Selfe reading response

In author Cynthia Selfe’s essay called, “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution” she speaks of three narratives about what Americans have come to believe technology has done for our society. After explaining these narratives she goes on to illustrate why these narratives are not based off of fact, but instead based off of what we want to believe due to stereotypes, culture, and what is comfortable. One particular narrative that “we tell ourselves about technology” is the “Un-Gendered Utopia.” What she means by that is that technology is making it so the road to success is equal to men and women because both have access to technology. The truth however (according to selfe) is that it’s just the “Same Old Gendered Stuff,” that the ways of society haven’t changed and that technology is putting women in the situation that they have always been in. Selfe specifically states that, “Women use technology within a clearly constrained set of appropriate settings: to enrich the lives of their family and to meet their responsibilities at home-as wife, as mother, as seductress, as lover; within a business setting, women use computers to support the work of their bosses-as secretaries, executive assistants, and loyal employees.” Essentially Selfe is arguing that no matter what women are still being put in the position that they have come to be acquainted with since the beginning of time, the supporter of the man. Personally I agree that women have fallen into the stereotype that they must support their family by being at home and watching the children while their husband is at work, whether or not people are comfortable with that idea it has been ingrained into our culture as Americans. However, I disagree with Selfe when she says that ALL women are using technology in the same old roles that they always have been. I strongly believe that this is a generalization of women as a whole which can’t possibly be an accurate proposal. A point Selfe doesn’t bring up is that most couples don’t even stay together anymore, therefore how could the woman be using technology to support the man/family when she isn’t even with him anymore? Also, she doesn’t bring up the fact that many women have accumulated higher positions than men in the work place and that they have MEN as their secretaries. In my opinion Selfe should stop generalizing the roles of men and women in society from the past and instead look at how they have changed over time (for the better) and how technology hasn’t hindered that change.

In my paragraph I used the argument style of dissenting. I used this because I did agree somewhat with what Selfe was saying in this section of her paper. However I didn’t agree with one small portion of it (the quote that I used is an example.) I showed how I agreed with her and then I went on to say how I disagreed because I felt that she was missing some key information.