For me, the term “technology,” within the context of feminist media studies, is inextricably tied to problem(s) of the body. In other words, technologies—in all their multiplicities—form, manage, or alter the body. Instead of thinking of technology as an enlightened machine, hurling civilization toward progress, feminist theory that informs feminist media studies has insisted that technology is, first and foremost, a discourse and a way of thinking about the world. Technology is invariably tied to already existing systems of power and inequity. In other words, technology might mean progress for some, but not necessarily for others.
For example, while mobile phones signify advances in mobility and access to information, digital device production is mired in terrible working conditions and labor violations in factories around the world. Moreover, as Jennifer Daryl Slack argues in an essay similar to this one, technologies are not “things,” but rather “complex ideological, political, economic, and...
University of California Press