a technology successful. For historians, this is known as an Internalist approach. Internalists might often examine the role of individual inventors and borrow from theories of sociology (Nye 56). However, the notion of technological determinism …show more content…
Technology's development is often adhering to social norms. This can be readily demonstrated through tracing the development of what is considered “female” or “feminist” technologies, for they often provide rich exceptions to technological determinism or internalist dichotomy. These technologies lie outside of social norms, and mainstream analysis of technologies history. Feminist technologies, will be distinguished from Judith Mcgraw’s “feminine” technologies. McGraw defines feminine technologies as technologies associated with ‘biology’ and anything associated with Western domestic roles. In contrast, feminist technologies can be considered as any sort of manufactured product that requires innovation and skill to make, while still giving some groups of women a feeling of reclaiming spaces where their power was not part of dominant discourse. This difference can be seen in the role of certain artifacts and the social values and norms that dictate their …show more content…
This is found in the profound phenomenon of Western medicine medicalizing women’s bodies. The personal vibrator, has a unique history originating in the medicalization of women’s bodies during the turn of the 19th century. With victorian era values surrounding sex were still prevalent in the western world, doctors began to invent new conditions, (which are not valid DSM diagnoses today) that resulted from sexual frustration (Maine 5). Markedet to mostly white upper class women, who were indoctrinated with “lie back and think of england” mentalities when it came to the bedroom, the treatments for hysteria change according to what doctors were willing to treat, and profit off of. When manually treating hysteria with what was colloquially known as a pelvic massage, took too long, the practice of using water cannons, and shock treatments proliferated. The advent of the wind up vibrator however, was not for personal use, but medical use. Durrent the advent of homes becoming electrified, this opened up a new marketing opportunity to those sexually frustrated. This jump from the medical to private sector, is the key to realizing how that this tool, originating from draconian restraints in medicalizing sexuality, becomes symbolic for personal liberation in the 60’s. In the archeological context, it is