Technology, sexism, and the male gaze

Bárbara Barbosa Neves — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 10:41:55 +0000

The Sociological Images blog published an interesting post about gender and technology. I’m very pleased to see my contribution in this article, namely the new commercial video from Nokia. In this ad, not only the female objectification is undoubtedly visible, as the ethnic & racial preconception is evident: her name is Suzy, she’s Latina – she starts with a “holla” and has a clear Hispanic accent – and then she goes on to say that she is hot…wait…she is sizzling hot. The whole narrative is based on a highly sexualized Latina woman that shows you her product. In the end, she even asks you “Wanna see more of me?”. Seriously, Nokia! More than connecting people, it seems the new core business of this tech company is to connect prejudices. I was honestly getting used to deconstruct more “subtle” sexist ads, but this one is just unbelievably straight to the point.

Enjoy!

International Women’s Day

Bárbara Barbosa Neves — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:08:36 +0000

“This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.”
Gloria Steinem
(Speech Address to the Women of America, July 10, 1971, National Women’s Political Caucus)

Mushin » Gender

Technology, sexism, and the male gaze

International Women’s Day